Something to do with all those corn tortillas...a Mexican Inspired Tortilla "Lasagna"

I recently purchased a bag of corn tortillas when I made some fish tacos and it has been staring at me every time I have opened the refrigerator.  Realizing that I didn't have time to make proper enchiladas and was not in the mood for tacos, I decided to put my thinking cap on.  Then it came to me, I recalled seeing recipes where the corn tortillas stood in for noodles in what is essentially is a layered, lasagna-like dish, except with different ingredients.  Normally when I saw these recipes they were kinda gross...calling for way too much fat or weird ingredients.  I adapted what I recalled seeing to what I thought would work. Also, this idea worked perfectly for me as I was dying to use my homemade chipotle sausage in a dish anyways. You could use chorizo in this dish or use ground meat, chicken, turkey and cook/season it like you normally would make it if you going to use it to make tacos.  Feel free to leave out the roasted zucchini too, I added to throw in an extra veggie and had a bunch of it in the fridge.  Also, when you serve this you could sprinkle some crushed tortilla chips over the top to add some crunch to the dish.  Oh and this made a TON of food and was very filling.  Perfect dish for families and great for leftovers.

Tortilla Lasagna

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. of cooked, crumbled chorizo sausage or ground meat of your choice
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 large zucchini (about 10 ounces), cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• 3/4 cup frozen corn
• 2 bell peppers, chopped
• 1/4 cup onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, chopped
• 2 cups shredded 2% reduced fat mexican cheese blend 
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin, chili powfer
• 2 cans of Rotel or another brand of canned tomatoes and chilies
• 18  6-inch corn tortillas
• 3/4 cup of chopped fresh cilantro
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• Accompaniment: Lime wedges, fresh cilantro, reduced fat sour cream, sliced avocado, tortilla chips

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 500°F. and spray a shallow baking pan with cooking spray.

Arrange zucchini in one layer in one pan Sprinkle zucchini with salt and pepper to taste and roast on middle rack in oven about 5 minutes.  Flip and roast v additional 5 minutes, or until browned lightly.

While zucchini is roasting, cook the meat in large sauce pan.  Remove meat and set aside.  On medium heat, add onion, garlic, corn, peppers, jalapeno, cumin and chili powder - saute for about 5 minutes.  Add one can of Rotel.  Puree the other can of rotel in the blender.  Add beans and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add cooked zucchini and check for seasoning.  Add additional cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper as you see it.  Remove from heat.

Lightly spray an 8 by 8 inch pan with cooking spray.  Cover bottom of pan with 6 tortillas, overlapping them in middle. Spread about a cup of the above mixture over the tortillas and sprinkle cheese, and then cilantro. Make another layer of tortillas, mixture, cheese, and cilantro in same manner. Make another layer if you have enough.  Top with remaining  tortillas, mixture, and cheese. Cover  with foil and bake in middle of oven 12 minutes, or until heated through and cheese is melted. Let it stand, covered, 5 minutes before serving.

Cut  into squares half and serve with the accompaniments you like.  I served it with lime wedges, sour cream, and sliced jalapenos.

I really liked how this turned out, the flavors were bright and it was different from the usual tacos or enchiladas.  And I enjoyed not having a lot to clean up, using only one pot is great.