21 Day Fix Approved Taco Bake

21 Day Fix Approved Taco Bake

Another success, and we weren't really sure how this one would turn out!  We really wanted something mexican, but didn't want to use tortillas.  We had half a spaghetti squash frozen, so again, just googled recipes until we were able to put together a recipe we thought would work for us.  We were really happy with the results, and will be adding the recipe to our regular rotation.

1 1/4 cups spaghetti squash (We used a small spaghetti squash, and 1 1/4 cups was about half)
1.5 lbs ground beef (We used 3 cups for the taco bake, and had just enough left over for the girls to make tacos)
homemade taco seasoning:
  1 Tbsp chili powder
  1 tsp salt
  1 tsp black pepper
  1 tsp oregano
  1 tsp thyme
  1 1/2 tsp cumin
  1/2 tsp paprika
  1/4 tsp garlic powder
  1/4 tsp onion powder
  1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup refried beans (canned or homemade as in previous post)
1 can green chiles, drained
chopped cilantro
1/2 yellow onion
Optional toppings:
  chopped lettuce
  shredded cheddar cheese
  greek yogurt
  salsa
  jalapenos

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Poke holes in spaghetti squash, place on baking sheet, and bake whole for 45 minutes, or until soft to touch.  Remove squash from oven, and let squash cool about 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees for baking casserole.  Slice squash in half horizontally and scoop out seeds, then pulp.  Sit aside half pulp for taco bake.  The other half would be great with spaghetti sauce, or freeze for future use.  We've found it freezes very well!

While spaghetti squash is baking, brown ground beef.  Drain, add seasonings to beef, stir.  Sit beef aside, and grease 9 by 13 baking dish.  We used just a little olive oil.

Place spaghetti squash in a very thin layer in greased dish. Next, layer refried beans, and then layer with seasoned ground beef.  Sprinkle green chiles, cilantro, and yellow onion.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Below is a picture before baking.

21 Day Fix Challengers - The above made 6 servings, and we counted each serving as 3/4 red (ground beef and greek yogurt topping), 1.5 green (spaghetti squash, onion, chopped lettuce topping), 1/2 yellow (it's technically 1/3 yellow, but to keep things easy, I always err on the side of over counting yellows!), 1 blue (shredded cheddar cheese)

Tonight I was extra hungry, so I served the taco bake over lettuce and shredded cheese (just 1/2 a blue today), and topped with a spoonful of salsa and greek yogurt on the side.  Also added a few slices of cucumber and tomato.