Recipe: Mexican Lasagna

Posted On March 13, 2011

By all accounts I am a self proclaimed foodie.  I love to cook.  I love to feed.  I love to eat.  I wouldn’t call myself a gourmet cook, but I can give a fancy cook a run for their money.  Mostly because I have two small boys, and it makes me over the edge crazy when people don’t like my food.  So, I try and prepare something that will make everyone relatively happy.  I guess I’m a little bit sensitive about my cooking!  Anyway,  I’ve been trying hard to avoid soy, wheat and sugar as I’ve been working with a doc who says that I am sensitive to them.  I put together a decent recipe for a Mexican Lasagna that uses corn tortillas instead of pasta, and even my picky eater said to add it to the “keeper” list.

MEXICAN LASAGNA

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

1 pound ground meat (I’m sure shredded chicken would work well here too)

1 cup finely chopped onion

1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce

1 cup of picante or salsa

2 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. cumin

1 chopped garlic clove

2 tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

1 cup of corn fresh or thawed frozen

8 corn tortillas

12 ounces cottage cheese

1 egg

1/2 cup parmesean cheese

1 cup cheddar cheese, divided

1 tsp. oregano

salt and pepper to taste

Coat large saute pan with cooking spray. Add  onion and saute over medium high heat for 3 minutes, or  until soft.  Add ground meat and garlic.  Saute until meat is no longer pink. Stir in corn, chili powder, cumin, tomato sauce and picante.  Simmer about 10 minutes.  In the meantime, coat an 8×8 pan with cooking spray.  Overlap 4 tortillas evenly over bottom, with tortillas pushing up the sides as necessary. In a medium bowl mix cottage cheese, parmesean, and 1/2 cup cheddar cheese.  Add oregano, salt and pepper and egg.   Mix together well.  Add fresh cilantro to ground meat mixture, then spread half of meat mixture evenly over the tortillas in the baking dish.  Next, spread cottage cheese mixture over ground meat.  Layer 4 more tortillas over the cheese mixture.  Top with remaining meat, and bake for about 20 minutes.  Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup cheddar cheese over the casserole, and continue to bake for 5  – 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.  Remove from oven and let sit about 10 minutes before serving.

Hope you enjoy!