Thursday, June 19, 2014

Burrito Bake



If you are the crafty type like I am, likely by now you have discovered the people in your house expect to eat meals far more often than you have the desire to make those meal.  Because crafty people do not have time to cook, I'll share some of my quick and easy, sure to please, meals.

Here's how the Burrito Bake goes.
You'll need a package of tortillas, a can of re-fried beans, a pound of ground beef, taco season envelope, 8 ounces of Mexican Style shredded cheese.

  • Cook a pound of ground beef as if for tacos with the taco seasoning. Soak off or drain off any fat.  (TIP- I buy the BIG family package of ground beef, pre-cook, and freeze in one pound amounts.  Cuts down on prep-time.)
  • Open a can of re-fried beans.
  • Line a rather large glass pie dish with three or four 12" tortillas.
  • Scoop out half of the re-fried beans and evenly "paste" the tortillas in the bottom of the dish.
  • Take half of the cooked, taco-seasoned, ground beef and spread it over the beans  (Beans HAVE to go first because it's nearly impossible to spread bean paste over ground beef.  Trust me on that one.)
  • Next sprinkle 4 ounce (or half the package) of shredded Mexican type cheese.
  • Layer 3 or 4 (or 2 if the teenage has walked through the kitchen) tortillas on top of the cheese.
  • Squish it all down a little bit with the back of a spatula (or your hand if no one's looking) so that the next layers will fit in the pie dish.
  • Start the layers all over again.
  • Rest of the re-fried beans,
  • Rest of the cooked, taco-seasoned, ground beef,
  • & Rest of cheese.
  • Top with remaining tortillas (hopefully the teenager left some behind)
  • Wrap the ENTIRE thing with foil as if wrapping a gift.  This part is important or else you'll end up with tortilla chips which I guess if fine, if that's what you want.
  • Bake at 350 degrees F for an hour.  Let cool about 10 minutes to solidify a bit before slicing into it like a pie. 
  • Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some salsa.

This is one of those food recipes where the left overs are actually better than fresh out of the oven.  I don't know why.  It's kinda like chili, it's better after the flavors have all had a chance to merge to perfect yumminess.

This recipe was found in a Kraft Magazine but did not include the foil part.  We had tortilla chips that evening so don't skimp on the foil.