Yesterday, I decided to make the Taco Time recipe from the Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook (get your copy here). I’ll admit, I was a bit skeptical. What if they ruined one of our favorite Tex-Mex dishes? I make tacos at least 3 times a month and know what I like. But this recipe’s ingredient list intrigued me. Refried beans mixed right in? A whole jar of salsa on top of all those taco seasonings? An entire 2 CUPS OF CHEESE? Yes, please!
STEPS 1 & 2
So I got to cooking–browning the 2 pounds of ground turkey in some oil since it’s so lean. Then I added a beast of a large yellow onion and the garlic. (I decided to spare you the photo I took of ground turkey before it browned. You’re welcome.)
STEP 3
Next I dumped in all the seasonings. I was a good girl this time around and measured out all of them into a separate bowl so that I didn’t go crazy second-guessing myself on whether or not I’d already added the salt!
Then came to the ingredients I wasn’t so sure about. Wasting a whole jar of salsa, all that tomato sauce, and then refried beans too?? But oh my, the smell, especially once I stirred in the refried beans, was so deep and flavorful…I knew I’d chosen wisely.
Note: The Pace Restaurant Style Salsa is AH-MAZING. I am picky and have to be super frugal right now, so I needed a restaurant style salsa that wasn’t $5 jar. This one is under $2!
STEP 4
I pulled out the bag of shredded Mexican cheeses from the refrigerator and couldn’t believe I was “allowed” to spread on this much cheese. Two cups?? Glorious day! And this recipe was supposed to be healthy?? Praise the heavens!
So.much.cheese.
I loaded a healthy amount of cheesy taco goodness onto a mound of salad. I’ve become obsessed with HEB’s Southwest Chopped Salad Kit because of the cilantro dressing and the topping mix of pepitas and tortilla strips. The hubby had his with flour tortillas because I’m not a monster.
CONCLUSION?
Do yourself a favor and make this. It’s not spicy, even with all that paprika. And it would be easy to modify depending on people’s needs–more or less heat, over salad or rice, in a burrito. Because our kids don’t like tacos (woe to them!), the hubby and I get ALL THE LEFTOVERS. Huzzah!
If When you make these tacos, comment below and tell me what you think!
This sounds delicious, Claire!! I am planning on making it. Did it happen to have a calorie/carb count, or should I just not ask….(hee-hee). It looks so decadent!!
It didn’t have nutritional values with it, but you can plug them in on a website somewhere I’m sure! The idea with Trim Healthy Mama is you anchor each meal with protein and then eat mostly healthy fats or healthy carbs. So there’s no need to calorie count. But this is a low-carb meal when eaten on a salad or low-carb wrap!