On Sunday I made taco salads for lunch with lettuce, tortilla chips, taco meat w/ beans, salsa, cheese, and light sour cream. We had purchased one of those small bags of pre-cut lettuce so there wasn’t really enough leftover for more Taco salad the next night but I did have a good bit of the taco meat/beans mixture and toppings left. So I decided to use it up be making some spicy enchiladas for dinner of Monday. All I had to buy were corn tortillas, and some enchilada sauce (I don’t mind this shortcut because it’s so cheap to pick up a jar but you can make your own if you choose) and some mexican rice and I had enough to make enchiladas for that night and enough to freeze for another night. I like to have extra meals on hand in the freezer whenever I can because on a busy day or a rough day when I don’t feel great, it’s a lot cheaper to pull a homemade meal out of the freezer than to order take out. Enchiladas freeze beautifully so now all we need to add to it is a side of some sort and we have an emergency dinner ready to go.
So here’s how I made them, it’s SUPER easy…
- Preheat oven to 400*
- Sautee 1/2 chopped onion and green pepper
- Add leftover taco meat/beans (recipe below) to the onion and pepper mix and toss together until warm
- Layer a little of the taco/enchilada sauce in the bottom of the baking dish
- Spoon some meat mixture into a small corn tortilla and fold closed
( the corn tortillas can be very dry so i run them under a little water to help them soften and don’t worry if they crack a little in the pan, it won’t cause a problem) - Put the enchiladas seam side down into the baking dish
- Cover the enchiladas with another layer of sauce and then top with cheese of your choice
(I used a mix of colby jack and mozzarella) - Bake for about 15mins or until bubbly on the edges and the cheese is melted
If you are serving 4-6 people you can use a 9×13 baking dish or if you would like to freeze half like I did you can use two small dishes like an 8×8 and something else that you can freeze in. I served my Enchiladas with some mexican rice and topped the rice with some salsa verde and light sour cream but you could also do a side of chips or corn and black bean salad…whatever you like!
Taco meat/bean mixture:
ground beef, half an onion chopped very small, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, chili powder, garlic, taco seasoning mix (or your own blend), Sriracha, 1 can light red kidney beans (drained and rinced), and a splash of water