Chilaquiles

Chilaquiles are so good. It's like Mexican Lasagna in a way. You just layer sauce of your choice, tortillas, and really anything else you can think of. Its common to have them for breakfast and add eggs to them. We eat them for dinner. I can make them ahead of time and put them in the fridge and then put them in the oven and set the timer to have them done when I get home.

I use a basic red sauce. I buy the sauce from the store and then add to it. I start with Mexican Chocolate. It's delicious. It's like half semi-sweet, half unsweetened chocolate but with other "stuff" added. I don't know exactly what's in there but I know there are some cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. You should buy it and save it. Use it for hot chocolate. It's so good. I melt the chocolate in the bottom of a heavy pan (I use my Le Creuset pot) with a little butter.

Then I add in the Las Palmas Mild or Medium Enchilada sauce and bring it to a simmer for however long it takes me to crisp the tortillas.Crisping the tortillas is where the controversy starts. Some people use tortilla chips. My husband doesn't like that. He says it makes the chips just soggy. K. Some people just cut up strips of tortillas, which is fine if I'm in a hurry. I try to crisp the corn tortillas in a hot pan before layering them in the dish. I start off with a layer of sauce in the bottom of the caserole dish, then I just toss in the tortillas. I don't cut them into strips. I then add another layer of sauce, a layer of cheese and repeat until I'm out of cheese :) Sometimes I add in some green onions and chopped black olives. It just depends what I have on hand.

We top it with sour creme and if my husband had his way I'd make rice with it but I'm going through one of my rice oversions again (sorry dude).

Ok, so it's not a "pretty meal" and no, these aren't the plates I use. This is my daughters plate but the beans looked less offensive on this, than on my white plate :)

Cost Breakdown:
Red Sauce: $2.49 (19 ounce can)
Chocolate: $1.00 (a box is about $5 and there are 6 chocolate rounds in a box)
Tortillas: $1.00 (I buy a bag of 30 and use half a bag)
Cheese: $2.99 (Ralphs usually has a special for $2.99/half pound you just sometimes have to walk all over the store between the deli and the dairy dept.)
Beans: $1.00 (I use Rosarita non-fat green chili and lime)
T0tal: $7.48 for 6 servings


Nutrition breakdown:
Fat: 21g (I have to estimate that there are 2 (1oz) servings of cheese so 18 of the fat grams are from cheese)
Calories: 445 (220 in the cheese, 110 in the tortillas, 100 in the beans, 15 in the sauce)
Fiber: 11g (7 in beans, 3 in tortillas, 1 in the sauce)