Pasta Taco Bake

Looking for an inexpensive and easy dinner that will satisfy your entire family? Well, this Pasta Taco Bake will do the trick! The man of the house is a fan of boxed macaroni and cheese. I know...blasphemy! I LOVE to experiment with pasta and cheese, but whenever I ask, "Do you want to have macaroni and cheese tonight?", his response is always, "Do we have enough boxed macaroni and cheese?" Ugh! So I decided to change things up a bit and still make a cheesy pasta dish, but not the plain old boxed macaroni and cheese. I came across Emily Bites, which is an awesome blog, where I found her Cheesy Taco Pasta recipe. I thought, "I can snazz this up a bit and make the man of my house happy too!". I added a few additional ingredients from her recipe and it was a TOTAL hit! We had a house guest and literally, by the time I finished cleaning up the dishes, there was probably only about one serving left for myself. Ha! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did. To print recipe, click: Pasta Taco Bake

***Please forgive me, this photo is missing the second package of shredded cheddar, tomato and green onions***

Ingredients:

8oz medium pasta shells, uncooked

1 lb lean ground beef

1 oz packet taco seasoning, I used McCormick Original Taco Seasoning Mix

1 1/2 cups of salsa, I used Frontera Jalapeno Cilantro Salsa

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup sour cream

3/4 cup shredded cheddar

3/4 cup shredded taco blend cheese

1/2 can corn

1 2.25 oz can sliced black olives

1/2 cup green onions, chopped

1/2 medium tomato, chopped

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350°F

2) Boil salted water and add pasta. While pasta is cooking (about 8-9 minutes...don't overcook. Make it just about al dente), cook ground beef in a large sauté pan until fully cooked. 

3) Once ground beef is not longer pink, drain in a colander to get rid of excess grease. Return the ground beef to the pan and add the water, salsa and taco seasoning. Reduce to a simmer for about 5 minutes, then add the corn and olives. Stir and let simmer while pasta finishes cooking.

4) Drain pasta and then add it to the meat mixture. Add sour cream, cheese, salt and pepper and mix well. Once cheese has melted, spray a 9"x13" glass baking dish with non-stick cooking spray and then add the pasta/meat mixture to the dish.

5) Top with the green onions and tomatoes. Bake for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle a little extra shredded cheese on top if you like, then bake for another 5 minutes. Remove from oven and serve! Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts
Servings 6.0
Amount Per Serving
Calories 584
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 21 g	32 %
Saturated Fat 10 g	51 %
Monounsaturated Fat 6 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 85 mg	28 %
Sodium 719 mg	30 %
Potassium 624 mg	18 %
Total Carbohydrate 62 g	21 %
Dietary Fiber 5 g	19 %
Sugars 4 g
Protein 36 g	72 %
Vitamin A	21 %
Vitamin C	14 %
Calcium	29 %
Iron	27 %
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA.

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