Baked Tacos

We love tacos around here, but my biggest complaint about them is that I hate setting out 10 different taco fillings on the table.  It makes for longer preparation, longer cleanup, and a lot less room at the table.  Baked tacos seemed like a great remedy for this, so I gave them a try.  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
2lbs ground beef
4 teaspoons dried minced onion
3 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (16 ounce) can refried beans
2 cups shredded Colby-jack cheese
18-20 hard taco shells
Optional Condiments-
lettuce (shredded)
tomato (diced)
Salsa
Guacamole

Cooking Instructions:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  In a small bowl combine dried minced onion, chili powder, cornstarch, garlic powder, cumin, oregano, and cayenne pepper. Mix well and set aside.
Step 2: In a large skillet brown ground beef over medium-high heat. Drain off any excess liquid. Add refried beans, tomato sauce, and prepared taco seasoning. Mix well.
Step 3: Spoon the taco meat mixture into the taco shells and place into a 9 x 13 inch baking dish, standing up. Sprinkle cheese over the top of the taco meat in each shell. Place into the oven and bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the tacos are heated through. Remove from the oven and top with any optional condiments for serving.
(Makes 8-10 Servings)

Okay, so this recipe makes a LOT of tacos, so since I was feeding only me and my husband, I halved it.  (Definitely a good choice).  I also skipped adding all those spices and just threw in some low sodium taco seasoning from the store.  SO much easier.  Because of this, I ended up just cooking the meat and then throwing in the beans, tomato sauce, and seasoning, scooping it into the taco shells, adding the cheese, and baking them.  Super easy.  I didn't even add anything to them (tomatoes, olives, etc) and they were still great.  NOT quite as good as a custom-made taco, but pretty close... and the ease of making them plus the ease of the cleanup more than made up for it.  My husband was a huge fan as well and loved not having to put together a bunch of tacos.  I did put out some hot sauce for us to add to the tacos, but that was basically no extra work whatsoever.

When I make them in the future, I might cut up some tomatoes and lettuce and put some sour cream on the table as well so that there will be a bit more variety, but that's pretty easy to do.

Oh, and these would make for GREAT party food.  Seriously.  Guests can just pick up a taco and move on to other food.  Pretty cool.

The Best Snickerdoodles

I am always on the hunt for the "best" of all the cookie recipes out there.  So far, this is the best recipe for snickerdoodles that I have found.  Here it is:

• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

For rolling:

• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars with
an electric mixer on high speed. Add the egg and vanilla and
beat until smooth.

2. In another bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and
cream of tartar.

3. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix well.

4. Preheat oven to 300 degrees while you let the dough rest for
30 to 60 minutes in the refrigerator.

5. In a small bowl, combine the sugar with the cinnamon for the
topping.

6. Take about 2 1/2 tablespoons of the dough and roll it into a
ball. Roll this dough in the cinnamon/sugar mixture and press it
onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Repeat for the remaining cookies.

7. Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes and no more. The cookies
may seem undercooked, but will continue to develop after they are
removed from the oven. When the cookies have cooled they should be
soft and chewy in the middle.

Makes 16 to 18 cookies.

I found out too late that I didn't have cream of tartar, so I substituted some baking powder instead.  And these are soooo yummy!  My husband isn't huge on snickerdoodles and he ate a bunch of them right out of the oven and kept saying how much he liked them.  They're super fluffy and soft.  Give them a try!

Fiesta Ravioli

Before finding this recipe, I only had one other recipe that involved ravioli, which is unfortunate because I actually love love love ravioli.  Since I also love Mexican food, I was excited to give this recipe a try.  Here it is:

FIESTA RAVIOLI

1 pkg. frozen or refrigerated ravioli {I used Buitoni}

1 {10oz.} can enchilada sauce {I used Old El Paso}

1 {16oz.} jar salsa {I LOVE Joe T. Garcia’s, Medium!}

2 cups shredded Colby/Monterrey Jack cheese

Sliced black olives, optional

Now, when I say this is easy…and takes NO time…I couldn’t be more serious.

Cook ravioli according to package. A whopping 9 minutes is what it took for me! The original recipe called for frozen beef ravioli, but I couldn’t find any and I really love the Buitoni cheese ravioli the best. Mmmmmm…. These come two different package sizes and I’ve found that the large size is the BEST!!! Just enough for leftovers {for one} :)

While the ravioli is cooking, combine the enchilada sauce and the salsa in a skillet, stir well, and heat through. Now, I used the medium version of both sauces and it was SPICY for sure. If you wanna tone it down, grab the mild versions of both :) Personally, the spicier the better :)

Drain ravioli and return to pot. Pour in the salsa/sauce combo and toss to coat evenly. Add 2 cups of shredded monterrey/colby cheese and stir well.

This is super easy to make!  I used four cheese ravioli because it's my favorite, but the one downside of doing this was that I had to add my own beef to make the meal more "manly."  However, you could use a ravioli that already has a meat in it and avoid having to add anything.  That's okay though- it was easy enough to just throw some ground beef in at the end.  (Chicken also sounds good though). 

I love this dish.  Easy and delicious.  It seems very kid-friendly as well.  I'll definitely make it again.