If you love easy, delicious dinner ideas, these Stuffed Taco Shells are for you! Plus, prep them in advance and freeze the shells for a later meal. Great for new moms too!
2cupcorn and black bean salsaor any of your favorite variety salsa
4cupsmexican blend shredded cheese
6Tablespoonstaco seasoninghomemade or 2 packages
Toppings
Tomato, lettuce, avocado, sour creamoptional
Instructions
Cook large shells pasta according to package directions. Once cooked, separate and place on parchment paper on counter. Set aside.
While pasta is cooking, brown ground beef (or ground turkey) in a large skillet. Once browned, drain grease and return meat to skillet. Add in green chilies, 1 cup corn and black bean salsa, and taco seasoning. Fold in shredded cheese. Set aside.
Using a large spoon, stuff each shell with taco meat mixture, until all shells are stuffed. Place shells in ziploc bag and freeze until ready to use. When ready to cook, follow step 4 below.
OR, if baking immediately, pour 1 cup of salsa in bottom of baking dish. Choose a dish size that will fit the number of shells you are going to be cooking. For my family, we each eat about 2-3 shells per meal. On top of salsa, add shells. Cover dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes in a 350F oven. Remove foil and bake an additional 5-15 minutes, until salsa on bottom is bubbly and mixture inside shells is fully heated.
Serve with additional toppings if desired. ENJOY.
Notes
Serving size is up to you, but we usually have 2-3 shells per person.
These freeze beautifully! You may just want to spend some time in the kitchen stuffing shells so you'll always a delicious dinner on hand, even on a hectic day.
For this reason, this is a great recipe to take to new parents or families in need. Pop a few bags of frozen shells into a cooler and drop them off to someone who could use a nutritious and kid-friendly dinner without having to cook.
Don't forget the toppings! That's the best part of tacos. Sour cream, extra cheese, extra salsa, hot sauce, avocado or guacamole, diced red onion and even some shredded lettuce and chopped fresh tomatoes work great.
Use the jumbo sized pasta shells shape. They are SO much easier to stuff than trying to fit the taco meat mixture into a bunch of smaller shells.