Enchilada Grande Casserole

I love Mexican food--both authentic and American.  This is definately not authentic but still good.  It's a very easy recipe to make and pretty quick also.  It's not the most glamerous of meals, but casseroles never are!

Enchilada Grande Casserole
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 16 ounce can refried beans
1 15 ounce can no-salt added tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1 envelope enchilada sauce mix
8 7-8 inch flour tortillas
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In large skillet, cook ground beef until brown.  Drain off fat.  Stir in beans, tomato sauce, water and enchilada mix.  Bring to boil, reduce heat, and let simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
Arrange half of the tortillas in bottom of a greased 3 quart rectangular baking dish, trimming and overlapping as necessary to fit.  Top with half of the meat mixture and half of the cheddar cheese.  Repeat with remaining tortillas and remaining meat mixture.
Bake for 20 minutes.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake about 10 minutes more until heated through.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Serve with sour cream or guacamole.

Amy's Notes:
From beginning to end, this recipe take me about 1 hour to make--including baking time.  I serve it with corn, because I like to mix it in when I eat it, tortilla chips, and any combination of salsa, guacamole and sour cream. 

Taco Soup

I'm trying to use up all the random things in my cupboard and fridge/freezer before we move.  It's actually really hard for me to come up with meals that I don't have to buy anything for.  So hard that I've yet to do it.  I planned to make taco soup to use up things I had on hand, and ended up having to buy another can of tomatoes and a can of beans, but I had everything else.  I didn't have a recipe, but the following is what I ended up doing.

Taco Soup
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 package taco seasoning (1/4 cup seasoning and 3/4 cup water)
2 cans diced tomatoes (1 can petite diced and 1 can Mexican Rotel)
1 onion, diced
1 can black beans
1 can corn
2 cans water
Salt and pepper, to taste
Optional:
Shredded Cheese
Sour Cream
Tortilla chips

Directions:
Brown ground beef in large pot.  Once browned and drained, add taco seasoning and water.  Let simmer about 2 minutes.  Add tomatoes, onion, black beans, corn, water, salt and pepper.  Let simmer about 30 minutes or until the flavors have mingled together.  Add shredded cheese, a dollop of sour cream, some crushed tortilla chips, or whatever else you would like!

Amy's Notes:
I had originally planned to also add rice in this soup, but once I got making it decided not to.  Overall, I thought the soup turned out well.  My husband thought it had too much meat in it though.  So next time, I might either half the meat or add another can of beans and corn.  For me, it was a success and I will make it again!