These tacos are veggie-friendly but tasty enough for even the most dedicated omnivore

Black Bean Tacos
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Ingredients:
1 lb pre-soaked black beans, cooked and drained (or dried beans, soaked)
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp chili
1 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp oregano
3 drops tobasco/hot sauce
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4-1/2 C water
spinach
sour cream
salsa
cheddar jack cheese
tortillas

Directions:
Soak and cook the beans package directions. Drain.

Chop the onion and garlic and sauté with the olive oil in a medium skillet until softened. Add in the beans, seasonings and water. Simmer until liquid is reduced.

Serve on tortillas with lettuce or spinach and taco fixings.

Source: A Laura’s Recipe Collection original

Tacos are one of the few things our family could eat once a week, every single week and never get tired of. In fact, we do eat them pretty much every week. All this time I’ve been buying those little seasoning packets, and using double the seasoning amounts because they were good, but just not spicy or flavorful enough for us.

Then one day a few weeks ago I was looking at the packet and the ingredients list had only 3-4 ingredients. One of the ingredients was “spices”. Um, a bit ambiguous, don’t you think? I for one like to know what is in my food. Along came this fabulous recipe. I’d made taco seasoning from home once before and it was good, but missing a little something. This was perfect. I added in a bit of red pepper flakes to give it a bit more oomph and I was pleased with the results. This taco seasoned beef made the absolute best taco salads the next day that I’ve ever had. It would make an absolute killer batch of wet burritos or cheesy taco pasta bake, too. I am never going back to those little packets again!

Taco Seasoning
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Since its been a few weeks now since I’ve had them, they started to sound exceptional again. However, now that we have 2 children, we’re trying to stay home even more. So, to the Internet I went to try to find a wet burrito recipe (which, BTW, was surprisingly hard to find!) and I came across this one. It did not disappoint. It wasn’t, obviously, exactly like the restaurant version but they were amazingly good!

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef, thawed
1 tbsp. oil
1 tsp. minced garlic
2 small onions, chopped
1 pkg Taco Seasoning
1 can Refried Beans
1 can tomato sauce + 1 can water
1 pkg Burrito Seasoning Mix
Cornstarch + Cold Water
4 large flour tortillas
1-2 bags Shredded Mexican or Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Lettuce, Tomatoes, Green/Red Sweet Peppers
Sour Cream, Salsa, Guacamole (optional)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375°.

Brown the ground beef in the oil with the garlic & onion. Once browned, add taco seasoning & refried beans. (The original directions don’t specify to do so, but I kept this simmering on low to heat the beans up)

To make the sauce, mix the tomato sauce, 1 can of water and burrito seasoning in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.

In a small bowl, mix together 1 part cornstarch to 3 parts of cold water, then whisk slowly into the tomato sauce until it is thickened to your preferred consistency.

The original instructions say to add sauce to the bottom of the pan, and also to spread it over the top of the burritos. Since this makes them a bit smooshy for leftovers, I would recommend adding the sauce after you bake the burritos, right before eating if you plan to reheat them at a later time.

Spread the meat/bean mixture into 4 burrito tortillas, then add any fillings you’d like. I did lettuce and tomato.

Roll up each tortilla and lay them in the pan. Cover with cheese and place in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the cheese is melty and bubbly.

Cover with sauce, then serve.

Source: grouprecipes.com 

Such an ugly picture. Such a tasty dish.

Don't judge this recipe by my poor photography attempt. Trust me.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef or turkey
1 packet taco seasoning
15-ounce can tomato sauce
8 ounces medium shell pasta (I used bowtie since I’d run out of shells)
8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:

Brown and drain the ground beef. Mix in the taco seasoning and the tomato sauce. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions.

Mix together the softened cream cheese and sour cream until smooth. Set aside.

Lightly mist the bottom of a 9×13 pan with oil. Pour the pasta into the bottom of the pan, then smear the cream cheese mix on top.

Spoon the sauce mix onto the top, then sprinkle with cheese.

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.

Source: Cooking This and That

I’ve had this recipe saved for a while now. Actually, I think I have it saved from a couple of different sites and didn’t realize it until I went to make it tonight and had to sort through 3 of the same recipe from different blogs. Apparently it looked REALLY good to me

These were a great weeknight dinner option- so simple and fast and delicious. Since we don’t have a quesadilla maker, we didn’t do these as traditional quesadillas. I don’t particularly care for crispy tortillas so we didn’t do a fry pan method, I just ate them like a super-cheesy taco (which really, made them even easier to make).

Ingredients:

2 Tblsp oil
1 1/2 onions (vidalia is best, apparently, so that’s what we used) coarsely chopped or sliced into rings
1 Tbls honey
2 chicken breasts, diced
1/2 Cup BBQ sauce (we didn’t measure, we just eyeballed it) (We used Sweet Baby Ray’s

Directions:

Again, since I don’t have a quesadilla maker, my directions differ slightly from the original recipe.

Chop chicken into bite size pieces, set aside.

Chop onion into pieces (original recipe said rings, I just did diced pieces) and saute with 1 T of the oil in a large pan over medium heat. When the onions are starting to caramelize, add in the honey and stir until golden brown. Remove from pan and set aside.

Add the remaining oil to the pan and saute the chicken until cooked through.

Mix together the chicken, onions and BBQ sauce in pan until heated.

Spoon the chicken & sauce mix onto warmed tortillas, then top with cheese.

Either roll into soft-taco shapes and eat, like we did, or cook in a quesadilla maker until tortilla is crispy. They can also be heated in a 350° for 20 minutes.

Source: Delicious Meliscious

This recipe was easy, fairly quick and completely delicious! I did a slightly different sauce due to what I had on hand. My version is listed below. See my source link for the original directions.

Ingredients: