Taco (aka Enchilada) Casserole

And so the monthly meal plan continues!  As you may know, I have been trying to schedule a month of meals so I don't have to worry about what we are going to have for dinner each night.  A few weeks ago, I posted our meal plan.  I'd be lying if I said we were sticking to it.  The biggest issue we've had is that life gets in the way.  Also, sometime I am just not in the mood for what is on the menu for a particular day.  Usually, I can just swap days though.  However, even though I don't plan meals for Saturday and Sunday thinking we'd eat leftovers- we still seem to be behind in our meals.  We have eaten out twice since we have been doing this, so I know that isn't the culprit.  We have not been having to throw away any leftover food, but I couldn't tell you why we aren't on schedule.  I also plan our meals to have no more than 4 servings per recipe.  If they do, half of the recipe get frozen.  Anyway, today's meal is listed on the plan as "Enchilada Casserole".  That is because, last time I made it I used chicken.  This time I am using ground meat because I have it left over from a dish on the menu earlier in the week and 1 pound of meat will feed us for 6- 8 meals, so it gets divided into two recipes. Hmmm, 6-8 meals.  I think I just figured out why we are so behind...

You will need:

8 small/ corn tortillas*

1 can corn

1 small can green chilies

1 can enchilada sauce

Shredded Cheese- whatever you have leftover.

the leftover meat from the Hillbilly Shepard's Pie (or 1/2 pound meat of your choice-cooked)

Smallish baking dish

cooking spray

*for this recipe I used the Mission small corn tortillas with 80 calories for 2 tortillas.  

Instructions

Spray your baking dish with cooking spray.  Spread a small amount of the enchilada sauce on the bottom of your baking dish.  Cut 2 tortillas in quarters and place on top of the enchilada sauce.  

Sprinkle 1/3 of your meat, corn, green chilies and cheese on top of the tortillas.  Spoon on more enchilada sauce.  

 Top with 2 more tortillas, cut into whatever shape will fit in the pan.  You don't have to cut them, I just find it is a lot easier to serve and portion if you do.  You can leave them whole and have 2 little stacks of 4, but my pan wasn't big enough to fit 2 tortillas side by side.

 Continue with the enchilada sauce-corn tortilla-meat-chilies-corn-cheese layering until you have run out of your 8 tortillas.  You should have 4 layers of tortillas with the meat mixture in between.

Top your last layer of tortillas with more enchilada sauce and the last of your cheese.  When I made this, I DID NOT use up all my corn, green chilies and enchilada sauce.  I could have, but I realized I could use them the next day, so I just dumped them all in a container and saved them for later.  Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.  When the cheese is melty and bubbling, remove from the oven and attempt to let is stand for 5-10 minutes.  It will be torture- but it will be easier to serve and you wont burn your mouth shoveling it in. 

Serve with sour cream or non fat plain yogurt.  Try not to eat two servings...I dare you. Makes 4 servings

Nutritional Information per serving:

Calories- 348

Carbs- 27

Fat- 16

Protein- 24

Fiber- 3

Sugar-4

That's What's for Dinner!