I love cooking from scratch for my family, but some days time is short so I’m a big fan of shortcuts to keep dinner prep quick, easy, and stress free. I’m not averse to using a jar or meal kit on occasion – there are so many ways that you can use them to prepare a healthy meal – with just a few tweaks and additions it’s really easy to make a healthy meal in no time at all that the whole family will enjoy. Today I’m showing you how to turn an Old El Paso Stand ‘N’ Stuff Taco Kit into a whole fleet of fun edible sail-boats stuffed full of yummy hidden vegetables.
Old El Paso have a whole range of options that are perfect for quick and tasty midweek meals – we’ve often enjoyed their Fajita and Taco kits – so I was very happy to be offered the chance to try some of their Stand ‘N’ Stuff Soft Taco kits recently. As usual I took their basic recipe and added to it to get some extra vegetable goodness into the meal, it’s so easy to do and adds barely any time to to the recipe. I also took a little extra time to make our Stand ‘N’ Stuff tacos into fun boats with the addition of cheese sails, these only took a minute extra to do but were such a hit with my boys!
Stand ‘N’ Stuff Taco Boats
Ingredients:
- 1 tbs vegetable oil
- 1 small red onion
- 1 bell pepper
- 500g minced beef
- 1 small courgette
- 1 medium carrot
- 1 Smoky BBQ Stand ‘N’ Stuff Soft Taco Kit
To serve:
- 8 lettuce leaves
- 8 cherry tomatoes
- 4 gouda cheese slices
- Old El Paso Squeezy Chunky Guacamole
- Old El Paso Squeezy Cool Soured Cream Topping
- Old El Paso Sliced Green Jalapeños
Method:
Prepare the vegetables; finely chop the onion, deseed and chop the pepper, wash and grate the courgette, peel and grate the carrot.
Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onions and peppers and fry gently for a few minutes until starting to soften. Push the vegetables to the side and add the mince to the pan. Brown the mince all over, stirring to break it up as it cooks.
Add the grated courgette and grated carrot to the pan and stir to combine all of the ingredients in the pan. Sprinkle over the Smoky BBQ Seasoning Mix from the taco kit and stir to thoroughly coat the meat mixture.
Stir in 50ml water and bring to the boil, then turn down and simmer for 10 minutes until the mixture is thick and saucy.
In the meantime, heat the Stand ‘N’ Stuff Soft Flour Tortillas in the microwave or oven according to the packet instructions. Place a lettuce leaf into each tortilla (you can also shred the lettuce first if prefered), then add a layer of the Taco Salsa from the taco kit. Once the meat mixture is ready share it out equally between all 8 tortillas.
Quarter the cherry tomatoes and sprinkle them over the meat mixture in each tortilla.
Top each taco ‘boat’ with a cheese sail (optional, see instructions below) and serve with the remaining taco salsa, the chunky guacamole, cool soured cream topping and jalapeños. We popped the sauces and jalapenos on the table and let everyone help themselves, the kids did steer well clear of the hot and spicy jalapeños but I thoroughly enjoyed them, the cool sour cream was a hit with the little ones though!
To add a cheese sail to your boats, you’ll need four ready-cut slices of gouda cheese (I choose gouda because it doesn’t crumble, but mild cheddar cheese slices should also work if you can’t find it). Cut each square in half across the diagonal to make 8 triangles.
Take 4 large bamboo skewers and cut them in half with kitchen scissors to make 8 smaller skewers. Thread the skewers through two corners of a cheese slice as shown below to make a sail. Repeat until you have 8 sails. Pop a sail into the top of each taco ‘boat’ and serve immediately.
I had planned to make these yummy taco boats to celebrate Cinco de Mayo on Thursday, but Small Child really wanted to try out the new Stand ‘N’ stuff kit and strongly argued the case for Taco Tuesday today! The fun sail boat version would be perfect for parties though – why not celebrate Cinco de Mayo yourselves, or save them for Taco Tuesdays all the year around? I’ll definitely be using the Stand ‘N’ Stuff Taco Kits again very soon!
Grace
This post is an entry to theTots100 Cinco de Mayo recipe challenge sponsored by Old El Paso. The range of Old El Paso products is available in all major supermarkets. To find out more, visit www.oldelpaso.co.uk.
Delicious taco boats stuffed with lots of healthy veggies - quick and easy family meal idea.
- 1 tbs vegetable oil
- 1 small red onion
- 1 bell pepper
- 500 g minced beef
- 1 small courgette
- 1 medium carrot
- 1 Smoky BBQ Stand 'N' Stuff Soft Taco Kit
- To serve:
- 8 lettuce leaves
- 8 cherry tomatoes
- 4 gouda cheese slices
- Old El Paso Squeezy Chunky Guacamole
- Old El Paso Squeezy Cool Soured Cream Topping
- Old El Paso Sliced Green Jalapeños
- Prepare the vegetables; finely chop the onion, deseed and chop the pepper, wash and grate the courgette, peel and grate the carrot.
- Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onions and peppers and fry gently for a few minutes until starting to soften. Push the vegetables to the side and add the mince to the pan. Brown the mince all over, stirring to break it up as it cooks.
- Add the grated courgette and grated carrot to the pan and stir to combine all of the ingredients in the pan. Sprinkle over the Smoky BBQ Seasoning Mix from the taco kit and stir to thoroughly coat the meat mixture.
- Stir in 50ml water and bring to the boil, then turn down and simmer for 10 minutes until the mixture is thick and saucy.
- In the meantime, heat the Stand 'N' Stuff Soft Flour Tortillas in the microwave or oven according to the packet instructions. Place a lettuce leaf into each tortilla (you can also shred the lettuce first if prefered), then add a layer of the Taco Salsa from the taco kit. Once the meat mixture is ready share it out equally between all 8 tortillas.
- Quarter the cherry tomatoes and sprinkle them over the meat mixture in each tortilla.
- Top each taco 'boat' with a cheese sail (optional, see instructions below) and serve with the remaining taco salsa, the chunky guacamole, cool soured cream topping and jalapeños. We popped the sauces and jalapenos on the table and let everyone help themselves, the kids did steer well clear of the hot and spicy jalapeños but I thoroughly enjoyed them, the cool sour cream was a hit with the little ones though!
- To add a cheese sail to your boats, you'll need four ready-cut slices of gouda cheese (I choose gouda because it doesn't crumble, but mild cheddar cheese slices should also work if you can't find it). Cut each square in half across the diagonal to make 8 triangles.
- Take 4 large bamboo skewers and cut them in half with kitchen scissors to make 8 smaller skewers. Thread the skewers through two corners of a cheese slice as shown below to make a sail. Repeat until you have 8 sails. Pop a sail into the top of each taco 'boat' and serve immediately.
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