I remember this old camp recipe we used to love called "Frito Banditos". They were single serving bags of Frito chips with taco seasoned beef, lettuce, and cheese tossed in. The idea was to scoop the stuff out of the bag with a chip and eat it, like tacos, only much less messy.
My partner adores Mexican style food. He'd been asking me to make tacos for what seemed like forever. I told him I was going to make him Frito Banditos. He thought I was nuts, but agreed to try it. It couldn't possibly be as good as real tacos (or so he thought), but he would give it a fair chance.
At the time I couldn't remember how to make the stuff. I swear, pregnancy brain had eaten away any of the memory I had left, so I could only hazard a guess. I used taco seasoning with the beef and threw in some cheese (we gave up on the lettuce because no one felt up to cutting it), tossed in a bit of taco sauce to make it a bit spicier, and went at it with chips. It was a minor success, but we decided that the cheese would be much better if it was melted. We would have to try that next time.
The next time we tossed in the cheese just as the meat was finishing cooking, just long enough to make it all melty. It was a hit! Since then my partner and my kids have both been begging me to make it again! It's more of a success than mac and cheese! It doesn't hurt that it brings a bit of diversity to the table too.
This last time I decided to go all wild with it. Okay, so we've got the general idea, and have turned it into a pretty good dip, just by melting the cheese and adding a little bit of hot sauce (well...medium or mild for the kids). Let's see just how far we can take this baby! I'll admit, I went a little nuts at the grocery store. I was stalking the aisles like a mad woman, comparing things, picking things up, then putting them back, only to go back to it three or four aisles later when I decided I really did want it after all. I must have looked half crazed as I stopped in the middle of an aisle as inspiration took me and I went trotting off to another aisle just to pick something up, reconsider, put it back, and start texting like a mad woman on my phone to make sure something would be edible for my partner. He may not be very picky, but what he's picky on, he's VERY picky. I'm sure it would have been quite comical to see a video of myself on my mad quest for the right ingredients. It's as bad as taking me to a fabric store when I've got a specific project to make!
Finally, I packed my ingredients up and took off out of there before I could come up with anything else to throw into the mix. Throwing in too much could be dangerous, and a recipe for disaster. I was quite satisfied and couldn't wait to put it all together.
Here's what we ended up tossing in:
2lbs of lean ground beef (browned)
2 packages of taco seasoning (with water to match)
1 full package of shredded Mexican cheese (the one with pepper jack...nummy...can you tell we like cheese?)
2 cans of refried beans
1/2 a regular sized jar of Pace hot salsa
Hot and Medium taco sauce to taste
1 whole large tomato
Some random amount of lettuce that looked pretty good.
Pretty much it went just like that. We seasoned the beef after it was browned as per the instructions. We heated up the beans as per the instructions as well. Then we tossed in the cheese to melt into the beef, as always. Then we threw it all into two separate bowls to mix up. One bowl got medium sauce for the kids. The other got hot sauce and hot salsa. It was incredible! I'll never make it the old way again! And we've got enough leftovers that we've already gotten two meals out of it, and we could still get at least one more!
If you have a thing against some of the ingredients, it's easy to sub stuff out. Want vegetarian? Just use a meat substitute and vegetarian refried beans (yup, they make them...almost bought some). Dairy free? Just use a melty cheese substitute. It's easy enough to do! Mind you, it'll look kind of nasty once you mix it all up, but it tastes wonderful! At least, my family thinks so.
Next time I think I might go for a bit more of a bold nacho style. We definitely needed more lettuce. There wasn't near enough green. I think I might even get wild and think about adding some sour cream. I think maybe I need to figure out some more veggies to toss in. Any suggestions? It's got to be something that can be cut up small and bite sized. Ooo...an onion might be good! I wonder what else I can come up with...maybe I should start checking out nacho recipes.
To think, all of this started with a well-loved childhood favorite recipe, something I learned at Girl Scout camp of all places! Who would have thought it would have me adventuring into so many new flavors and possibilities? I think I'm going to like feeling like I can really cook again!
Oh, and if any of my family is out there reading this (and I know at least one person is) or anyone else who knows just how picky I am, yup, you read it right. I ate refried beans. I've used tomato. I'd like to use onions. I'm thinking sour cream would be a good addition, maybe some black olives...or that green stuff with a name I can't remember right now made from avocado... Yes, picky little me is learning to diversify!
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