I got this recipe from my friend Andrea and it was super tasty, so I thought I'd share. I also felt really proud of myself because I totally employed Robin Miller's Quick Fix strategies to make this (cook once, eat twice).
The base of this dish is regular old ground beef or turkey with taco seasoning. Here is where the "quick fix" came in. We decided to have tacos last night. When the meat was done to eat for tacos, I transferred a third of the meat (eyeballed it) to another pan and prepared it for the next day's meal.
I'm also always looking for good meals for 2. I hate having a ton of leftovers and I find that most recipes are for servings of 4 or more. Since I only used 1/3 of a pound of meat, I split the recipe in thirds. It made about 8-9 shells, which was still a little too much for just 2 people, but having only 1 portion of leftovers is better than 6.
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Here is the real recipe:
1 pound ground beef or ground turkey
1 envelope taco seasoning
1/2 package cream cheese, cubed
12 uncooked jumbo pasta shells
1/8 cup butter, melted
1 cup salsa
1 cup taco sauce
1 can black beans
2 cups cheese (cheddar and monterey jack or mexican cheese blend)
1 cup crushed tortilla chips
1 cup sour cream
2 green onions, chopped
Regular method:In a skillet, cook meat until no longer pink. Drain. Add taco seasoning with water and simmer. Add cream cheese, cover and simmer for 5-10 mins. Transfer to bowl and chill for 1 hour. Cook pasta. Drain. Gently toss with butter.
Pour salsa into baking dish. Fill shells with meat mixture and place into a greased baking dish on top of salsa. Add a spoonful of black beans to each shell. Pour taco sauce over filled shells. Cover and back at 350 for 30 mins. Uncover and sprinkle cheese and tortilla chips over shells. Bake for 10 minutes longer. Serve with sour cream and green onions.
Quick fix:In a skillet, cook meat until no longer pink. Drain. Add taco seasoning with water and simmer. Enjoy 2/3 of the meat for tacos immediately. Transfer 1/3 of meat to another pan. Add 1 oz. cream cheese, cover and simmer for 5-10 mins. Transfer to bowl and refrigerate for meal later in the week.
Later in the week: Cook about 9 jumbo pasta shells. Drain. Gently toss with 1/2 T butter.
Grease a small baking dish. Pour about 1/3 C salsa into baking dish - or enough to thinly cover the bottom. Microwave meat for about 30 seconds to loosen it up. Fill shells with meat mixture and place into a greased baking dish on top of salsa. Add a spoonful of black beans to each shell. Pour taco sauce over filled shells. Cover and bake at 350 for 30 mins. Uncover and sprinkle cheese over shells. Bake for 10 minutes longer. Serve with tortilla chips, sour cream and green onions.
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Like I said, we still had leftovers of both shells AND taco meat from our taco night. I sent the leftover shells home with Barney (who stopped over while we ate) and I will eat leftover tacos for lunch this week. I think I'll see how the shells reheat next time - and maybe try to freeze them?
...and on an unrelated note, I need to work on making my food look presentable for photographing. Maybe I should have put a sprig of cilantro on the plate to add color or something. I guess adding sour cream and onions like the recipe calls for would have solved that, but we had neither in the house, so we went without. I promise this is good!
