Big S Farms Salsa Redeemed, or Making The Most of a Tortilla Disaster

2 weekends ago we bought some whole wheat tortillas to make breakfast burritos…it was a good thing there were only two of us eating.  There was a note on the package saying they pack their tortillas when they are fresh and still warm, so there may be some sticking together.  I shrugged it off when I read it, but THEY WERE NOT KIDDING.  We only managed to salvage two whole tortillas for burritos.  The rest were practically glued together and impossible to pry apart without tearing.  So much for more filled-tortilla meals after that. 

To make up for the disaster and not waste the tortillas (which were pretty tasty at least!), I concocted one of my favorite things, a CASSEROLE!

Tortilla-Fail Turned Taco Casserole

• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 tb minced garlic
• 1 package fajita seasoning or taco seasoning
• Salt, Pepper, chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, hot sauce (Big S Farms!) to taste
• 1 cup water or broth
• 1 can pinto beans
• 1 1/2 cups salsa (Big S Farms Smoke on Mountain! Yum!)
• A giant pile of tortillas, shredded/torn/cut/involuntarily turned into medium-sized pieces
• Shredded mexican-type cheese

1. Brown ground beef in a large pan.  Remove beef, leaving just a little bit of fat to cook onion, pepper, carrots and garlic until soft and translucent.
2. Add seasoning packet, spices, water, beans and salsa.  Simmer over medium heat until it gets nice and thick.  As it heats, taste a couple times to adjust seasoning to your own spiciness.
3. While the meat mixture is cooking, spread tortilla pieces on a baking sheet and coat with cooking spray and toast in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes or until they’re a bit brown and crispy (check on them to make sure they aren’t burning). 
4. Combine the meat and the tortillas in a large casserole dish coated with cooking spray.  It will take a little bit of work to get it evenly mixed…I mixed it in the casserole dish and the tortillas really wanted to clump together.  It would probably work better to dump the tortillas into the pan with the beef little by little and mix until they’re all coated with flavorful sauce.
5. Top casserole with cheese and bake at 350 degrees until everything is bubbly and the cheese starts to brown. 

We served over shredded lettuce with some fresh chopped tomatoes and sour cream.  SO filling and amazing.  Matt had it for lunch leftovers yesterday and completely forgot the lettuce and sour cream (we are out of tomatoes).  He said it was still delicious! I’m having it for lunch today, but will definitely be adding the lettuce because otherwise I would be tempted to eat way too much of the yummy part and end up with an over-full tummy from lunch.  No fun when you’re trying to get work done! 

Here are some pictures, some fuzzy (grrr), some great.  Also, note the return of Big S Farms salsa…I was completely right…it worked really really well in this dish! Can’t wait to open up one of the spicier ones!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 11:01 am and is filed under Contests, Fun, Leftovers, Matthew, Southern Love, Yum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.