Get Cooking | Mexintine’s Dinner

A bunch of you have expressed distress over my lack of recipe posts recently. Well fear not beloved kitchen vixens! Nate and I bring you the only dinner recipe you’ll ever need. Sure to impress friends, neighbors, mothers-in-law, and even kids. It’s been in my repertoire for about a decade and it never fails to perform.

Since I don’t really like Valentine’s Day that much, (too much pressure) the only thing we had planned for the day was make a nice dinner together. Appetizer, entrée, and dessert. (We love cooking together, if you are new to the blog.) After waking up late and planning our dinner menu we allowed a quick diversion to go shop for bicycles for each other. (Sidenote: They say riding a bike just “comes back to you” and I’d like to just say a big fat “not really” to whoever started that ridiculous statement because, while I can get on and balance enough to stay upright, I can hardly start or stop without losing control. And don’t get me started on turns or narrow spaces. Needless to say, I’m a bit comical on it right now.)

Post bicycle shopping were still grocery-less, so we decided to break the bikes in by riding them to the Publix by the lake downtown (about a mile away). Minus a few near-disastrous spills and one really awkward traffic mishap we made it home alive with all the necessary ingredients for our feast.

Then it was time to make what Nate has dubbed “Mexintine’s Dinner“. It’s our own Mexican Lasagna, and it’s delicious! If you’d like to try it for yourself (which you totally should) you can download this recipe card here, made especially for you. (Who loves ya baby?) For those that need more step by step guidance (and lots of photos), read on…

Ingredients:

For the meat:
1 small white onion
1 tbs minced garlic
1 pkg Morning Star Veggie Crumbles (you didn’t think there would be meat in this did you?)
2 tbs salsa (we like Pace Picante Medium for this)
dash of worchestershire
a generous sprinkling of chili powder
a few drops of your favorite hot sauce (ours for cooking like this is Pepper Palace Sauce Makers Reserve Hot Chipotle & Garlic and we used a lot of drops… twice)
dash of kosher salt

For the rest:
1 8 oz bag sharp shredded cheddar cheese
1 16oz jar salsa of your choice (we like pace picante medium)
1 c fat free sour cream
1/2 c half and half
1 c. grated parmesan cheese
1 package 10 inch tortillas (we chose whole wheat, to counter act all that fatty half and half…right?)

First things first. Too many people don’t know the correct way to dice an onion. You’ll want to kiss me after this…

To dice an onion in less than 30 seconds…use an 8 in chef’s knife to slice thin slices 3/4 of the way through horizontally. Then rotate the onion and do the same thing again creating a criss-cross pattern across the top. Flip the onion on it’s side and slice down. Tiny dices will fall from your knife like culinary pixie dust. You can kiss me later. We’ve got work to do…

Making the Magic
1. Set a skillet on medium heat.
2. Mix half and half and sour cream until combined. Set aside.
3. Cut tortillas lengthwise into 1 inch strips, then cut strips in half. Set aside.
3. Saute onion and garlic for 2 minutes. Add meat and seasonings. Saute on medium heat until crumbles are hot and all sauces have absorbed.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5. Layering time! Place half the crumbles in bottom of a 9×13 casserole dish (we used a heart shaped pie dish because, well, it was Valentine’s Day. You can use whatever you want as long as it’s deep enough for the layers) Spoon half the sour cream mix on top of the meat. Spoon half the jar of salsa on top of that. Sprinkle half the bag of cheddar cheese on top of that. Cover the top with tortilla strips evenly until the entire thing is covered. Repeat the layers again: meat, sour cream mix, salsa, cheese, tortillas

Layers… crumbles:

Creamy sour cream goodness layer…

Salsa (you may want to do a little dance during this part)

The cheese layer. Never to be overlooked…

Lastly, cover completely with the tortilla strips. Make it pretty too, because it’s fun.

6. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes.
7. Remove foil and sprinkle parmesan cheese evenly all over the top. The more the merrier! Place back in the oven for 5 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and let set for at least 10-15 minutes to let everything gel a bit. (It’ll be too watery to eat if you don’t wait, trust us.)
9. Stuff your face! (In the most romantic way possible)

It’s going to be tough, but you’ve got to let it bask in it’s own bubbly-cheesiness for at least 10 minutes. It’s natural to stare.

Dish it up. And please, for the love of God… don’t forget the guacamole!

*You can also make this with chicken or tofu. For chicken use 6 breasts and boil them until white first before chopping them into bite sized pieces and adding in place of the crumbles in the layers. For tofu you’ll need 2 blocks. Press the water out, cut into bite sized pieces and layer in place of the crumbles. For both of these substitutions you can skip the skillet and spices steps and go right to the layering.

And if you want to show off, dish up these little “margaritas”…

Tropical sherbert + green sugar rim + sugar cookie “limes”
(a Becka original… I’ll be signing autographs after the show)

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