Meal Planning and Taco Cupcakes Recipe

Hello all, 

I hope you're enjoying the weekend!  I use to really dread Sundays because it meant that we were that much closer to Monday, but recently I started a new routine where I spend about 30 minutes each Sunday planning meals for the week, and now I look forward to it at the end of every weekend!  Nothing gets me more excited and motivated than a printable, so I use this nifty meal planning printable from NinaHindrick.com  to help me get it all done and stay organized!    

original image from ninahendrick.com

I've found that ever since I started making an effort to create a meal plan for the week, I spend less money and time at the grocery store!  I'm the queen of forgetting something and having to go back to the store 5 times, which usually means throwing something additional in the cart that we really don't need, resulting in a totally blown grocery budget and overcrowded pantry in a matter of minutes.  

I also have to say that I am not a great cook, nor do I absolutely love cooking.  I cook so that my family doesn't starve, basically.  I never spent much time in the kitchen growing up so I really didn't have much of an interest in cooking before I got married.  Getting take out every night is expensive and exhausting so I figured, I may as well learn to enjoy cooking for my family a little bit if I'm going to have to do it.  

Pinterest has helped become me more interested in cooking.  I have found some really good, easy recipes that I hope to share with you on my new blog page called "Recipes".  You can access it from the tool bar at the top of the main page....

So the first recipe I want to share is one that I made Friday night that we all LOVED, even our toddler.....TACO CUPCAKES!

image from Tablespoon.com
original recipe by The Girl Who Ate Everything

We usually have Mexican food of some sort once a week (tacos, enchiladas, burritos, fajitas, etc.) but I was getting a little tired of the same rotation.  Then I found this amazing recipe from Tablespoon.com for Taco Cupcakes!!!  They were delicious, different, and fun to make!  I particularly enjoyed them because they were easy and inexpensive.  I was able to use the same typical ingredients I'm use to cooking with every week with a few exceptions...

image from tablespoon.com 
original recipe by The Girl Who Ate Everything

One of my rules when pinning recipes on Pinterest is that it has to contain ingredients that I'm familiar with (i.e. already in our pantry or on our normal grocery list).  The other is, it can't have too many steps or allow for prep and cook time longer than 30 minutes.  So when I come across more complicated recipes that still look yummy, I often times make substitutions.  For this recipe I substituted refried beans for low sodium black beans, taco seasoning mix for a jar of salsa, and wonton wrappers for tortillas just because this is what we already had in our pantry. I followed the directions listed using these ingredients and the "Taco Cupcakes" turned out pretty much the same as the picture.  I think the wonton wrappers would have added a little more of a thin crisp but the tortillas made a delicious crust and had plenty of crunchiness to them!

The fun part was layering...

 image from tablespoon.com
original recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything 

I made 1 tray or 12 total Taco Cupcakes and that was enough to feed our family of 3 for dinner and lunch the next day.  They were super easy, delicious, and definitely a dish I will be adding to our normal rotation of Mexican food once a week.

Try them out and let me know what you think!

Now I'm off to the grocery store.  Have a lovely Sunday everyone!