Texas-style Lasagna

Lasagna served w/ lettuce & salsa

    As you can imagine, cooking and recipes are some of my favorite topics of conversation. After a meeting the other day, Pat Kinnaird told me about Texas-style Lasagna – seems it has become a family favorite that she found in “Taste of Home” magazine. As so often happens, she and her daughter have made adjustments – Pat prefers white corn tortilla; her daughter has reduced the calories by used lower fat versions of the dairy products and lean beef.

     Sounded good to me and, it wasn’t hard to locate the recipe online. I, too, made adjustments. For one thing, I made it in a 8”x8” baking dish for just the two of us (presently freezer space is very limited or might have made the full amount and frozen half to bake off later). Basically I cut most ingredients in half but I did use a little extra ground beef (actually used a bag of freezer ground beef mix) and a whole can of green chilies. Instead of using a half can of diced tomatoes and a half can of tomato sauce, I opted for a full can of diced tomatoes and omitted the tomato sauce, adding about 1 tablespoon of flour for thickening. Rather than use lower-fat cheeses, I just reduced the specified amount of Monterey Jack or Cheddar. My version follows but I’ve also included the website address to Taste of Home’s original recipe.

     This is a whole lot easier than regular lasagna and Barry, who is not a lasagna fan, ate a second helping. His words exactly, “This is an amazing recipe. I love it.”

     Made it ahead and then just pulled it out of the fridge about 30 minutes before I baked it in our Breeville Smart Oven (small, portable and preheats in about 5 minutes).

Texas-style Lasagna   6+ servings

About 1 lb. ground beef  + 1 teaspoon seasoned salt + ½  pkg. (1¼ oz.) taco seasoning or 1 pkg. (2 cups) prepared ground beef mix with ½ pkg. (1 Tbsp.) taco seasoning added

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1 can (14½ oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can (4 oz.) chopped green chilies, undrained

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 cup (8 oz.) 4% cottage cheese

1 egg, lightly beaten

6 corn tortillas (6"), cut into thirds

About 1¼ to 1½ cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese or Cheddar cheese

1.   If beginning ground beef —Add to large skillet and cook over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Add the seasoned salt, taco seasoning mix, tomatoes, and chilies. Reduce heat, stir in flour and then simmer, uncovered, for 15 to 20 minutes. If using homemade ground beef mix, just add the thawed mix to a large skillet; then add taco seasoning mix, tomatoes, and chilies. Reduce heat, stir in flour and then simmer, uncovered, for 15 to 20 minutes. 

2.   In a small bowl, combine cottage cheese and egg.

3.   In a greased 8”x8” baking dish, layer half of the meat sauce, half of the tortillas, half the cottage cheese mixture and half of the grated cheese. Repeat layers.

4.   Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 30 minutes or until bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. 

Taste of Home’s original recipe can be found at . . . http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Texas-Style-Lasagna