cooking4carnivores

Because we live in a hundred year old bungalow, we are constantly making home improvements. Sometimes its just painting the dining room the perfect shade of blue (even if it takes five different shades to get that right), other times its more mundane tasks like re-calking the tub. It seems like there is always something that needs fixing up a bit, even though we love our little home just as it is.

The same thing recently happened when I made these tacos. Taco night is a staple in many American households, and ours is no exception. We make many versions - meat, black bean, soy, chicken, fish, and even fried avocado - but beyond just variety it turns out there is always room for improvement on a classic.

So after seeing innumerable versions of oven baked tacos on pinterest I decided to use the general technique and make my own. As usual I prepared my own fresh toppings that the carnivore hates (lettuce, tomato, sour cream, and the like), and I prepared the fillings for each set of tacos in separate pans (soy crumbles for me / real ground beef for him). You can see how I do this here.

But then I took a couple extra steps. I preheated the oven to 375 degrees. Grabbed a couple oven safe dishes. Lined them with blue and yellow taco shells. And filled them with the taco meat (or "meat" in my case). Then I smothered them in shredded jack cheese. I baked them for about 15 minutes total. I topped mine with all my goodies and left the carnivore's plain.

And guess what? They were amazing. The filling was warm and gooey. The shells were crispy. But best of all - especially if you have toddlers in the house - they didn't fall apart! Who knew this was the secret to a perfect taco? And it was just a little improvement. If only it were as easy to change a lighting fixture or stain a deck.