It's Taco Night!

Since starting low carb i've enjoyed taco salads once in a while, you know all the ingredients that normally go in a taco but on a salad. For example: on a bed of iceberg lettuce you'd have taco seasoned ground beef, tomato, sour cream, salsa, and cheese. I've been seeing several recipes for cheese taco shells in the low carb community and i'd thought tonight i'd give it a try. Well for my first attempt I have to say they came out delicious! They were nice and crispy they held up very well to the filling I used and held up very well to eating them with my hands.

Ingredients:

For the taco meat:
1 lb ground beef
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
2 tbsp of onion chopped
2 tbsp of bell pepper chopped
salt and pepper to taste

For the cheese shells:
12 oz of cheddar cheese shredded

Yields 6 tacos

Optional garnishes: shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, shredded cheese, sour cream, salsa. Carb counts for the garnishes not inlcuded.


Directions:

For the taco meat:
1. In a medium pan brown ground beef until cooked through. Make sure to drain all the grease from the ground beef before adding the spices and seasonings because if there is too much liquid the cheese shells will become soggy.
2. After meat has been cooked and drained, add garlic powder, chili powder, cumin, and chopped onion and bell pepper. You can leave the onion and pepper out if you'd like they'd make the carb count just a little bit lower but they do add a lot of flavor to the taco meat so please try it if you can afford the carbs.
3. Cook for an additional 5 minutes until onions and peppers are soft.
4. Turn off heat and keep covered and warm until all shells are done.

For the cheese shells:

In a small pan on low heat (I set mine between a 2 and a 3) add 1/4 cup (2 ounces of cheese) and let it melt. It's going to start to bubble and grease and liquid will collect on top like this:

Let the cheese cook for about 7 minutes. Until the edges are light golden brown and the cheese is set and easy to flip. I blotted some of the liquid and grease with a napkin to help it hold together better.

After 7 minutes flip the shell over with a spatula and cook for 1 minute longer. It should look like this:

Remove the shell from the pan and fold over a piece of foil. It should look like this:

After the shell cools it'll harden up and retain its shape.
Repeat the steps for the remaining cheese shells.

Stuff the shells with the taco meat and add optional garnishes if desired.

Carb counts are for cheese shell and taco meat only.

Carb counts from fatsecret.com

Recipe yields 6 tacos each with 1.34 Net carbs

I ate two tacos as a serving and it was just perfect. Very filling and yummy.

If you're on induction you can have up to 2 of these cheese shells per day, but keep in mind that you'll use up your 4 ounces of cheese in this one meal.