Tired Mama Taco Salad

Ever have one of those weeks where there don't seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything accomplished that needs to be done?

That describes this week in our house.

Monday night we were supposed to have tacos.

Instead we opted for a taco salad of sorts that was a smashing success.

The key ingredient:

DORITOS

If Taco Bell can do taco shells made of Doritos, why not taco salad?

(In my opinion, this taco salad was better than the Doritos Tacos, but that's me...)

Ingredients:

1 family size bag of Doritos

shredded lettuce

1 1/2 lbs ground beef, browned & drained

(taco seasoning for ground beef, if desired)

white corn

salsa

fresh tomato salsa (onion, cilantro, jalapeno, and tomato)

chunky prepared salsa

shredded colby blend cheese

guacamole

*sour cream*

Directions:

1. Brown ground beef and drain. Season with taco seasoning if desired.

2. Steam corn until thoroughly heated.

3. Layer taco salad with ingredients as desired.

4. Enjoy!

Hint: Don't forget the sour cream - we did! Not everyone likes sour cream, not everyone likes guacamole - but that's what is great about this meal. Each person can pick and choose what ingredients they want to include. A good meal for fostering independence! No leftovers makes for an easy clean-up too!! Another tip is to skip the taco seasoning in the ground beef. There is enough seasoning on the Doritos and in the salsas to make it up - it wasn't missed at our house!

Mexi-Stuffed Shells

Ingredients:

• 24 jumbo shelled, cooked as directed and cooled
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 2 cups salsa
• 1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese

Optional Toppings:

• sliced black olives
• diced tomatoes
• diced onion
• fresh, chopped cilantro
• chopped green onions
• crushed tortilla chips

Begin by cooking the pasta shells as directed on the package. Drain and set aside to cool.

In a large skillet, brown ground beef over medium heat until fully cooked. Drain.

In the same skillet with the cooked, drained ground beef - add the tomato sauce, black beans, corn, and salsa. This will be the filling for the shells.

Next, make sure that the baking dish for the stuffed shells is prepared with non-stick cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Fill the cooked, drained shells with the beef and vegetable mixture. Cover shells with any remaining filling mixture.

Top shells with shredded cheese, and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees F.

After removing the stuffed shells from the oven, top with your choice of toppings. (We used diced tomatoes, diced onions, fresh chopped cilantro, and sliced black olives.)

Hint: I found the shells much easier to fill by using 2 large table spoons and putting the shell into the skillet with the filling mixture as I filled each shell. I used one spoon to hold the shell and the other to fill it - worked so much easier than the last time I cooked shells! This recipe made 2 dishes for our family: one we cooked and ate for dinner tonight, the second we put in the freezer for a later date. This was a great alternative to taco night at our house. Enjoy!

This recipe is linked up at Little House on the Prairie Living's Old Fashioned Recipe Exchange. Go see what other great recipes are linked up!

Pasta Sauce Plus

Tonight we are eating Spaghetti for dinner. Spaghetti like my Mama used to make!

Since we are going to cook a batch of pasta sauce, I decided to go ahead and cook enough to have sauce in the freezer ready for the next time we want to eat pasta.

We put a lot of vegetables in our sauce, and when in doubt - we add more tomatoes.

Making a double batch of pasta sauce to use half now and freeze half for later is a wonderful way to make the kitchen a more productive place in our home.

Ingredients:
1-2 lbs ground beef, browned and drained
1 large green pepper, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 TBS minced garlic
1 (4 oz) can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 (26.5 oz) can prepared spaghetti sauce
1 (14.5 oz) can stewed tomatoes
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes with onions & green peppers
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 cup water
1/2 cup red cooking wine
2 tsp Italian seasoning blend
1 tsp sugar

- After browning ground beef and draining, combine with all other ingredients in the crock-pot.

- Stir occasionally while cooking on LOW for 3-4 hours.

- Divide prepared sauce. Use half for dinner and freeze the other half in a freezer safe zipper bag or freezer safe container with a lid. (Don't forget to label!)

Country Fried Mock Steaks, with Chipotle Gravy

Ingredients:

1 TBS plus 1 tsp chipotle in adobe sauce, divided

1 1/2 lbs ground beef

1 1/2 cups crushed saltine crackers, divided

1 1/2 cups buttermilk, divided

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 cup AP flour

3 TBS vegetable oil

3/4 cup beef broth

- In a mixing bowl combine 1 tsp of the chipotle pepper, the ground beef, 1/2 cup of the crushed crackers, 1/4 cup of the buttermilk, egg, salt, and black pepper. Mix until ingredients are well combined.

