7-Layer Bake

I'm Baaaaack!  I've now had the baby, for those of you who didn't already know and were wondering why I hadn't posted a recipe in a couple weeks!  As a mom of three I haven't cooked anything so far (except scrambled eggs in the microwave)  because my friends have been bringing us food every night for two weeks which is SUPER awesome.  Every night our dinner just shows up with a smiling face in throw-away dishes.  It's awesome.  I do miss cooking just a teeny tiny bit, but I don't miss the shopping for ingredients and cleaning up the mess, so really this could go on for years!

Anyway, this is a recipe from a few weeks ago and it was really delicious.  But as I went to take a picture I realized my camera battery was dead so Rob took a photo on his iphone which is why it looks wierd.  I based this recipe off of an old Pampered Chef bean dip recipe which was so awesome that we decided we had to make it into a dinner.  It worked out well.  Since I try to avoid naming recipes "Casserole" I came up with 7-Layer Bake.  Call it what you want.

7 Layer Bake

1 1/2 lbs ground beef

1/2 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves

3 Tb taco seasoning

1/2 c. water

3 c. refried beans (I made my own.)

1 block cream cheese, softened

2 c. sour cream

1 tsp granulated garlic

2 Tb taco seasoning

4 burrito sized tortillas, cut into 2'' squares

2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

3 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced

1 small bunch cilantro, chopped

1 can sliced black olives

2 Tb. diced onion or 2 green onions chopped

Preheat your oven to 350.  Brown the ground beef with the onion and drain well.  Add the garlic cloves and cook another minute.  Add in the taco seasoning and water and cook over medium heat a few minutes until it thickens up.  Stir in the refried beans.

In a separate bowl mix together the sour cream, cream cheese, granulated garlic, and taco seasoning.  Set aside.

In a 9x13'' pan layer the diced tortillas, meat mixture, cream cheese mixture and then the shredded cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.  Top with the diced onions, tomatoes and cilantro, and black olives.