Someone's in the Kitchen with... Erin: Hidden Veggie/Kid-friendly Tacos

There are no pictures for this one... I didn't even think about it once. It never crossed my mind. But here's a picture of what mine would have looked like had I taken one.

someone else's Soft Shell Taco

But... I had a pound-ish (I buy 9+ pounds tubes at Sam's Club, and then I break them down into 8 meals, combining 2 portions for a meatloaf, so my portions are almost 1.25 pounds) of ground beef defrosting in the fridge. And I had a 4 yr old crying that he was hungry. I asked what he wanted to eat and got the dreaded answer, "I don't know."

The reason I hate this answer? Because he won't be able to make up his mind. Or after saying "No" to everything, he'll want a Corn Dog. And there is nothing wrong with corn dogs... unless it's all he eats. Weston is like a walking school lunch. His favorite meal consists of corn dogs or hot dogs with cottage cheese and carrots with or without Cheetos depending on his mood. I feel like he needs a real protein, or just a change in his meals.

So, last night, I started throwing ideas out there... Spaghetti ('I don't like Spaghetti!' since when?), Surprise Sandwiches (what we call Sloppy Joes), Tacos like you have at school... he asks about the sandwiches and then actually surprises me with a request for Tacos!!! (I almost did a happy dance for the sheer fact that he would let me cook him a real meal.)

I got him settled with a drink to hold him over and proceeded to make dinner. "Tacos at School" are just ground beef with enough taco seasoning to change the color to orange-ish in a soft shell flour tortilla with Cheese. I had to ask this once to guarantee a similar appearance. Apparently its a shock that every child at our daycare loves these tacos. Woo-hoo for us parents!

So here's the rundown of my Tacos:

Brown a pound or so of lean (we use 90%) ground beef. While it cooked, I finely grated some carrots and added them to the pan. And I would have done the same with some onion if I'd had any. Then I followed the directions on my package of taco seasoning. (Yes, I know that you can make your own taco seasoning. I want to. I'm just not that organized yet.) Now, here's where things get awesome: My sister adds 1 small can V-8 Spicy in place of the water. I never have V-8 on hand. So, I add 1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes in addition to the 3/4 cup of water. So, we now have tomatoes and carrots (and possibly onions) hiding in the taco meat. I take a pair of kitchen shears and cut all of the large pieces of tomato into much smaller pieces. And then I let the whole thing simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Now, you're pretty much done. Warm up some flour tortillas in the microwave. I put some Mexi-blend cheese onto the warm tortilla and add the meat mixture for Weston. fold up the bottom and sides, and call it good. This was an entirely impromptu meal. So we had chips and salsa as a side. I add sour cream and salsa to mine... I didn't have any fresh lettuce or tomatoes. Impromptu, remember?

Weston ate everything. And he only picked 3 tomatoes out of his taco... leaving about 30 in there. :) A big hit at our house. And it microwaves really well.