TACO PIE

TACO PIE
1 pound ground beef
2 tablespoons Linda's Taco Seasoning
8 ounces Deluxe American or cheddar cheese, shredded
3 eggs
1 cup salsa

Brown the ground beef in a skillet; drain the grease and stir in the taco seasoning. Put the meat in a large greased pie plate. Top with half of the cheese. Beat the eggs with the salsa; pour over the cheese and meat. Bake at 350?30 minutes. Top with the rest of the cheese and bake another 5 minutes to melt the cheese. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Makes 6 servings

Per Serving: 391 Calories; 29g Fat; 28g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 4g Net Carbs

I got this idea from my Salsa Sausage Quiche recipe. I used 1 tablespoon of my taco seasoning in the ground beef but I didn't think it came out flavorful enough. I've adjusted the recipe to call for 2 tablespoons of seasoning. Also, next time I will mix the cooked ground beef, 4 ounces of cheese and the salsa/egg mixture together before baking. It didn't seem to hold together quite as well as my sausage version. I think if the cheese was mixed with the meat, it would help hold it together better. Don't forget to save half of the cheese for the topping or the pie will look very ugly. Also, the 10 minute standing time is very important or you won't get it out of the pan in one piece.

This isn't anything fancy but I think it makes a tasty 5-ingredient meal that's very quick to throw together. You can always kick it up a notch by topping each serving with some sour cream, guacamole, chopped chiles or any other toppings that you'd normally put on tacos or other Mexican food. I've got plans to try a couple other variations of this recipe in the next month or two. Click the photo to see a close-up.

UPDATE 8/26/13: I made this again the other day and changed a couple of things. I think that the problem I had the last time with it not holding together was because I used American cheese. I used Monterey Jack cheese this time and had no trouble at all even though I didn't mix the cheese in with the meat. The other change I made was using green chile salsa instead of red tomato salsa and I like it a lot. I also made sure that my ground beef was sufficiently seasoned this time. Here's a photo of the green chile version:

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