Comments on: Stretching the Protein in your Dinner – Beef and Bean Tacos

By: Gail

Gail — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 01:05:26 +0000

I love to stretch my meats for health and expense reasons. I do have a question for the readers though. Has anyone tried to stretch ground beef with both lentils and veggies? I would like to know the measurments that were used, if so. Thanks!

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:45:14 +0000

Whenever we make tacos we add a can of refried beans to the meat. Plus, we fry up some onions and garlic with it.

And we buy the big packages of ground beef from Costco, fry it up and put it all into separate 1lb containers and freeze it.
That way, we always have ground beef on hand ready to go.

By: Denee

Denee — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:55:19 +0000

I have always used a little leftover baked potato along with the meat to make tacos. My ratio is usually 1/2 ground beef, 1/2 potato. I’ll have to try the bean and brown rice idea, too.

One nice thing about the potato filler is that is makes all the meat stick together and not fall out of your taco. I use taco seasoning, and the potato takes to the seasoning nicely, so you really don’t taste potato.

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:12:32 +0000

We put black beans and refried beans in our taco meat

By: jo

jo — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:00:26 +0000

@Amy, exactly what I was going to add..We all love TVP..it’s dry, shelf ready, great for back packing and camping..a great protein, cheap, and has little flavor so picks up on whatever flavors are already in the dish…you can use 100% instead of meat in really spicy things like burritos, chilis, etc..and I use partial to stretch an expensive protein..or extend whatever I’m doing if we have a surprise addition to our dinner guests…just soften up in hot water/broth/juice for a few minutes and add to whatever you’re cooking…

I will often do a mixture of brown rice, TVP and lentils for taco filling, spaghetti sauce additives and such…and my family had NO idea until I questioned whether they liked it or not….

By: Jenna

Jenna — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:12:52 +0000

I’ve added grated vegetables to ground meat to stretch it too. We had tacos with ground pork and grated zucchini a couple of weeks ago. The zucchini was on a great sale – 3$ and I made 6 bags of frozen grated zucchini for muffins, soup and meals like this.

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:01:12 +0000

I add a can of black beans, a can of corn and a jar of salsa to ground meat when I make tacos.

It makes a ton of food and we have enough leftovers for at least another meal (if not 2) for all of us.

By: Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom

Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:40:57 +0000

@Jaime Davis, It's fine by us! It doesn't lose texture or taste, IMO.

By: Jenny@ Thrifty Jenny

Jenny@ Thrifty Jenny — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:36:06 +0000

@Amanda Ybarra,
I just made a meatball recipe last night for the first time that used quinoa as a filler. I thought it turned out great, and you couldn’t even tell that it was in there!
http://thriftyjenny.blogspot.com/2010/03/chicken-quinoa-meatballs.html

By: Jaime Davis

Jaime Davis — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:13:35 +0000

I have a question about freezing ground meat in no sauce. How is the texture when it thaws? Does it taste the same? (I am guessing yes but just want to make sure )