Baked Double Decker Tacos

 I have no problem using convenience foods in the kitchen if it means that I’m less likely to hit up a drive through on the way home from work. Some people recoil at the thought of using canned, jarred, pre-made anything, but I’m not one of those people and, frankly, I get a little annoyed when people judge others on what they use in the kitchen to make dinner. What bothers me even more is that I used to be one of those judgmental people, but at some point I realized that just making an effort to cook at home is what really matters to me. Whether it’s a complete from scratch creation or a meal pulled together with the help from some pre-made ingredients, who cares? I’d rather celebrate that dinner (or breakfast, or lunch) was made at home and not pulled from a take-out bag. Bonus points if it’s served at the table. If Steve and I accomplish this most nights each week I am a happy camper and think “I’m so happy we made dinner!” and not, “I wish we’d made everything from scratch.” As much as I love to cook (and cook from scratch) life gets busy, you know?

Which leads me to these baked double decker tacos. They are the quintessential “convenient” dinner and are so perfect for taco night during the week. Most of the ingredients can be pulled from the pantry and the rest is stuff we normally have on hand – fresh spinach, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, and sour cream. There’s very little “cooking” involved – it’s mostly an assembly operation – and it all comes together in less than 40 minutes (20 minutes of that is baking time).

These are a total copy cat of one of my favorite fast food indulgences, but are more delicious and wholesome then the ones you get at the drive-through. I suppose you could make all of it from scratch, but who has time for that during the week? Isn’t taco night supposed to be fun? My idea of fun does not include making my own refried beans at 7 o’clock on a Tuesday after a long day at work. What does sound fun is using both crunchy taco shells AND flour tortillas and filling them with a simple ground beef filling. Cheesy refried beans hold things together and when they come out the oven the crunchy shells are softened and the flour tortillas have crisped up just a bit around the edges. They’re warm, filling, and so gosh darn good.

Here’s what they look like straight from the oven…

You get a whole lot of tacos with one pound of beef, but you can easily cut all of the ingredients in half if you aren’t feeding an army. I like my tacos topped with some chopped spinach, tomato, and a cilantro-lime sour cream sauce (which takes about two seconds to make). I don’t know about you, but looking at these makes me very happy… three cheers for an easy and delicious taco night!

How do you feel about using short-cuts in the kitchen? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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