[Something About You, Five For Fighting]

Ok, so it's been longer than I said.  I woke up with a nasty cold Friday morning- how, may I ask, does a person who doesn't come into contact with anyone other than her husband 5 days a week acquire the germs necessary to create a cold?  So annoying.

Anyway, I'm posting this so that those of you who check in usually while procrastinating at work (tsk, tsk) can check it out.  I'll have a post up Tuesday about the beer can chicken we made tonight.

At long last, le tacosagna!

1:  First, the veggies.   This is a hodgepodge pic for you, but what I did here was grate zucchini (it was 7 medium sized this time around) and 1 large carrot.  I also chopped up the peppers you see and an onion.  

2:  Just for fun, pics of los veggies.  This is the grated bits.

3:  And the chopped veggies!

4:  Our garlic trick- we use a garlic press (lazy?  meh.  Easier. ) and then let the garlic sit for about 10 minutes.  I heard / read somewhere (can't remember which) that to maximize the health benefits of garlic you want to cut/crush it and release the juices and then let it sit for 10-odd minutes before cooking it.  So that's what we do!

5:  We only used 1 pound of ground beef (we usually use turkey but we haven't had ground beef in literally like 9 months!) and then stretch it with 3/4 of the chopped veg.  Yes, I use veg as a plural term.  Jamie Oliver does it, so I can, too-- my ancestry is half British, after all.  This is the color I get the mixture of meat / chopped veg to before adding the grated veg.

6:  So, apparently I didn't take a pic of the mixture post-spices, but this is what the meat / chopped veg / grated veg mixture should look like before adding spices. FYI here- getting it this color and consistency takes awhile, sometimes up to 20 minutes even on high heat.  But it's worth it, because it cooks away excess water (runny tacosagna = GROSS) and it's what makes the meat & veg mixture taste more like meat and less like raw zucchini.  TRUST me on this.  A trick I use is to periodically create little gaps in the mixture, generally on the hottest (center) part of the pan there the liquids can gather, boil, and evaporate.  It speeds up the process.

  As for the spices-- I don't really measure, but I use a boatload o' cumin (upwards of 2 TB, methinks), kosher salt (pinch), fresh cracked black pepper, coriander, paprika, chipotle powder, and chili powder.  When I got the original idea from Rachael Ray, she pointed out that these spices taste WAY better than the taco seasoning in a bag and they're much healthier in terms of things like sodium content and such.  I can't remember her exact seasonings, but this is what I've adapted for my recipe.

  Also, at the end here is when I add the garlic and this time I added a small can of green chilis- so yummy!  It looks kinda gross here in the pan (probably a mix of coloring / texture)but it's incredibly tasty, and it is SO much healthier than a purely meat layer!

Note:  You can click on any picture to get a bigger photo- you should with this one, to see the mixture up close.  Honestly, you can't really tell it has so many different vegetables making up the majority of the mixture.  And, the best part is that you can barely tell when you taste it!  Making veg taste like meat = GENIUS!

7:  Next comes the layering of the tortillas- this is where it becomes tacoSAGNA.  I know you get that play on words, so enough.  But I love this because it keeps with the taco feel and the tortillas give the recipe a light and airy feel.  I know that whole wheat would be better than white, but... honestly, I hate whole wheat tortillas.  They're gross.  I know there are low carb options and such, but this is a Costco buy- cheap, and you can freeze the rest.  

Anyway, the way I layer the tortillas comes in two steps.  First, I fold 6 tortillas in half, one at a time, fold back the opposite direction and then gently tear along the fold line.  I set three torn tortillas (so 6 halves) to one side, spray a quick spritz of canola oil lightly across the bottom of a glass casserole dish, and then put down the first tortilla layer as pictured above.

Note: I use my Pyrex glass dish that has a lid- makes for easy storage of leftovers and it doesn't dirty up extra containers.  You can see the blue lid peeking out from underneath the dish!

8:  I take the 6 halves I set to the side and create quarters employing the double-fold & tear method described above.  Then, I take the pointed edge of a quarter and line it up with the corner of the dish.  I repeat this in all four corners.  This may seem a bit tedious- typically, the halves will fit on the ends without being quartered, but you don't get the same coverage.  There are gaps and such that are avoided this way.  If you're an OCD neatnik like me then you understand :)

9:  After the tortilla layer I spread half the meat mixture and some cheese (this was a cheapo on sale bag of finely shredded Mexican blend).  I repeat with another layer of tortillas, meat mix, cheese, and then a final layer of tortillas.  Then, I bake it at 350 F for about 15 minutes, basically to warm the tortilla's (say it like the Grandma from Napoleon Dynamite- TOR-til-las, nothing silent... FUNNY!) and melt the cheesy layers.

10:  This time, while the tacosagna was baking I made a semexican salad  Yes, semi + Mexican = semexican, clearly.  The J-man chopped up green and red leaf lettuce, added two small cans of sliced black olives, the remaining 1/4 of the raw chopped veg, and mixed it up with his hands.  I didn't include a pic, but I made a dressing similar to the one I made for our grilled fish wraps.  This time, though, I used a 1/4 cup of mayo, 1/4 cup of sour cream, lemon juice, sliced cherry tomatoes, pepper, 1/2 cup salsa, paprika, and crushed garlic.  You can see a pic of the dressing on the salad in a wee bit :)  But what I really love about this salad is all of the contrasting colors!  All so bright and vibrant and DELICIOUS!  The reason this salad is semexican is that it was basic salad ingredients like lettuce and tomatoes, but with the peppers, salsa, sour cream, olives, etc, it took on a Mexican twist because it's more like taco toppings :)

11:  After making the salad, I pulled out the tacosagna, added a final layer of cheese, and popped it back in the oven for 4 minutes-- or however long it takes to melt.  Mmmm, so tasty-cheesy-delicious.  Oh, and FYI- there's no cheese in the salad because there's enough on the tacosagna and plus I just don't really like cheese in salad.  Above is the final cooked product.

12:  Above is the full meal, replete with dressed salad and a slice o' tacosagna.  We split the pan into six servings, so that you're only getting 1 tortilla, 1/6 of a pound of ground beef, and about 1/3 cup of cheese and then loads o' veg per serving.  Totally tasty and a totally healthy twist on tacos.

13:  This is just an alternate view of the meal, so you can see the meaty-cheesy-layered goodness.  

So, there you have it.  My man is waiting for the computer so I'll post the beer can chicken we made this evening for you to read on Tuesday-- and I'll really post it Tuesday- no more procrastinating, I promise!