Chilaquiles Casserole

I made Chilaquiles Casserole for dinner last night.  I found the recipe on EatingWell's website.  It included a lot of oil when I first started making it because I didn't realize you could cook corn tortillas in a pan without oil.  FYI -- you can.  I had a bad experience the first time I tried to make enchiladas and the tortillas came out chewy and raw, so I'd gone a little overboard with pre-cooking corn tortillas ever since.  This recipe is a lot lower in fat now that I know I don't have to use oil.  I don't even use the tablespoon of oil cited in the original recipe to cook the onion anymore.  It's really not necessary if you use a non-stick skillet, and it doesn't really add anything to the final dish, aside from fat.

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 medium zucchini, grated (I often use two)
• 1 19-ounce can black beans, rinsed
• 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained (I prefer the kind with green chiles mixed in)
• 1 1/2 cups corn, frozen (thawed) or fresh
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 12 corn tortillas, quartered (I'm not sure how they use this many tortillas at EatingWell -- maybe there's a lot of overlap? -- but I only end up using maybe eight.  It's not like it even matters if you run out at the end.  Nobody will notice when everything is covered in vegetable mixture.)
• 1 19-ounce can mild red or green enchilada sauce (I've used both, sometimes mixed together when I was using up leftovers -- it makes surprisingly little difference in the flavor of the dish)
• 1 1/4 cups shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese (or use a mixture with Pepper Jack for more flavor)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly coat a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Heat the tortillas in a large nonstick skillet one at a time.  Set aside.
3. Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring often, until starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in zucchini, beans, tomatoes, corn, cumin and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are heated through, about 3 minutes.
4. Scatter half the tortilla pieces in the pan. Top with half the vegetable mixture, half the enchilada sauce and half the cheese. Repeat with one more layer of tortillas, vegetables, sauce and cheese. Cover with foil.
5. Bake the casserole for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until the casserole is bubbling around the edges and the cheese is melted, about 10 minutes more.

 I like this best served with low-fat sour cream to temper the spiciness of the sauce, but if you want to keep the dish healthy, DO NOT BUY THE SOUR CREAM.  I end up eating way too much of it.