5-Layer Taco Pie

This past week, it's clear I've been in a non-traditional, alternative-to-dessert pie mood ("alterna-pie" as it's called by the hipsters, "altπ" for the tech geeks out there). There was breakfast pie, the mac-and-cheese-for-a-quick-snack-pie, and now, some hearty dinner-pie. 

The dinner had humble beginnings. I was sitting at work, wishing I had brought something more substantial for lunch than a granola bar, and started thinking about what I was going to make for dinner (this is not an unusual situation). Tacos, thought I! Wait. Think bigger. Think better. Think...taco pie. 

Disclaimer: I was born and raised in a Chicago-Italian family, and therefore have no intrinsic knowledge of anything Taco. However, I like tacos, and every once in a while I manage to combine tasty ingredients in such a way that they form a very edible creation.

Ingredients for savory taco meat

Ingredients 
1lb. ground beef
1 cup onions, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, chopped (I like mushrooms, but you can substitute or add chopped peppers)
1 packet of taco seasoning
2 tbsp salsa
2 tbsp sour cream
Healthy handful of shredded cheese (I used the Mexican-blend)
2 flour tortillas (because of the size of the pan I used to cook the pie, I chose medium-sized-for-burritos tortillas)

Empty tortilla shell

How to
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
In a large pan, brown the meat, onions and mushrooms until fully cooked. Add the taco seasoning according to the packet's directions.
Brush the inside of the pie plate and both sides of the tortillas with vegetable oil. Place one tortilla in the pan, set the other aside for later use.

The fifth layer is love

Layer ingredients in the tortilla shell - ground beef mix, salsa, sour cream, cheese (bottom-to-top).

Still working on getting my pies to be less messy

Lay the second tortilla on top of the entire pie creation. Since the tortillas are already cooked, you won't able to seal the edges of the two crusts together like you usually can with an unbaked pie crust, but the soon-to-be melted cheese will seal the top crust to the pie very nicely.
Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until top layer is browned and crispy.








Again, the final result was really tasty but a bit messy, something I hope to fix in later iterations of both this and any other pie I make. But, it was a fairly quick and easy pie to make and a fully sufficient and substantial dinner.


On a completely unrelated and self-serving note, the above photos were all taken with my new iPhone and uploaded to my computer in a third of the time it used to take me to get a picture off my digital point-and-shoot. Ahhh, technology :)