I love Mexican food and I really like making tacos at home – you know, the kind in the cardboard box. Old El Paso, Taco Bell……I usually buy which ever one is “buy one, get one free” at Publix. They do that quite often so I had started to build up a collection in the pantry and I knew I needed to be making tacos soon.

A few days ago, I saw where Lindsay from normalcooking.com had made Oven Tacos and I thought that would be a great way to change up my normal tacos from a box.

So that’s what I did!

Oven Tacos

• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1/2 small onion diced
• 1/2 small can diced green chilies
• 3/4 pkg taco seasoning
• 1/2 (8 ounce) can low sodium tomato sauce
• 1/2 (16 ounce) can fat free refried beans
• 1 cup mexican blend cheese
• 10-12 hard taco shells
• your favorite taco toppings

Preheat oven to 400°.

Brown meat and onions, drain.

Add chilies, seasoning, tomato sauce and beans to meat mixture. Cook until moisture is absorbed. (I accidentally dumped the whole can of tomato sauce and started to stir before I remembered it was suppose to be only half – I scooped some of it back out so mine is a little more tomato-y than it should be. oops.)

Spoon mixture into shells, top with cheese and place (standing up) in a baking dish. (Lindsay commented the shells with the flat bottoms would be great – and they would – but I didn’t have those).

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cheese is melted and tacos are heated through.

Top with your favorite taco toppings.

There you have it – a new swing to an old favorite!

abp