Food for Thought Friday

Taco Ring

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef

1 packet of taco seasoning

1 onion

2 eight ounce cans refrigerated crescent rolls

1-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

2-3 cups shredded lettuce

1/2 cup diced tomato

1/4 cup sliced jalapeno peppers

Ranch dressing, hot sauce, salsa, sour cream, or any other preferred toppings

1.  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

2.  Fully brown the ground beef and then drain.

3.  While the ground beef is browning go ahead and chop up your onion.  Use as little or as much as you like.

4.  Add the taco seasoning to the ground beef according to the directions on the packet.  The original recipe calls for making your own taco seasoning - you can do this by combining 1 tablespoon mild chili powder, 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, and salt and pepper to taste.

5.  I add my onion in when I add the seasoning packet because I like for my onions to still be a little crunchy.  If you prefer you could add them in earlier while still browning the ground beef.

6.  Now for the crescent rolls - I hate opening these things, don't you?

First spray your pizza pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Arrange the crescent rolls in a circle with the tops of the triangles hanging off of the pan and the bottoms of the triangles pressed together to make a smooth circle. I call this the "crescent sun" step.

7.  Spoon the ground beef over the widest part of the dough circle.  The original recipe calls for adding the shredded cheese on top of the ground beef before it goes in to the oven.  You can do this if you so choose, but since not everyone in my household prefers cheese I leave it off for them to add themselves.

8.  Fold the tops of the triangles over the ground beef and tuck the tips underneath.

9.  Put the pan in the oven and bake 20-22 minutes or until the crescent rolls are golden brown.  My oven always seems to run hot so I only cooked mine for 15 minutes.

10.  While the taco ring is baking I put the rest of my ingredients together.

11.  This isn't really a step, I just wanted to show you how tasty the baked ring looks.

We made a pot of yummy Mexican rice as a side dish.

12.  I put all of my topping in bowls in the middle of the ring so that everyone can just pick out what they want.  The original recipe calls for you to put the shredded lettuce and other toppings directly in the middle of the pan.  If I had a nice pan that I could put on the table instead of a hot metal pizza pan then I probably would have made it all pretty too.  The taco ring will easily pull apart in little triangle sections.

13.  Enjoy!