Que sera....quesadilla

Yesterday I tweeted that I was going to try out an alternate version of a recipe that was in one of Rachael Ray's recent magazines. I love reading her magazine and figuring out my own take on her dishes. She included a recipe called Quesadilla Casserole that sounded pretty AMAZING, so I finally gave it a whirl last night.

I took the basic ingredients and the method and created my own version. If you are vegetarian, you can stick to Rachael's version. However, I was craving a little beef last night. (*gasp*....I rarely eat beef, I know. But ground turkey just wasn't going to cut it for me last night.) Anyway....I also had half a bell pepper left over from Sunday night's fajita fiesta, so I just decided to follow Rachael's steps, but incorporate my own ingredients. Here we go:

Ingredients:

1/2 bell pepper, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 lb. ground beef or turkey

4 oz. can of green chiles

1 can drained black beans

1 cup frozen corn

shredded cheese

5 tortillas (I used fajita size? The medium ones between the small taco and large burrito kind.)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brown meat with onions, bell pepper and olive oil in skillet. Flavor meat with chile powder and ground cumin to taste. (Or taco season if you have one of those packets. I just use my own ingredients.) If needed, drain off any excess liquid/fat after meat is cooked. Add green chiles, corn and black beans to meat and cook for about 5 minutes. Set aside.
• Place one tortilla shell in bottom of pie plate or other round oven pan. Spread thin layer of meat mixture over tortilla and sprinkle shredded cheese over layer. Add another tortilla shell and repeat layers unti you run out of meat. For the top layer, you can use either meat or a tortilla. I used a tortilla.
• Heat in oven for about 20 minutes. If top tortilla starts getting too brown, cover with foil. Remove from oven and slice and serve like pie pieces. Top with sour cream, salsa, jalepenos, or whatever you desire!

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In the end, this was a pretty great dish! I'm sure Rachael's version is just as good, if not better than mine, but mine was pretty darn good! As far as my side suggestions, this is a pretty harty meal on its own, so I didn't have any sides. But...I did snack on tortilla chips while I was cooking, so I would suggest serving with chips and salsa!

Happy cooking!!!!