Dinner is Served: Quesadilla Casserole

Remember that awesome post that Blogger deleted back when it decided to crash a few months ago?? Guess what?!?! I found it. It just showed back up one day disguised as a draft. I decided since I didn't have nearly enough posts going on this week, to post it today. Hope y'all get to make this soon! :)

Original post date: May 17th, 2011 

I had quite a few ladies ask for the recipe for my Quesadilla Casserole. I cleverly omitted the fact that I didn't invent this. 

McCormick did...

But it's really good, so don't not try it just because I didn't come up with it. *ahem*. I got this for about $2 at Winn-Dixie. My Mama has been talking about how McCormick was coming out with these Recipe Inspirations for over a year now, but the Wal-mart in Springville doesn't have them. And Lord knows Mr. Burton isn't going to carry them. 

They're located on the spice aisle/baking aisle next to the other McCormick products. Our Winn-Dixie carries 6 different recipes. This is my favorite so far. (The Rosemary Chicken and Potatoes is really great too!) You can check out their other packets here.



Each packet comes with all of the pre-measured spices you'll need for each individual dish and a recipe card to add to your box. On the back of the package is a check-list of the other ingredients you'll need. If you don't plan on going and buying one of these, I'll go ahead and list the spices too. If any of you are like me, you don't use these spices everyday, so it's more beneficial to buy the spice packet. lol.

Ingredients

2 tsp. McCormick Chili Powder

1 tsp. McCormick Ground Cumin

1 tsp. McCormick Minced Garlic

1/2 tsp. McCormick Oregano Leaves

1/2 tsp. McCormick Crushed Red Pepper (optional)

1 lb. ground beef (you could use turkey too)

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cans (8 oz. each) tomato sauce

1 can (15 oz.) black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can (8 3/4oz.) whole kernel corn, undrained**

1 can (4 1/2oz.) chopped green chiles, undrained

6 flour tortillas (8-inch)

2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Brown beef and onion in large skillet on medium-high heat;drain. Add tomato sauce, beans, corn and green chiles; mix well. Stir in all of the Spices except Red Pepper. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low; simmer 5 minutes. Add Red Pepper to taste, if desired.

2. Spread 1/2 cup of the beef mixture on bottom of 12x9x2-inch baking dish sprayed with no-stick cooking spray. Top with 3 of the tortillas; overlapping as needed. Layer with 1/2 of the remaining beef mixture and 1/2 of the cheese. Repeat with remaining tortillas, beef mixture and cheese.

3. Bake in preheated 350°F oven 15 minutes or until heated through. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Seriously, let it stand 5 minutes. It thickens up then and it's easier to serve. Otherwise you'll have it dripping down the side of the stove. Or maybe that's just me. I am a klutz.



**Note: I couldn't find a can of corn this small, so I just used a regular-sized can. It works just as well. So don't waste a whole lot of time searching for a smaller can.