Mexican Lasagna

So ok, before we start one note of caution: when you’re cooking chew gum. Seriously. Cuz I made this one this evening so I could photograph it and I was just a’tastin’ the ingredients. Now it is done…and beautiful…and yummy (I had a small nibble) and I’M TOO DANG FULL TO HAVE A SLICE!!!

Moving on…

Nik’s Mexican Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 lb. lean ground meat (turkey, beef, chicken, whatever)
Optional but I used: 1 cup textured vegetable protein
1 small can of mild green chiles
1 small onion chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 packet of taco seasoning
2.5 cups 2% Mexican blend cheese
1 can fat-free refried beans
1/2 a jar Enchilada sauce
Either 4 small low-carb, whole-wheat tortillas OR 2 Flat-out wraps (I used the Fit and Active brand multi-grain wraps from Aldi’s)
6 oz. chorizo sausage, either sliced or casings removed (I went for the latter)

Optional toppings:

Unflavored greek yogurt or low-fat sour cream
Salsa

Directions:

1. In a sprayed pan, sautee onions and green peppers until soft, add green chiles and warm through.
2. In a sprayed skillet brown ground meat and chorizo.
3. In a separate large bowl combine TVP with an equal amount of water. Add salt and pepper and stir to incorporate.
4. Combine meat mixture, veggie mixture and TVP in the large bowl with taco seasoning.
5. In a 13×9 casserole dish spread a layer of the meat mixture. Top with a enchilada sauce, refried beans, then cheese cover with one of your wraps (trim it if it is too big for your casserole dish). Repeat your layering so that you end up with the top layer being cheese which should come level with your casserole dish.
6. Bake in a 350 oven for 30 minutes.
7. Extract and remove from heat. Allow to cool about 10 – 15 minutes before cutting

This stuff is YUMMY. Now for the carbophobes out there, you CAN substitute the wrap/tortilla action with something like zucchini but I wouldn’t. Why? If you use flat-outs or the Aldi’s brand you are getting not a lot of carbs (You use 2 for the whole lasagna and each has 17g of carbs, 9 of which come from fiber. And 100 calories. So really, you’re not getting many calories OR carbs and in return you are getting good fiber, k? So breathe and eat yer damn carbs!

For those of you obsessed with stats, here are the stats using MY INGREDIENTS. Yours may vary.

And if your mouth is watering at this, check out some other Mexican inspired favorites of ours:

Fiesta Tuna boats
Chicken enchiladas
Taco casserole (scroll down for the recipe)

Next up: We travel down to the bayou to offend the sensibilities of good Cajuns with WLS friendly shrimp ‘n grits!