I’ve been challenging myself recently to make dinner with what we have ON HAND instead of constantly running to the store to pick up one ingredient. And luckily, I’ve discovered some pretty good meals out of my little personal challenge.

This was one of those meals.

I have actually made a Mexican Lasagna before, but not one like this. I followed some other totally different recipe for that one, but this particular shrimp Mexican lasagna just sort of “happened” when these were the ingredients I could find in my cabinets.

Now, the beauty of this recipe is you can really substitute the shrimp with ANY meat you’d like: chicken, shrimp, fish, beef, or even tofu for you herbivores. 🙂

It’s also SUPER easy!

Without further ado…

INGREDIENTS: (again, this is what we had on hand… you could certainly add or subtract ingredients based on what you already have in your cabinets)

• 1 lb of frozen, cooked, peeled, deveined, and tail-off shrimp (OR any other meat you want… just make sure it’s cooked)
• Frozen corn
• 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can of pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• Salsa of choice
• Pickled jalapenos
• Shredded cheese
• Tortillas
• 1 cup white rice (uncooked)
• Spices (see below)
• Minced garlic (I used about 1-2 cloves)
• 1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilies
• Crushed tortilla chips

For spices I actually used my own “rustic rub” – you can find the recipe for that here. Otherwise, you can just use standard Mexican spices like cumin, paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper.

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Cook your rice in a small pot. One cup of uncooked white rice makes about two cups of cooked rice. To make your rice extra flavorful, cook it with chicken broth! I use 1 cup of chicken broth and 1 cup of water.

Then, in a large skillet, put in a little olive oil and your minced garlic and then cook your FROZEN items (or preferred meat).

Add the spices you wish to use. Again, there’s no science to this part, it’s really all dependent upon your taste buds. Trial and error is TOTALLY fine here!

Then, once your meat (or frozen items) are cooked, add in your beans, jalapenos (again, to taste), salsa (to taste), diced tomatoes and green chilies, etc. Mix it all together!

Then, add in your rice and mix well.

Meanwhile in a 13×9 baking dish, spray with cooking spray and line the bottom with tortillas like so:

Then, it’s time to layer. Add a layer of your skillet mixture on top of the tortillas, then a layer of shredded cheese.

Then, add another layer of tortillas. Then add more mixture and cheese.

Repeat this process till you get to the top of the dish.

Then, top it off with some crushed tortilla chips (for a crunchy topping) and more shredded cheese.

Yum.

Then, place in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown!

VOILA! How delish is that?!

Seriously. This was SO good and made leftovers for DAYS. We loved it!

What do you think? Will you try this recipe? What recipes do you like to make with what you have around the kitchen?