Mexican Enchilada-Style Bake

Today has been a long day.  To top it all off I got some kind of upsetting news today and sat there at work wanting to cry bur couldn't because it is never good to cry at work.  Especially when you work with a bunch of women.  So I made it through the day and came home and laid down on the bed to wallow in my self pity.  After a bit of that I remembered a fantastic book on tape I listen to called How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnige.  In it he says that if you are feeling sorry for yourself or worrying you should go do something else that will occupy your mind.  So I got up and made dinner and did a load of dishes while the dinner was cooking.

While I was cooking I gradually began to feel better, probably because having an adventure in a different kind of cooking than you are used to takes a lot of thought and leaves no room for feeling sorry.  Today I took a recipe I have for noodle-less lasagna and turned it into tortilla-less enchiladas, or basically an enchilada bake.  Here's the recipe:

Mexican Enchilada-Style Bake

1 lb ground beef
1/2 white onion, chopped
10 oz enchilada sauce
1/2 tsp garlic powder
8 oz Neufchatel cheese (a low fat alternative to cream cheese)
1 egg
1/2 tsp cumin
1 can black beans
salt and pepper
8 oz Fiesta Blend (Mexican Blend) shredded cheese
parmesean cheese

Start by browning the ground beef in a skillet.  When the ground beef is finished, add the onions and cook for a few mintutes.  Add in the enchilada sauce and garlic and simmer until bubbly.  Meanwhile, heat the Neufchatel cheese in the microwave for 45-60 seconds.  Once the Neufchatel cheese is heated add to it the egg, cumin, black beans, salt, and pepper.  Once the cheese mixture and the meat mixture is done layer in a 1.5 quart cassorle dish as follows: one half of the meat mixture, cheese mixture, shredded cheese, rest of meat mixture.  Finish by sprinkling the top with parmesean cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 mins.  Let it cool before serving or it will be really soupy.  Serve topped with your favorite hot sauce.

The end result should look like this:

As for the review on this one, my honest first thought was it is really good but I missed the tortillas.  But as my husband was finishing off his second serving and picking at the leftovers I thought, well maybe I don't need tortillas....