Recipe: Mexican Lasagna

This year my Cinco de Mayo "celebration" (aka excuse to eat Mexican food and drink margaritas) featured Margaritas and Mexican Lasagna followed by Contra Dancing. I had never been Contra Dancing before. It's a partnered folk dance related to English country dancing. Part of what now has me enchanted with Contra Dancing is the music which is good old fashioned folk music. I'm definitely going to have to go again! Now as for the recipe.

Recipe: Mexican Lasagna

(Adapted from the South Beach Diet Cookbook)

Ingredients:

• 2 Pounds Ground Beef
• 1 large onion
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 1-1/2 cups ricotta cheese
• 1 cup fat-free sour cream
• 1 jar (4 oz) chopped green chile peppers
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2-1/2 cups salsa
• 4 whole wheat tortillas (6" in diameter), halved
• 1 bag (8oz) shredded Monterey Jack Cheese

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F and coat a 9" by 13" glass pan with cooking spray.

Brown the ground beef in a large skillet over medium heat. Remove the ground beef to a medium bowl. Wipe the skillet with a paper towel and coat with cooking spray. Place over medium heat and add the garlic and onion. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for 7-8 minutes or until lightly browned. Add to the ground beef in the bowl.

In another medium bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, sour cream, peppers, cumin and salt.

Spread 1 cup of the salsa across the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange half of the tortillas evenly over the salsa. Spread half of the cheese over the tortillas. Top with half of the ground beef mixture. Cover with 1 cup of salsa and 1/2 cup of the Monterey Jack cheese. Repeat the layering sequence with the remaining tortillas, cheese, and ground beef. Sprinkle with the remaining salsa and Monterey Jack cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes or until heated through. Loosely cover with foil if the cheese browns too quickly.