Southwest Chicken Lasagna

I would not consider 'The days of our lives' a food blog, but I love to cook, and I love food and I spend lots of time cooking, and baking and thinking about what I am going to cook and bake. I like good food. Healthy, natural meals, full of flavour and good nutrition. And while I am not usually sacred off by a fiddly or time consuming menu, my favourite finds are usually the simple ones.

I have decided to dedicate one post a week to food. Perhaps it will be Menu Monday, or Scrumptious Saturday, who knows...I'll decide the details later, but this is a trial post - Let me know if you are interested in some good recipes to try. Feedback would be appreciated!

On Tuesday I popped into the store for some gluten-free lasagna noodles to make a regular old lasagna for dinner...BUT the package had recipe for a southwest chicken lasagna recipe and it just sounded so good, I ended up picking up some more ingredients so I could make it! It sounded lighter than a regular lasagna, and it really was. I made a few adjustments to the recipe based on what I had on hand but this is the recipe I made and it was so, so good. One that has been added to my fall-back rotation for sure! It's easy. You should all try it!

Southwest Chicken Lasagna

2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
No bake lasagna noodles - I used Gluten free rice noodles
2 C cottage cheese, reduced fat or regular
1 C shredded cheddar cheese
1 can of kidney beans, roughly mashed
1/2 C water
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 C prepared picante sauce, divided in two (I didn't have this but I have some good salsa that I blended to a smoother consistency and that worked just fine)
1 small can chopped green chilis
1 can crushed stewed tomatoes

Mix the cheddar and cottage cheese together in a small bowl.

Mix the cooked chicken, mashed beans, water, cumin, garlic powder and 1/2 C picante sauce and chilis in a skillet. Heat as you mix it together.

In a separate bowl mix the tomatoes and the rest of the picante sauce.

Pour a little of the tomato mixture to cover the bottom of a 9" x 13" pan, then layer the noodles, chicken/bean mix, the cheese mixture, the tomato mixture and repeat. End with the cheese mix and top with a little more shredded cheese.

Put it in the oven, covered for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

We ate it with a spinach salad, and chips and salsa. Add a Margarita and you'll be set!