Enchilada Casserole... or is it Mexican Lasagna???

So, I made a relatively decent attempt at cooking today and I am completely proud of it! It received 3 out of 4 thumbs up (the thumbs down was from my youngest who dislikes all food that is not pizza without sauce). I consider that a success!

It took me a while longer than it should have since I forgot to defrost the meat earlier on in the day. Other than that little problem, I found it relatively easy to create and definitely easy to eat! Is this the beginning of me actually cooking full meals? I'm not getting my hopes up.

(The Enchilada Casserole: I think I need to figure out how to send better pictures from my phone)

 

So, I'm going to describe the process. I made my casserole on the cheesy side because my boys LOVE cheese and I thought it might convince my youngest that it was worth eating. The recipe I'm posting has less cheese (although you could double the cheese and turn it into my creation).

 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb ground beef
• A large can of enchilada red sauce (or 2 small cans)
• A package of corn tortillas
• 1 package of Mexican cheese mixture (or two if you want it SUPER CHEESY)
• 1 Package of taco seasoning
• 1 can of diced olives (olives scare my children so I only put them on the top

Steps:

1. Brown the meat. I added the taco seasoning in at this time. This is a pretty simple step since you just dump the beef into a skillet and move it around till its brown.
2. Pour a thin layer of enchilada sauce on the bottom of your casserole dish.
3. Place a layer corn tortillas on top of the enchilada sauce
4. Put a layer of beef on top of the tortillas
5. Add a layer of cheese
6. Add a layer of tortillas (I now poured the enchilada sauce on top of the tortillas in a thin layer)
7. Repeat with the meat/cheese/tortilla/sauce layers till you run low at room on the top.
8. You top your casserole with the rest of your cheese and add olives (you could probably mix olives or veggies in as a layer if you don't have anyone opposed to those items).
9. Place the Enchilada Casserole in the oven at 400 F for 20 minutes.
10. Let it cool on the counter for about 5-10 minutes and serve

Again, I'm new at cooking real meals (as opposed to boiling pasta and adding cheese to the top, or microwaving hotdogs). Please forgive me if I'm not using the right jargon.