Taco Pasta

So my my husband asked me while eating dinner, “Is this just a glorified hamburger helper recipe?” Good question… I’ve never eaten hamburger helper, so perhaps it is. He quickly tried to make up for the fact that it wasn’t from a box by saying “It tastes much better than that, you can tell it has fresh ingredients.” Yea, yea. Too late for that now Mister! It was a great change up from our normal Mexican meals, definitely kid friendly, hope you enjoy it.

Ingredients

- 1 pound ground beef or turkey
- 8-12 ounces medium pasta shells
- 1 small onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes with mild green chilies, drained (if making this for kids you might want to use just plain diced tomatoes)
- 1 packet (4 tablespoons) taco seasoning
- 3 ounces cream cheese
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
  Salt and pepper

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Cook pasta according to the package directions. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of pasta water. Set aside.

2. In a large skillet, cook the ground meat over medium-high heat until no longer pink. A few minutes before the meat is cooked through, add the chopped onion to the skillet. Once the meat is cooked through, mix in the garlic, taco seasoning, and diced tomatoes. Let simmer over medium heat for about 3-5 minutes.

3. Stir in the cooked pasta, cream cheese, sour cream and reserved pasta water, and continue stirring until the cream cheese is melted and the sauce is well blended. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer over medium-low heat 3-5 minutes to reduce the sauce a bit if it is still too thin.

4. Toss in the cilantro right before serving for some fresh color and flavor. Serve with a green salad.

Tips from a Kitchen of Reality:

- I left out the onion and cilantro. Not big fans of either. Since I was hoping the kids would eat it, and one of the two did, I didn’t get the tomatoes with chilies.

- Didn’t think it was going to thicken up, but it did. Just be patient.