- Shape 5 patties, approximately 1/2 inch thick.

- Prepare 3 shallow dishes to coat patties: 1st dish - flour, 2nd dish - 3/4 cup of buttermilk, and 3rd dish - 1 cup of crushed saltine crackers.

- Coat each patty in the (1st) flour, (2nd) buttermilk, and (3rd) crushed crackers pressing slightly to well coat each patty.

- To cook "steaks" heat 3 TBS vegetable oil in deep skillet over medium heat. Cook each patty 4-6 minutes on both sides until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees F. Set cooked patties on a plate so the skillet can be used to prepare the Chipotle Gravy.

- With the patties removed, add 2 TBS of the AP flour to the skillet. Whisk until smooth adding beef broth and 1 TBS of chipotle pepper. Continue to whisk until smooth mixture comes to a boil (1-3 minutes). Keep whisking and add in 1/2 cup buttermilk, cooking for an additional 1-3 minutes and continually whisking to keep gravy smooth.

- Serve gravy over "steaks"

**Adapted from The Pampered Chef, 29 minutes to dinner, volume 2**

Ground Beef Goulash

Ingredients:


3 cups dry macaroni, cooked & drained
1 1/2 lbs ground beef, browned & drained
2 cans stewed tomatoes (diced tomatoes...whatever is in the cabinet)


* Brown the ground beef, drain.

* Add tomatoes to ground beef and simmer on low while macaroni cooks.

* Bring large pot of water with 1 tsp salt and 1 TBS olive oil to a boil, add macaroni noodles and cook for 8 minutes.

* Drain macaroni, combine with ground beef and tomatoes in large pot.



My 14 year old cooked this for our dinner on Thursday night. He did an excellent job!! I know it is not the traditional Goulash recipe - but this was what my mom cooked and called Goulash in our house growing up. Instead of tomatoes from the store, we always used the quart sized home canned tomatoes from my grandmother's garden. A simple, yet very satisfying dish that reminds me of the good times I had with my mom growing up. Definitely, definitely comfort food!

Chili - "6 Way"

What can I say, we watch too much TV in our house. Really. But....because of what we are watching we are also learning new ways to cook our favorite dishes. Tonight was supposed to be Chili for dinner kinda night. It was. Kind of :)



Our version of a "6 Way" - - next time, more jalapenos!!

1 - Spaghetti noodles
2 - ground beef, slow cooked in tomato sauce and chili spices
3 - red kidney beans
4 - diced onions
5 - shredded colby-jack cheese
6 - sliced jalapenos


Beeeeee-licious!!

This was adapted from a segment featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Awesome. Just, awesome!!

Taco Pizza

Ingredients:

1 refrigerated pizza dough roll
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1/2 cup prepared salsa
1-1 1/2 lb. ground beef, browned & drained
3 TBS taco seasoning
8 oz shredded taco blend cheese
2 roma tomatoes, sliced
2 green tomatoes, chopped
**sliced black olives, as desired**
**sour cream, as desired**
**lettuce shreds, as desired**
**taco seasoning to sprinkle on top - just before baking...a little goes a long way!**

- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
- Spread dough on to prepared baking pan, allow to rest while other ingredients are prepared
- Brown ground beef, drain and add 3 TBS taco seasoning and 1/8 cup of water to combine well
- Allow meat and seasoning to simmer briefly before removing from heat
- Cover pizza dough with tomato sauce and add salsa
- Cover sauce/salsa mix with seasoned ground beef
- Spread shredded cheese evenly over meat
- Top with sliced tomatoes, black olives, and green olives
- Sprinkle taco seasoning lightly over pizza before putting it into preheated oven
- Bake at 425 degrees F for 20-25 minutes

Serve with additional salsa, sour cream, and shredded lettuce. Another great add-on would be guacamole or diced avocado.

Enjoy!!

Cheeseburger Pizza

1st - 1 seamless crescent roll

2nd - ketchup



3rd - Add some yellow mustard and smear - yes smear - around to all the edges with a big spoon

4th - top with cooked & drained ground beef



5th - a full 8 oz of shredded mozzarella cheese...you can add more if you like, I'll understand

(We sprinkle the cheese with garlic & herb seasoning too!)




6th - on top of the cheese some sliced red onion and...



7th - pickle slices

This is an ingredient I'm picky about. Must be good pickles, and we love the vlasic. I bought these instead of the hamburger slices last time so we cut 'em up. That works!



Ready for the oven!

375 degrees for no less than 25 minutes. We leave ours in the oven til the cheese is brown and the crust is brown around the edges. Burned? Not quite, just well done :)