Recipe or Marketing Ploy?

There are tons of great resources for recipes out there. One of the places I’m NOT likely to look is the back of packages of conveinece foods from the grocery store. I don’t know…I just feel like it’s less about good food and more about selling their prodects. I don’t need some marketing person telling me what’s good! LOL!

There are two exceptions to this….one is the delicious Jell-O pudding, Philly cream cheese, Cool-Whip laden desserts from Kraft. Ha! Can’t resist those. And the other is this recipe for Taco Bake that I discovred on the back of a box of Ortega taco shells. It’s sooo good! A great cure for the common taco!

TACO BAKE (Recipe Source: Ortega)

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound ground beef

1 cup (1 small) chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 cup water

1 cup Taco Sauce

1 4 oz can Diced Green Chiles  

1 package Taco Seasoning Mix

1 package (12) Ortega® Taco Shells or (12) Ortega® White Corn Taco Shells, broken, divided

2 cups Mild Cheddar Cheese, divided

Chopped tomatoes (optional)

Sliced green onions (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat your oven to 375º F.
2. Cook beef, onion and garlic in a large saucepan until beef is browned.
3. Stir in water, taco sauce, chiles, 1/4 cup olives and seasoning mix.
4. Let this simmer over low heat for 3 to 4 minutes.
5. Lay out half of the broken shells on the bottom of a greased 12 x 8-inch baking dish.
6. Cover with half of the meat sauce. Sprinkle with 1 cup cheese, then repeat with remaining taco shells, meat sauce and cheese to create layers of the different ingredients.
7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly and cheese is melted.
8. Top the casserole with tomatoes and green onions.

ENJOY! 🙂