Taco Stew

This taco stew is the recipe most requested by anyone who knows my mom and now you can try it too! It’s like taco soup but thicker like a chili.

Taco stew is an easy weeknight dinner recipe that the whole family loves. We love to top it with our favorite taco toppings and everyone can totally customize their own bowl. 

So I call this a stew because I add potatoes, carrots and peas to it. That totally qualifies as stew, right?! It’s a little more hearty and chunky than our Instant Pot taco soup or even our taco ground beef chili.

Ok, back to the toppings…there’s something about the Fritos and the soup. I’m serious. I never, and I mean never, think to buy Fritos, but they are a total necessity for topping off the taco stew. I think it’s that crunchy corn taste that works so well with everything.

Ingredients for Taco Stew

I love that this recipe is mostly a pantry meal. It is so nice when you’re on a tight budget or just don’t have time to get to the store. It also cannot be easier! Here is what you will need:

• Yukon Gold Potatoes: yukons have the best flavor and keep the best texture when added to a soup or stew – you could also use red potatoes as a substitute
• Carrots: peeled and cut into bite size pieces
• Onion: just a yellow onion works great
• Hamburger: 80/20 or 85/15 works great – if you want to go a little healthier, try ground turkey or chicken
• Frozen Peas: just toss them in frozen, and they’ll be heated through in no time
• Diced Tomatoes: you can use any brand you want
• Tomato Sauce: any brand works great
• Taco Seasoning: you can use a store bought packet or make your own
• Corn: just open a can of corn and toss it in, no need to drain
• Chili Beans: pinto beans or black beans also will work great, undrained
• Kidney Beans: no need to drain these either

The measurements for each ingredient can be found in the recipe at the end of the post. 

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Loaded with flavor and just a hint of heat, these Italian stuffed bell peppers are filled with ground beef and rice, seasoned with plenty of Italian spices, and topped with cheese.

Served with a salad or warm rosemary garlic bread, this is a hearty meal that comes together without any fuss.

Just brown the meat, fill the peppers, and let them roast away while you kick back on the couch with a book. Sprinkle the warm peppers with cheese just before serving and you’ll have an easy dinner on the table with minimal effort.

Spicy Italian Peppers

These Spicy Italian Peppers are one of my husband’s favorite meals. I’ve been making them for at least 8-10 years now and I double this recipe almost every time I make them.

They’re loaded with flavor and just a hint of heat, but if spicy dishes aren’t your thing, skip the crushed red pepper and you’ll have Italian-style stuffed peppers that will make everyone happy.

The meat mixture freezes perfectly on its own and the stuffed peppers freeze well too. I often freeze the cooked peppers individually for quick and easy lunches.

Italian Style Stuffed Peppers

To make the recipe even easier, you can also use cooked rice leftover from a previous meal. Make rice as a side dish for your lunch and use the leftovers in stuffed peppers for dinner!

My kids and I typically eat one pepper each and my husband will eat a couple of them. They’re filling, delicious, and enthusiastically enjoyed by everyone.

Stuffed Bell Peppers are easy to customize based on your family’s tastes. You can play with different pre-made spaghetti sauces, adjust the spices and try different kinds of cheese on top of the cooked peppers.

Feel free to use this recipe as a jumping off point for making the Stuffed Peppers of your dreams. I love the ground beef in the original version but sausage and ground turkey work well too.

These Italian style stuffed peppers have the advantage of being convenient, easy, customizable and kid-friendly to boot. As far as weeknight meals go, can we ask for anything more?

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Taco Sloppy Joes

Sloppy joes – that classic comfort food with a Mexican twist! These taco sloppy joes are like eating your favorite taco with all the toppings you love but in sandwich form!

We are no strangers to sloppy joes here at Oh Sweet Basil! We love them! Our best sloppy joe recipe is one of our most popular posts! And of course we have sloppy joe sliders, instant pot sloppy joes and a sloppy joe casserole! Let’s not forget our healthier sloppy joe recipe and one of my all time favorites, the philly cheesesteak sloppy joe! My mouth is watering!

What Ingredients Do You Need for Taco Sloppy Joes?

Very few ingredients are needed to make this quick and easy dinner recipe! You’ll just need some good ground beef and a few things to make the sloppy joe meat mixture, and then you can go as crazy or as simple as you want with the toppings. Here is your ingredients list:

• Ground Beef: we prefer 85/15 beef for maximum flavor
• Onion: just a yellow onion works great
• Taco Seasoning: you can use store bought seasoning or make your own
• Diced Green Chiles: I usually go with mild to keep it kid friendly.
• Worcestershire: deepens flavor and adds richness
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Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls are for those of us who love traditional cabbage rolls almost as much as we hate the time it takes to roll and bake them. Bites of juicy ground beef with fluffy rice and tangy tomato sauce are made even better in this simple one-skillet meal.

Sometimes (read: most of the time), as much as I love cabbage rolls, I just don’t have the time, energy, or patience to make them on a weeknight. If you’re like me, these Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls might be your newest favorite dinner.

Unstuffed Cabbage

For nearly as long as Sean and I have been married, I’ve been making Layered Cabbage Rolls as a timesaver option for a cabbage roll dinner. My whole family loves them and they’re requested often.

I remember the first time I served that easy variation on cabbage rolls to our friend Joe. Joe was born in Hungary and he was so happy with that dish that he kept smiling and telling stories all the way through the meal.

He told us it tasted exactly as he remembered his mother’s cooking. Joe passed away last year and remembering his happiness over that meal still brings a smile to my face.

A few years ago, I was thrilled to realize that I could get the cabbage roll flavors we love in a simple skillet meal, without even turning on the oven. The ground beef is browned along with plenty of seasonings before simmering in a rich tomato sauce with fresh cabbage and rice.

Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls

From start to finish, this meal comes together in under 20 minutes, making it pretty much perfect as far as I’m concerned. I like to serve the Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls with a simple salad and a crusty bread to sop up any juices on our plates. This would also be delicious served with Homemade Pierogies for a full Polish feast!

This is a dinner that checks all my boxes, a quick meal that manages to make everyone happy using simple and inexpensive ingredients. If you have never had the joy of tasting Cabbage Rolls before now, here is your chance.

Cabbage rolls are a classic European dish of cabbage leaves wrapped around seasoned ground meat and baked. Ground beef is a traditional filling for the cabbage but ground lamb and turkey are also popular in some areas.

These rolls

Crisp tortillas filled with tender bites of steak and plenty of melting cheese create this easy-as-can-be Steak Quesadilla.

Steak Quesadilla

My whole crew loves quesadillas so much, I tend to set aside a bit of whatever meat we are cooking for dinner, so we can make quesadillas the next day.

I made these with leftover buttered steak bites, just slice the cold steak bites as thin as possible and layer them into the quesadillas. (If you’re lucky enough to have mushrooms leftover, definitely add them too!)

Steak quesadillas are great made with Southwest steak bites, Cajun steak bites, and these Asian steak bites too.

Set aside some steak bites next time you make them. Then slice those leftover steak bites thin and pile the strips of beef onto the tortillas.

You only need a handful of ingredients to make these quesadillas:

• flour tortillas
• butter
• freshly shredded cheese Mozzarella, cheddar, Colby jack, Pepper jack all work well
• cooked steak sliced very thin and chopped bite-size
• sauteed bell peppers and onions OPTIONAL

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