Mexican lasagna

If McCormick ever goes out of business, it will be because I gave all their recipes away without people having to buy their Recipe Inspirations line of spice packets.  In reality, it's way easier to buy the packets with the premeasured spices if you don't have a stocked kitchen, but I have all of it at home already so it makes no diff to me.

Although I have tried their apple and sage pork chops, their asian sesame salmon, their chicken marsala, their chicken cacciatore, their rosemary roasted chicken and potatoes, and their tuscan chicken stew (and have added my own touch to a lot of them).....this one is the one I've repeated the most times.

They call this quesadilla casserole, but since I adapted it some, I call this mexican lasagna...you decide how you want to address it, I just like to put it in my mouth.  Down to business....

2 t chili powder
1 t ground cumin
1 t minced garlic
1 t oregano leaves
1 t crushed red pepper
1 lb ground beef (could def use ground turkey here)
1 chopped onion (called for half but I threw the whole rig in)
2 cans (8 oz each) tomato sauce (I had a 29 oz can and again didn't want to waste any, in it goes)
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (8 oz) whole kernel corn, undrained (I used a 15 oz can)
1 can rotel tomatoes with habanero (optional and added just because it was looking at me in the cupboard...this adds a bit of heat)
1 can chopped green chiles (I didn't use this because I used the rotel, so you can pick and choose what you want to throw in like I did)
6 flour tortillas
2 cups shredded 2% cheddar cheese (or more if you're a cheese hound)

Wow, that looks like a long list of ingredients, but in all actuality I just had to thaw some hamburger and had everything else ready to go in my pantry as most of it is pretty commonly used in our household. Believe me, there were no special trips to the store for this one!

Brown the beef/turkey and onion in a large skillet on medium high heat....was there ever a smell so nice??

Spread a couple dobs of tomato sauce in the baking dish so your food isn't stuck when you try to inhale it later.

Drain the meat and add the rest of the tomato sauce, beans, corn, and green chiles (or rotel if you're like me and like to rock the boat).  Stir in all the spices as well and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.

Layer 3 tortillas in the baking dish, overlapping where neccesary. This is my new fave brand to keep on hand but any kind will work...

Top with 1/2 the meat mixture, then top that with 1/2 the cheese.  Rinse and repeat...just kidding, no rinsing required...just repeat.  The rest of the tortillas, meat mixture, and finally cheese.  You should have 2 layers of each.

Throw the pan in the oven at 350 degrees for 15-30 minutes (depending on if you add it to the oven already warm from just cooking it, or you put it in the oven from the fridge because you made dinner the night before so it would be ready when you got home from boot camp chomping at the bit).  Let stand 5 minutes before serving so it doesn't fall apart....BAM, another easy weeknight meal! Some fat free sour cream and some homemade salsa on top and I was in mexican lasagna heavennnnnnn :)