Gluten Free Taco Bake – and several reasons to shop Amelia’s Grocery Outlet

Frugal, Fantastic Taco Bake

Well, that picture kind of looks awful, but let me tell you it tasted wonderful!  I found this recipe in Cook’s Country magazine back when we subscribed and four years later I finally tried it.  You can see a picture of it on their website here but can’t view the recipe unless you are a member (which costs money.)  I made major changes to the recipe and it was still great.  They used Ro-Tel tomatoes which we don’t like and more cheese and meat than we needed.

Those of you going gluten free know that Mexican food is your friend as long as you skip the flour tortillas and find (or make) a gluten free taco seasoning.  The only gluten free taco seasoning that we have found in the store is Ortega.   We used to make our own taco seasoning to make life easier but when we had the last baby we kind of ran out of time.  We’ll go back to it eventually and I’ll post the recipe.  It is cumin heavy and that is pricey.

Here is the recipe as I cooked it:

Taco Bake

• 2 11 oz cans organic diced tomatoes (purchased at Amelia’s for 50 cents each)
• 2 cups refried beans (from our freezer, recipe can be found here)
• 1 T hot sauce
• 1/4 C salsa (whatever you like)
• 2 C shredded cheddar cheese (purchased for $2/lb at Amelias)
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 pkg Ortega taco seasoning (we never use the whole thing, only half)
• 12 El Paso Taco Shells (.99 at Amelias)

To make:

1. Preheat oven to 475 (yep that high.)
2. Drain juice from one can of tomatoes and save.
3. Combine one can tomatoes, beans and hot sauce and spread in bottom of 9×13 pan.  Sprinkle cheese over top.
4. Cook beef until brown.  Drain off fat and add tomatoes, salsa, taco seasoning and tomato juice.  Cook again until mixture is nearly dry – about 8 or 9 min on my stove.
5. Place taco shells into bean mixture upright so you can fill them.
6. Put in a little cheese and top with meat mixture.
7. Cover pan with foil and bake for 10 minutes or until bubbly.
8. Remove foil, cover with remaining cheese and bake until melted – about 5 or 6 minutes.  Enjoy!

That’s it.  Not a hard recipe and it makes a lot of food.  We had it with homemade apple sauce, skilled cooked apples and peas.

So I saved a bundle with finding these ingredients at Amelias and using homemade refried beans.  All the kids ate it and hubby and me!  Here is what was left at the end after 5 people had dinner (you can see my Christmas kitty trivet through the glass pan):

Leftovers for lunch!