Mexican Lasagna

We ended up spending most of the New Year's Eve weekend in New York City, coming back home to a not quite-so-full pantry and a few mountains of laundry. That being said, our potluck dish came down to what would take the least amount of time, with the fewest amount of ingredients. After perusing both the fridge and the pantry, I decided to go with...Mexican Lasagna!

The only reason I call it a lasagna is because it has cheese, sauce and is a layered dish. There are no noodles anywhere near it though. The recipe itself changes each time, depending on what's on hand. That's the beauty of this dish - it's incredibly forgiving and will always come out delicious with minimal effort. It's an excellent stand by dish for nights when you don't want to cook, but know you probably should. Plus, it makes great leftovers!

These are the ingredients that I managed to scrap together from my kitchen:

Corn tortillas, jar of salsa, 2 cans black beans, 1 can of kidney beans, onion, red pepper, cumin, chili powder & cheese

If I have it, I also toss in corn, cooked rice, fresh tomatoes. Basically, anything you'd find in a burrito or taco would be perfect. Cooked ground beef or turkey would be delicious or roasted veggies.

Step 1: Chop up all your veggies. In this case I had an onion, a red pepper and some garlic that I grabbed at the last minute.

Step 2: Add your protein. If you were going with cooked ground beef, I would add it here. In this instance, I used two cans of black beans and one can of kidney beans.

Step 3: Spices! I don't really measure the exact amount of spices, but I used a good amount of cumin (tablespoon or two?), some chili powder (2 teaspoons or so), some salt and a tiny dash of cayenne. You can definitely switch up the spices to your taste.

Step 4: Assemble it all together! You just follow a basic lasagna method here. I pour a bit of salsa on the bottom of the casserole dish...enough to cover it.

Then I take corn tortillas and layer them on. I usually use about 5 to cover the whole pan.

Then add a layer of the bean/veg mixture, then sprinkle on some shredded cheese (I usually go with a cheddar/monteray jack combo). Then a bit more salsa - tortillas - bean/veg - cheese.

 

 Step 5: Bake at 375 for about 25-30 minutes. Enjoy!

There was just enough left over from potluck last night that I have lunch today, yay! And...it fit in nicely with the two trays of enchilladas, barley salad and carrot/ginger soup that was also at potluck. Sadly, I always forget to take pictures of our food *before* we eat, and so...you end up with pictures of the remains of the meal...

They used to be delicious enchilladas...I promise!

The aftermath of potluck.