The Dinner that turned into “Scoops”

Tonight I prepared one of my family’s favorite dinners: homemade tacos. When my kids realized what is for dinner, it seems that the clock started to go “tic-taco, tic-taco”. They asked every second if the food was ready. After 20 minutes we were ready to eat!

Instead of only serving tacos and tostadas, we had also the “Scoops” corn chips and they became our main course. My husband and kids fixed all kinds of different scoops with ground beef, beans, salsa, etc.

Another big hit was the semi homemade cheese sauce. I added the “Cheesy and Smooth” cheese sauce (from Tostitos) with a kid’s friendly homemade salsa and my daughter couldn’t stop eating eat. She usually complaints that store bought cheese sauces are too spicy for her and my attempts to make entirely homemade cheese sauce were big failures. But tonight I finally discovered the cheese sauce that my entire family likes.

Here are the recipes I cooked today:

Salsa:

Ingredients:
1 can (15oz) of diced tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
2 table spoons of lemon juice
1 table spoon of lime juice
1 table spoon of paprika
½ tea spoon of sugar
½ cup of sweet roasted pepper
½ red onion, coarsely chopped
1 table spoon of olive oil
Salt, chili powder and pepper to taste
Cilantro to taste

Place all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse it 4 to 6 times. Put the salsa in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours for flavor infusion.

Note: Depending on your heat preference, you may add chopped jalapenos to the salsa


Taco Beef

Ingredients:
Ground beef (16oz)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
½ cup of finely chopped onion
1 table spoon of olive or vegetable oil
1 tea spoon of cumin
½ cup of finely chopped parsley
2 table spoons of fresh salsa
Salt and pepper to taste

Place olive (or vegetable) oil in a heavy sauce pan over medium heat and when it is hot add the ground beef. Cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, for about 6 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic, onion, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has evaporated, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the fresh salsa and parsley. Stir to combine all the ingredients. Remove from heat and serve.

Note: If you like, you can make your taco meat spicy by adding ground chipotle peppers. It will add a rich smoky spicy flavor to the meat.


“If life deals you lemons, make lemonade; if it deals you tomatoes, make Bloody Marys”
Anonymous