Mexican Lasagna

I am so excited about this!  Today for dinner we had Mexican Lasagna!  I was inspired by a similar dish on Pinterest and put my own twist on it.  I love this dish because it's tasty, my husband liked it, my kids liked it, and you can add/omit ingredients you like or dislike.  It's great!

2-3 Flour Tortillas
1 lb Ground Beef
1 Can Corn
1 Can Black Beans
1 Can Chopped Olives
3-4 Roma Tomatoes
1 Serrano Pepper
1 Small White Onion
1 Package Queso Fresco (or 1 pound)
Cumin
Oregano
Salt
Pepper

I used these ingredients because they are part of our normal diet.  Queso Fresco is a traditional Mexican cheese but if you've never used it or don't have it in your house a Mexican blend of cheese would be good, or even just Mozzarella.     

You can choose whichever chile pepper you would like.  I prefer Serrano because of the flavor it leaves and it's not as spicy as others.  Serranos are found in most supermarkets, right next to the jalapenos.  They are usually thinner than jalapenos.

Okay!  Let's get started!

Salt the meat first and also add 1 tsp Oregano and 1tsp Cumin while you are cooking the meat.  It's not an essential part of the dish, but it sure brings some yummy flavor to the meat.  Cook the meat over medium high heat.  We like to cook the meat until it is almost at a burned state.  If you just brown it, when you add the red sauce we're going to make shortly, the meat tastes like it wasn't cooked sufficiently.

Chop the small onion into small pieces and add 3/4 to the meat.  

Now chop 1-2 tomatoes in bigger chunks than the onion.  You can used pre-diced tomatoes from a can, if you'd like, but make sure you drain them first.

While the tomatoes and onions are cooking, add the 1/4 onion to the blender as well as 2 tomatoes, chopped into large pieces.  

Add Serrano pepper.  I usually just use 1/2 of the Serrano.  If you use the whole Serrano it will be very spicy.  If you don't like spicy, I would even just use 1/4 of the pepper so you can get the flavor from it.

With 1 cup of water blend the ingredients together until they are in a complete liquid form.

Now that the onions in the skillet are translucent and the tomatoes are tender, add the ingredients from the blender.  Add salt.

Leave the skillet at medium high and let it begin to boil and boil all of the water out of the dish.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F

In a small bowl, add the black beans, the corn and the black olives.

In a 13x9 slightly greased dish, line the bottom with a flour tortilla.  My tortillas didn't fit well, obviously since the dish is square and the tortillas aren't, so just tear up the tortilla and make it work.:)

After the skillet has boiled out all of the water (about 20 minutes, or so, depending upon how much water your tomatoes had), then you can begin to build the lasagna.  This is what the meat should look like 

Add a thin layer of the beans, corn and olives on top of the tortilla.  Add a layer of meat.  Add a layer of grated cheese, then another tortilla.  After you have filled the dish with the layers you cook it in the oven for 30 minutes, or until the cheese has melted.

Garnish with sour cream.

YUM!  I hope you like it!