Taco Stuffed Shells
Taco Stuffed Shells
From My Friend Laura’s Grandma
For the first time since starting the blog back in August, I’ve been at a bit of a loss for recipes. There’s a million reasons – December is hectic, we recently acquired an adorable but time consuming new family member (Ralph, our new puppy – be on the lookout for pics), and I haven’t spent much time in front of a computer, which is when I do most of my recipe stalking (most people Facebook stalk, I recipe stalk…ok I do both). But probably the number one reason is that John has been traveling a lot for work, and at the end of the day cooking for one isn’t as fun. Once upon a time it was my main form of cooking, but over the past three years I’ve gotten used to cooking with two, for two. It’s still doing dishes with one – our marriage isn’t that perfect.
Luckily, I have friends ready to step in! I mentioned my blogging woes at a party over the weekend and my fabulous friend Laura jumped in with not only a fantastic recipe, but an offer to come over and make/eat it with me! Pretty sweet deal, especially since this is the perfect weekday recipe. It’s super easy and the only ingredient I didn’t have laying around was ground beef and the pasta shells. I *almost* felt bad John missed this one…then I remember that our puppy has to go out every 6 hours and travelling for work = 8 hours of CONTINUOUS sleep…
Ingredients
- 12 jumbo pasta shells
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1/8 cup water
- 1 envelope taco seasoning
- 4 oz cream cheese
- 1 cup salsa
- 1 cup shredded cheese (we used a mix of chihuahua and cheddar, but pretty much anything would work)
- 3/4 cup crushed tortilla chips
- sour cream, to serve, optional
- green onions, to serve, optional
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and toss with butter. Set aside.
- In a medium skillet cook beef over medium high, until browned. Break up with a spoon while cooking.
- Drain fat.
- Add 1/4 cup water, taco seasoning, and cream cheese. Stir to combine and melt cream cheese.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.
- Grease a 9×9 baking dish. Spread a few tablespoons of the salsa across the bottom of the dish.
- Divide beef mixture across the 12 shells and place in the baking dish.
- Top with remaining salsa, cover, and bake 30 minutes.
- Remove cover, top shells with cheese and tortilla chips, and return to oven for 15 minutes, uncovered.
- Serve topped with sour cream and green onions.
Serves 4.

I have to admit that I’ve printed out a few of your recipes to step up my newlywed cooking game and this was the first one I tried this past Sunday. Eric absolutely loved it (as did I) and had leftovers for lunch yesterday. Thank you for the amazing recipes!
Yay!!! That’s so funny because I was just thinking I need to make these again. They’re so easy and good! “My friend Laura” is DG Laura, so next time you see her you can thank her for the excellent dinner!