This vegetarian Freezer-Friendly Mexican Lasagna is delicious any way you slice it! It’s great the first day, fabulous as leftovers, and freezes easily for sketch-free fast food!
Recipe testing is pretty much my favorite thing in the world!
Other than zumba… and spinning.. and sleeping… eating… painting… and… I guess I have a lot of favorites!
Since my other half is often deployed overseas, the 2-4 serving meals that I typically post are consumed by yours truly alone. With the sheer number of dishes I whip up each week, the abundant leftovers will surely sprout legs and terrorize the neighborhood if I don’t find a way to keep them fresh and gloriously frozen for future faceplanting.
Freezer-Friendly Mexican Lasagna
This plate-licking remix of my mexican pizza lasagna and makes approximately 3 cups of yummy bean filling, you’ll only need around 2 cups for this recipe so freeze the leftover cup for easy tacos or nachos! While we’re at it, you could even pile it on top of a savory sweet potato *swoon*
When it comes time to reheat and plate your creation — pretty it up with a splash of color! Add diced tomatoes, jalapenos, green onions and all your favorite toppings. A dollop of sour cream or Greek yogurt takes this baby to the next level. Man I love this dish!
The fact that there’s a batch waiting for me in the freezer right now makes me ridiculously happy.
Hello TV dinner upgrade!
All of the convenience; none of the sketch!
Freezer-Friendly Mexican Lasagna
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups black beans (drained and rinsed)
- 1.5 cups cooked lentils (drained and rinsed)
- 15 oz canned refried beans
- ½ cup enchilada sauce (plus 1/4-1/2 cup for topping later)
- ¼ cup salsa verde
- 5-6 small corn tortillas
- 2-4 TBSP diced/sliced jalapenos (fresh or pickled)
- 2-4 oz grated cheese
SEASONING BLEND:
- 1/2-1 tsp dried cilantro
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp chili powder
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp salt plus a little extra to taste
- a pinch or two of red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper for heat-seekers
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- On the stove top, combine refried beans, black beans, and lentils in a pot or deep skillet on medium-low heat. I make my beans from scratch and divide them between the fridge and freezer for easy meals throughout the week. Feel free to follow suit or used canned when needed!
- Add seasoning blend [see recipe] and 1/2 cup enchilada sauce and stir.
- Taste and adjust seasonings as desired. My standard protocol is to dip a tortilla chip [or three!] in the pot and taste test. Yum!
- Next, rep a bake-able glass bowl or casserole dish with a thin layer of sauce to prevent sticking. With a tortilla in one hand an a butter knife in the other, spread a thick layer of beans onto the corn tortilla.
- Top with green salsa a drizzle of enchilada sauce, and then place inside your baking bowl or dish. This will be your first layer. Feel free to cheese it up between layers if you're a fan.
- Repeat this step for the next two layers. This not only makes fabulous [freeze-able!] leftovers but is a great way to use up leftovers you may have creeping around in your fridge! Each layer will be more of the same until you reach the final tortilla.
- On top of your last later, drizzle enchilada sauce, taco sauce, and a nice thick layer of grated cheese. Add jalapenos too if you're feeling feisty!
- I typically bake the dish [20-30 minutes], snag a slice or two to devour immediately and freeze the leftovers. You can absolutely freeze the entire thing before baking though, and then just defrost for an easy dinner later on.
Notes
Nutrition
the moral of the story:
Cooking several meals at once and saving the leftovers to nosh all week [or month!] long is, without a doubt, the best strategy for me. Without Paul around to devour all my meals and experiments, its oh-so-easy to be lured into a life of cereal and PB+J. Having meals prepped ensures I’m eating healthy whole food based meals all week long!
So what’s your favorite freezer-friendly meal?
Do you pre-prep meals for the week?
If you get a chance to try this freezer-friendly mexican lasagna recipe, let me know! Leave some love in the comment form below or tag your photos with @peasandcrayons on Instagram so I can happy dance over your creation! I can’t wait to see what you whip up!
Looks awesome! I’m always on a Mexican kick, so this is a must make!
Thanks Meghan!
That looks sooo good! I am on a Mexican kick right now – no doubt thanks to the 3 avocados in my fridge right now. Looking forward to trying this!
Wow this looks really REALLY good. I love how pretty much EVERYTHING goes well with Greek yogurt
Wow great remix! And thumbs up for not throwing food away. I
don’t usually freeze any cooked food. My freezer has meats, nuts and ice cream
=)
yum!! that looks so ridiculously good!! thanks for sharing!
holy guacamole! (how appropriate hehe)
that lasagna remix looks absolutely fabulous!!! I need to make this!!! I am a huge avocado lover and my bf too, I will have to make this for our anniversary 😀
Mexican Lasagna is a brilliant idea! My husband would LOVE that!
Yum!! And what a great idea to freeze cheese like that!
This looks amazing!
I guess I learn something new everyday…I would have never thought of freezing cheese in cube forms. This could totally stir up my cheese addiction.
Looks so delicious! I love the tasty toppings you’ve added.
Haha, that looks so awasome, NEED to try that out, great idea (;
http://www.happymeanshealthy.blogspot.com
Shush darling you’re brilliant =) I simply tease where I can! I do the same thing when ordering from menus — I always want the most veg-loaded dish and then an extra veggie side! =) mmmm
Oh that looks so good! I just had to pin it! =)
Haha, well I may not be a full vegetarian/vegan right now, but I have been making MANY more meatless meals recently! And I LOVE trying meatless foods at restaurants. I’ve found that recently, I’ve been looking for the dish that has the most veggies in it. I think that’s progress! 😉
and beans and veggies and veggie burgers! =) I’m going to lure you away from the dark side miss carnivore =) haha! Happy Friday Kristen!
This looks great! I always get lazy and just do tacos when I want mexican. I need to experiment more!
This is a great idea! And I love how decadent your tortillas and lasagnas and casseroles always look! Like such great comfort food, yet healthy too!
Love this! Options and leftovers for later!
Loveee this! I need to pin it. I think any pasta dish works well in the freezer. And chili or soup. 🙂
Yeah, it’s on 9am here, but I’m seriously thinking about cooking that pizza lasagna for breakfast! YUM!
chicken paprikash or fried rice. I also like spicy lasagna roll ups!
but mostly my freezer is for spoons and bras.
Over the winter, we did a lot of soup/stew/chili that is pretty freezer and work lunch friendly. Gotta love having crazy amounts of leftovers!