I doubled this meal and then froze it in 2 parts: Few dinner portions without cheese. Another few portions with cheese.
After seeing the pasta box on the counter, my oldest asked, “Are we having macaroni for dinner?”
I replied, “Yeah, but this is Taco Macaroni.”
To which he responded, “Yum. Tac-aroni!”
Clever, huh?
Not sure how to pronounce this…Listen below.
Little stinker…trying to tell you we were having spinach!
*Note: Recipe below is for a single meal. I doubled the below recipe to have enough to freeze.
Tac-aroni
Adapted from: Taco Mac recipe from Stolen Moments Cooking “as is”…meaning no modifications, other than no cheese for the boys! Great meal Kate!!!
Yield – 4 servings
Preparation Time – 10 minutes
Cooking Time – 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 1 T. chili powder
- 1 T. cumin
- 2 t. garlic powder
- 1 t. salt
- 1/2 lb. elbow macaroni Use rice pasta for a gluten-free meal!
- 1 1/2 c. beef stock or broth
- 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
- 1 14.5 oz. can crushed tomatoes
- 2 c. frozen corn
- 1 c. shredded cheese
- 2 cups frozen greens beans
Directions
- Brown ground beef and onion. Drain. Stir in seasonings.
- Add noodles, stock, tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes to the skillet. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low. Cover skillet and simmer, stirring occasionally, until noodles are tender, about 15 – 20 minutes.
- Stir in corn until heated through. Top with cheese and serve.
- Cook green beans as indicated by package instructions.
- Serve Tac-aroni with Green Beans.
Hey Erin, thanks so much! I’m glad you guys liked it.
That video is precious. I think I’m going to start calling it Tac-aroni from now on. It’s perfect. And what a little cutie. 🙂
@Kate @ Stolen Moments,
I was quite impressed with his creativity on that one! And we’ll be calling it that now for sure!
This looks awesome!
Will try this weekend! Sounds wonderful! We like quinoa elbows over rice pasta elbows for these kinds of dishes . . . it’s closer in consistency to wheat pasta, and it’s flavor is mild enough not to compete with whatever you add to it.
I have a similar recipe that I have been preparing for years.
Chili Noodle
For every 2 cups of dry noodles ( I use elbow) you use:
1 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes (plain or flavored)
1 15 oz. can of chili (vegetarian, turkey or whatever you have on hand)
Boil the noodles- drain. Place in skillet with the tomatoes and chili. Stir. Simmer 10 – 15 minutes. That’s it!
You can add cheese on top the last few minutes of cooking. I serve with sour cream and corn chips.
I’m sad you don’t have a cost breakdown on this one. I’m trying really hard to wean my family from Hamburger Helper because I just hate feeding my family it. But it’s so convenient and inexpensive, which is hard to beat right now. I love trying homemade versions like this, and will be adding this one to my list to try.
@Shelly,
After doubling the recipe, it probably made 4 times what a HH would make. Everything was on sale…my best guess would be it was $6 for the doubled version, with the meat on sale, using coupons for the tomato sauce/diced tomatoes and getting frozen corn on sale as well!
I have this on the stove right now! I’ll be darned if I didn’t forget to pick up a bag of fire roasted corn when I was at Trader Joe’s. I thought that might give it another little kick. Next time!
@Melanie @ Mel, A Dramatic Mommy,
That would be a great addition Mel!
Just made this recipe tonight, it was outstanding! I made it earlier in the day because I was going to be out for most of the afternoon. I put the dinner in a casserole dish and when we were ready to eat, put the cheese on top and baked for 30 minutes….it came out as a casserole! We were very pleased….thank you!
Made this tonight with ground turkey (also threw in some frozen chopped spinach) and it’s a hit! It even made enough to freeze half. You are SAVING MY LIFE with dinner recipes this week!
I used leftover taco meat and black beans to make it! Yum-o!
Made this last night for dinner! Substituted egg noodles due to the fact that that was what I had on hand..also added some black beans. It was wonderful! Single recipe was enough for us to eat and freeze for later!
I made this tonight, used homemade taco seasoning. I served it w/cheesy cornbread. It was delish!! Thank you!
We had enough to freeze too (two big gallon ziplock bags)