Sponsored post by Mirum Shopper. All opinions are my own.
It is January which means this muffin top that creeped up on me has to hit the curb. It also means lots of time in front of the TV watching football!
I decided to lighten up one of our family favorites that is perfect for game day and thought you might also want to try this simple and delicious recipe too. Really couldn’t be easier and so fast for busy weeknights. Plus tacos. Let’s taco about how much our family loves tacos OK?
My oldest daughter absolutely loves tacos and we seem to have tacos on the menu about once a week. She pipes up hopefully every single night- is it taco night? Since the kids already love tacos, I thought it would be fun to give them a little twist and turn them into lettuce wraps. Still yummy and familiar but slightly healthier. My husband loves these because he can munch away on these during Monday night football as an alternative to traditional heavier game day foods
To get started you just need ground beef or shredded chicken. I am a vegetarian so I substitute black beans or pinto beans for the meat.
Add your favorite toppings- red peppers, olives, sour cream, guacamole, cilantro, cheese, onions and so on. Plop them all onto the lettuce and roll it gently into a taco shape and eat! Yum! If you miss a little of the crunch you can always top with tortilla strips from the crouton area of your grocery store.
There are two keys to making this recipe successful. The first is a good artisan romaine lettuce or bib lettuce. Those are sturdy enough to hold your taco ingredients. You can use a single leaf or layer two leaves for a sturdier wrap.
The second is a high quality salsa. I love to use small batch, handcrafted salsas that are loaded with fresh ingredients as they pack such a punch of flavor and save me time in chopping onions, mincing garlic and adding extra seasonings to my ground beef. For this recipe I used Fresh Cravings Salsa restaurant style mild crave salsa, located in the chilled section of Walmart. Fresh Cravings has flavors of onion, garlic, tomato and cilantro that add quite a bit of flavor to this simple recipe. The Fresh Cravings Salsa is actually priced lower than processed and cooked salsa brands. Don’t skimp on the salsa for sure.
Here is your recipe- this should make about 8 wraps depending on the size of your lettuce.
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb ground turkey or beef
- 1 tbsp taco seasoning
- head of artisan romaine or bibb lettuce
- shredded cheese (cheddar, jack or both)
- Fresh Cravings salsa or pico de gallo
- lime wedges
- sour cream (optional)
- olives (optional)
- chopped avocado or guacamole (optional)
- chopped tomatoes (optional)
- Add olive oil to a pan with ground beef and taco seasoning. Cook about 5 min over medium heat until ground beef is browned.
- Remove from heat and drain excess fat/water.
- Separate lettuce leaves, trimming ends and rinsing and drying well.
- Lay lettuce leaves flat on a cutting board and add ground beef on top.
- Continue layering on toppings of your choice- cheese, olives, tomatoes, avocado, sour cream, salsa and so on.
- Drizzle with freshly squeezed lime and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.
- Gently pick up lettuce cups like a taco and serve immediately.
Give these a shot and see what you think! I was very pleasantly surprised to find my family loved them.
You might consider making extra taco filling and these are so simple to reheat and reassemble for lunches all week long.
You can find more delicious recipes using Fresh Cravings salsa on their Facebook page here or via the website here. The Southwest Pizza looks delicious!
Thanks to Mirum Shopper for sponsoring this post and keeping this joint running!
I think these would just be a nice lunch. I’m not a sports person, so I wouldn’t likely hop in front of the TV with them, but it’s a nice healthy lunch idea for work, though!
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