Andi's Old El Paso Brand Tacos

  • Minutes to Prepare:
  • Number of Servings: 4
Ingredients
*Old El Paso Taco Seasoning Mix (40% Less Sodium), 1 packet (water according to packet instructions)Old El Paso Taco Shells (3 shells =32g), 128 gram(s) (so you want a box of 12 shells)*Ground Beef 93% Lean, 16 oz (1 pound)*Old El Paso Taco Sauce Medium, 4 tbsp (i use both green and red in the squeeze bottles)Sour Cream, reduced fat, 4 tbsp (optional) also plain yogurt worksLettuce, red leaf (salad), 2 leaf outer leaves washed, dried, and torn into small peicesCheddar Cheese, 4 oz gratedOnions, raw, .25 cup, chopped Black Olives, 12 jumbo sliced (we use one small or large can of olives I tried to guess the amount in jumbo olives here)All ingredients except the taco shell, seasoning, and meat are optional. Also you can cut back portions of everything, but add lots more lettuce, and more sour cream and taco sauce to make a taco salad which is very tasty.
Directions
Brown and crumble 1 pound of lean ground meat and drain excess fat with a spoon. Add water and taco seasoning packet as per recipe.

Bake Old Elpaso taco shells as per instructions (i actually set my temp 25degrees hotter and cook a little longer as i like them a bit more well done, not brown, but they get sweeter when cooked a little longer.

To serve, I prop three shells between ramekins on a plate to keep them upright. Fill with 1+ oz of seasoned meat. Drizzle red and or green taco sauce ontop to taste (just a few drops evenly across the surface so it doesn't get soggy). Add chopped onions sparingly. Then add the optional sour cream (a few little pea-dime sized peices per taco), top with lettuce, then grated cheddar cheese, and lastly with black olives and press into the shell gently to get them to kinda stick in better without breaking the shell.

I pour a tall glass of skim milk as my drink, and eat it with sliced apples and it's very tasty. The problem is being well behaved enough to only eat three!

(Serving is 3 tacos, with equal distribution of toppings). It's not the lowest calorie meal but it's not bad for a dinner as far as calorie counting is concerned.

Also makes a great taco salad, just fill a bowl with lettuce, use 1.5 shells per salad, crumbled, a few tablespoons of meat. and Extra sauce and sour cream to act as the 'dressing'. Cheese and olives to taste.

Really you can make this according to the box, i just put it on my sparkrecipes so i can calorie count it. It works GREAT with lean ground turkey or chicken instead of beef. And with plain yogurt in place of sour cream.

You can see i cram alot of cheese in mine (it helps that i use the microplane grater which gives me light fluffy grated cheese with more volume), but you don't have to use as much cheese as I do, if you don't want to. As shown here ,the apples are propping up the tacos, but you can use tiny pinch bowls to keep them straight as well.

Number of Servings: 4

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user .

Servings Per Recipe: 4
Nutritional Info Amount Per Serving
  • Calories: 507.3
  • Total Fat: 27.9 g
  • Cholesterol: 100.6 mg
  • Sodium: 1,198.2 mg
  • Total Carbs: 29.4 g
  • Dietary Fiber: 1.9 g
  • Protein: 34.0 g

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