Taco Pasta Casserole

What do you guys want for dinner?
1st Kid Response:  I want tacos. 
2nd Kid:  I want pasta

I say "Okay how about Taco Pasta!!"    Best of both worlds and everyone is happy.  This is a great one for the picky eaters. 

So, I originally posted this Taco Pasta Casserole recipe back in 2012.  Yes, I did have a blog then.  Don't worry, nobody knew. Ha.  I was just getting started and apparently when I moved all my old blog posts over to this shiny newer blog format, some of the photos disappeared! Yikes!

For a while now I've been going back and trying to re-take photos of a lot of my older recipes.  This week I was all pumped up to make this recipe again and re-take super awesome photos.  Here's what happened - I turned into an idiot! 

Yup, it's that simple.  I'm an idiot.

We all know that glass dishes are very sensitive when it comes to hot and cold together, right?  Like, obviously, you don't put a cold dish straight from the fridge into a hot oven or it could shatter.  Well, you know what else you shouldn't do?  You shouldn't have a glass dish on a cold granite counter and scoop hot pasta out of a pot of boiling water with a slotted spoon, directly into said glass dish. 

You want to know why you don't want to do that? 

This is why....

Glass explosion, that's why!

Yup, THAT happened.

Thankfully, I had to step far enough away to get my ground beef mixture off the stove, so I escaped injury.  Also the ground beef mixture was still safe.  So, after standing there staring at this mess, wondering what the hell I was going to do, I cleaned it up (with a lot of help from the husband) and put a new pot of water on and got some new pasta boiling.

When all was said and done, the dish turned out fine but I just was so frazzled, I didn't get great new pictures like I wanted to.  I mean, these pictures are better than no pictures but nothing like what I had in mind.

If I want to look at this as a glass half full moment, I guess the positive is that I will just have to prepare this again for dinner soon to take pretty pictures!

 

 

I have to mention, it's not very often that my 7 year old will eat the same meal as the rest of us.  He is so stink'n picky.  I am happy to report even he devoured this Taco Pasta Casserole!  That is saying A LOT!

Taco Pasta Casserole

Christine

4.67 from 3 votes

Print Recipe

Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 30 mins

Total Time 40 mins

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 12 oz medium shells or any short tube pasta
• 1 lb ground beef or turkey
• 1 oz taco seasoning
• 1 C beef broth or water
• 4 oz cream cheese
• 1 ½ C shredded cheese Mexican blend is great choice

Instructions

 

• Cook pasta according to package but undercook it by about 2-3 minutes (it will continue to cook in the oven and you don't want it overcooked and mushy), rinse under cold water. Place pasta in a 9x13 casserole/baking dish.
• Brown meat in a skillet and drain if necessary.  Return to medium heat and add taco packet and water and cook about 5 minutes.
• Add the cream cheese to the meat mixture and stir until combined.  Remove from heat.
• Stir in 1 C shredded cheese to meat mixture.
• Pour meat mixture over pasta and stir to combine.
• Top with remaining ½ C cheese.
• Bake uncovered 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!