My mom has been making this recipe for as long as I can remember. In fact she has a “special meal,” each of us kids get on our birthdays and this is what she fixes for me. According to mom this recipe originated when she and her dad were having a cook off of some sort one night. Basically Tijuana Tort is Mexican Lasagna.
I don’t know that this recipe could ever be deemed “healthy,” but in an effort to make it more healthy, here is my recipe and my alterations.
Tijuana Tort
1 onion chopped
1 bell pepper (I added to get more veggies)
I chop these up and put them in a skillet pretty low just to soften while I get the meat browning.
1 lb ground beef browned, but I sub in a package of Jennie-O Mexican style ground turkey.
I drained the turkey then added the onion and bell pepper to the meat skillet.
Next mix in:
2 tsps chili powder
16 ounces tomato sauce
I also added in one can of Rotel just to spice up the Tijuana Tort a bit. You let it simmer for 15 minutes, if you’re like me and never remember what that means, I just let it slightly bubble for 15 minutes until it looks like this:
At this point you have a few options. You can let this cool off and freeze it, so that down the road all you have to do is defrost it and then layer it.
You can make one giant dish. This is really good left over, so if you can’t eat it all in one setting it makes for easy meals later in the week.
Or you can do what I decided to do here and go ahead and portion it out.
This actually made 5 servings, but let’s be honest, that wouldn’t have worked as well in the picture!
First I spray the dish with Pam then you put a little sauce on the bottom. Trim down the corn tortillas so they fit in the dish. The image goes counter clock wise. But right is the first stage, a little sauce and one tortilla, to the left I added cheese. Then on the top row, the top left image I’ve added a layer of the meat mixture then to the right I’ve added another tortilla.
You repeat this process until you’ve put 3 tortillas, but end with sauce on top and then cover with cheese.
You cook it for 30 minutes on 350 degrees.
I went ahead and portioned it out so that it would be ready for week day lunches. I can just grab a container and go, then reheat it when it’s lunch time!
Tiajuana Tort is great served over rice, you can do white or brown whatever your preference.
If you’re not a corn tortilla fan you can always use flour; I’ve never had it with whole wheat tortillas.
Reader Interactions