Let me just start off by saying- I LOVE soft tacos. Almost everything about them- I don't care for the messiness. I came across a Kraft recipe that was prepared almost entirely in the microwave. We don't have a microwave, but I was not discouraged. After scouring a few different sites and variations of this recipe, I decided I could achieve even better results if done in the oven! Almost all of the recipes called for a can of green chiles but I didn't have them on hand and my boyfriend can't dig the heat so I subbed them out for Willie's Chili sauce in the sour cream spread- it made the pie so flavorful and didn't overpower the taco seasoning. After the first bite, my boyfriend exclaimed "You should have made 4 of these!!".
Spanish rice seemed like an obvious choice to serve as a side to the taco pie. I've had some pretty terrible spanish rice in my day though, so I cut the amount of liquid in this dish and omitted the salsa, opting again to use Willie's Chili sauce. I also used my newly acquired rice cooker (thanks, mom!) to make this recipe. I had to cycle it twice to get the rice fully cooked and let stand on the warm setting for an additional 15 minutes; in total plan for approximately an hour for this dish to reach it's full potential. Take my warning though, this yielded enough rice to feed a family of 6! Made a little more then what I'd classify as leftover lunch for tomorrow, so I ended up only portioning out two servings and tossing the rest. If making for 2-4 people again, I'd cut the recipe down to half.
Layered Taco Pie
1 lb extra lean ground beef
1/2 onion chopped
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 pkg taco seasoning
3/4 C salsa
1/4 C water
6 soft tortilla shells
1 C cheese, grated ( I used part-skim mozzarella to save some calories )
1 C low fat sour cream
2 T Willie's Chili sauce
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat and add ground beef & onions. Saute until ground beef is cooked through. Add the water, taco seasoning and salsa to skillet; cook over low for approximately 6 minutes. Remove from heat.
Meanwhile, mix together sour cream and Willie's Chili sauce. Set aside.
Spray two small round cake pans with vegetable oil spray. Lay one tortilla on the bottom of each. Spoon ground beef mixture onto tortillas, followed by a layer of the sour cream sauce and top with cheese. Layer another tortilla on top and repeat process, ending with a tortilla on top of both pans.
Cover each pan with aluminum foil; place on into the freezer for cooking later and place on into the preheated oven.
Bake for 30 minutes and then remove aluminum foil, baking for an additional 10 minutes.
Allow to sit and solidify for 5 minutes after removing from oven. Cover with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, green onions and watch it disappear!
Spanish Rice in a Rice Cooker (*vegetarian/vegan friendly dish!)
2 C long grain rice
1 C water
1/2 onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
3/4 t cumin
1 t chili powder
1/2 t garlic salt
1 can tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes
4 pickled pepperconi jalapenos, drained & sliced
2 T Willie's Chili sauce
salt & pepper
Spray your rice cooker with cooking spray. Add water, rice and all other ingredients. Stir and turn on rice cooker. After the inital cycle, stir and cook again. Allow to "warm" for 15 minutes before serving.
I did the dishes while waiting for all this to cook and the end result left only 4 dishes (including our plates!). Love these two recipes, was really surprised by the flavors of both- though containing similar ingredients, they had totally different textures, tastes & colors! Household hit for this urbanite. xoxo.
No comments:
Post a Comment