Are you looking for something tasty to include in your Mexican Monday or Taco Tuesday rotation? I have a recipe that I think will satisfy your tastebuds for either of those nights, or any night, actually.

I’d been wanting to try and make a Mexican lasagne for a couple weeks now, so finally got around to it last night. This is definitely not a dish to make if you are running short on time, as it takes a bit of time to put together. Not too much time that it’s too much effort to bother with though. It just takes a little bit of time to heat the tortillas individually on the cooktop. I just mean, it isn’t a 30 minute meal.

First, I put together the seasonings I wanted to use to season the meat and vegetables. For my seasoning mix, I used chili powder, onion powder, dried oregano, dried cumin, paprika, kosher salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.

I then chopped the vegetables, diced a red onion, and removed the corn from my cobs so they’d be ready to incorporate into the cooking process smoothly. Green, yellow and orange bell peppers were the vegetables I chose to include in this dish, along with a red onion.

For the protein in this dish, I chose 96% lean ground beef. I cooked a pound and a half of ground beef with the spice mixture before adding the vegetables.

Once the meat was cooked, I added the bell peppers, onion and corn, mixing everything together.

Once the vegetables were combined with the meat, I added 2 14-1/2 ounce cans of no salt added diced tomatoes.

I let this simmer on medium for 1/2 hour, until the juices from the tomatoes had been mostly absorbed into the meat and vegetables. While the meat and vegetables were simmering, I took the time to heat 2 cans of non-fat refried beans, as well as heat my corn tortillas on the gas burner.

I also opened my salsa verde and poured a half cup into the 9×13 dish I’d be baking my lasagne in, making sure to spread the salsa across the bottom of the dish.

After the first six tortillas were heated and had nice char marks on them, I placed them into the bottom of the dish, making sure to let them overlap a tad and also making sure that the edges went up the side of the dish just a bit.

I continued to heat the rest of my tortillas and set them aside to use as I would be building my lasagne. After the rest of the tortillas were heated, my meat mixture was ready so I started to build my lasagne.

I started by spreading a cup of refried beans across the tortillas and then pouring 2-1/2 cups of the meat mixture onto the bottom layer and spreading it evenly. On top of the meat, I poured some green salsa and sprinkled sliced black olives and placed a cup of shredded Monterey Jack cheese over the top.

Next, I added 6 tortillas and repeated the process, this time topping with a cup of shredded cheddar. On top went the last 5 tortillas, four on the edges and the fifth one, cut in half and placed down the middle. I didn’t need the tortillas to come up the sides of the dish at this point, so only used five. Feel free to use six if you’d like.

On top of the last layer of tortillas, I spread more green salsa and sprinkled on a mixture of Monterey Jack and cheddar (1/2 cup of each).

I placed the lasagne in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. It came out with the cheese melted just perfectly.

I served the lasagne with a dollop of light sour cream, green verde salsa, fresh cilantro and sliced black olives. My family loved it!

Ingredients

17-18 corn tortillas

1-1/2 pounds lean ground beef (96/4)

1 each – green, yellow, and orange bell pepper, chopped

1 small red onion, chopped

4 ears of corn

2-1/2 cups shredded Monterey jack cheese

2-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 can sliced black olives

2 14-1/2 ounce cans fat free refried beans, heated

2 14-1/2 ounce cans no salt added diced tomatoes

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon oregano

1-1/2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (depending on your likes)

2 12-ounce containers of salsa verde

8 ounce can sliced black olives

light sour cream

cilantro

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together chili powder, paprika, onion powder, oregano, cumin, kosher salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Set aside.
3. Remove corn from cob into bowl and set aside.
4. Brown beef on medium-high until browned and crumbly. Add onion, peppers and corn. Stir together.
5. Pour cans of tomatoes into beef mixture and reduce heat to medium. Let simmer for 30 minutes.
6. Heat tortillas over open flame on gas burner (watch them carefully). If you don’t have a gas stove, heat them in a skillet or the microwave. Set aside.
7. Start building lasagne. Place first 6 tortillas in bottom of a 9×13 pan, overlapping a tad and letting them come up the side of the pan about 1/2 inch.
8. Spread 1 cup of refried beans onto bottom layer of tortillas. Top beans with 2-1/2-3 cups of the meat mixture. Pour 1/4 cup of green verde salsa over beef. Sprinkle several olives over beef and top with 1 cup of Monterey Jack.
9. Repeat – tortillas, beans, beef mixture, salsa, black olives.
10. Add 1 cup of shredded cheddar to top the second layer.
11. Top the dish with 5-6 tortillas. Pour 1/2 cup of green salsa over the tortillas and top with a mixture of 1/2 cup each shredded Monterey Jack and shredded cheddar.
12. Bake for 30 minutes.
13. Top individual servings with sour cream, salsa, black olives and cilantro.

Enjoy!

Until next time, Kris