Mexican Lasagna

Happy New Year, everyone!! Are you excited about what 2012 has in store for you? I'm hoping it has more blogging in it for me. I've kind of decided to just go forward with my blog here and potentially not go back and fill in the missing posts I had wanted to do. I don't know...I can't decide. I figure I'll start current and then when I have some time I'll add in old ones here and there. Otherwise I just get too overwhelmed and don't do anything.

My childhood best friend posted on Facebook recently about calories for a Mexican lasagna she makes. I asked her for the recipe because it sounded tasty just from the title. She sent it to me, and I had most everything on hand already, so I put it into my meal plan for the week. Worked out great because I was low on grocery money this week. I was excited to try it--and that it was low cal! 2011 was the year I got fit, so now I'm really focusing on staying that way, so tasty and low-cal recipes that come highly recommended are fantastic!

Mexican Lasagna
Source: Adapted from my friend Sarah (who has a really funny blog about Jason Segel)

1.25 pounds ground turkey
1/2 onion, chopped
Salt
Pepper
Taco seasoning
28 oz can enchilada sauce
1 medium zucchini, shredded
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 can refried beans
4 whole wheat tortillas
2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Brown ground turkey and onion in skillet with salt, pepper, and taco seasoning (no more than one packet...use however much you like to taste...or throw in random taco seasoning spices like chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, oregano, and paprika if you don't have actual taco seasoning). Pour enchilada sauce into skillet and add in vegetables (you can use others, too, whatever floats your boat or what you have on hand). Simmer.

In separate pan, heat can of refried beans.

Coat a 9x13 dish with cooking spray. Spread half of the turkey and vegetable mixture in the bottom of the pan. Top with half of the refried beans, spreading to cover as best you can. Top with two whole wheat tortillas, then half of cheese. Repeat layers.

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Cut into eight servings.

*****

I didn't change this a whole lot from how Sarah sent it to me, just added in more veggies and used flour tortillas instead of corn. I had intended on using corn originally, but I ran out of time to make them like I'd planned and didn't have any on hand, so whole wheat flour tortillas is what I ended up using. It worked out fine...I probably could have used a couple more so the tortilla layers were thicker, but no one complained.

This was super easy to put together and SO GOOD. Well, the husband and I both thought so. My kids weren't really fans. Boy #2 ate his up once I mixed some Greek yogurt (in lieu of sour cream, which we didn't have on hand) in it to cut the spice a bit. Boy #1 picked at his even with the yogurt mixed in, but he did end up eating a decent amount of his serving. I will definitely make it again.

Oh, and I calculated it to only be 310 calories per serving! Not bad at all--and it was so filling!