T is for TAQUITO!

We Smiths have been on the go lately. We’ve celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, Father’s Day and took a 12 day road trip this month (more on that in another blog post!) It’s been a while since we’ve done a Kids Cook Monday meal so we were excited to get back in the kitchen. Today we made some yummy, vegetarian taquitos packed with veggies and protein. We baked them, so they are virtually guilt free. I mean, there is some low fat cream cheese in there, because you gotta live a little!

Ingredients

Corn Tortillas
1 pckg.low-fat cream cheese (softened)
1 cup of salsa
1 can black beans (drain and rinse)
2 ears of corn (cooked and cut off cob)
2 cups of spinach leaves (chopped or torn into small pieces)
Olive Oil (for brushing tortillas with)
A pinch of salt (to sprinkle on the tortillas before baking)
Shredded Cheddar Cheese (optional for topping)
Optional Dipping sauces: salsa, guacamole or sour cream

This is a super easy recipe. All we did was mix, blend, fill, roll, and bake! We started by blending our softened cream cheese with our salsa. You could seriously just eat this stuff with a chip. So tasty on it’s own!

Then, we prepared our veggies. You could throw in anything you like here. We used up some leftover corn on the cob, spinach leaves and black beans. Chopped peppers or onions would be tasty as would ground turkey (if you weren’t making this for Meatless Monday!)

Perfect way to use all that sweet corn that’s in season right now!

Look at this little helper getting in on the action- just ripping spinach like a champ!

Well this sums up life right now with a 2 year old and a 4 year old. “Whaaa! It’s my turn to stir!”

Still chip-worthy!

Then, we went ahead and pre-heated our oven to 400*. We brushed our tortillas with a little olive oil, and filled them with our cream cheese mixture.

We sprinkled a little bit of salt on the outside of each taquito and put them in our hot oven for about 10 minutes.

When they had just begun to brown and get a little crispy, we added some shredded cheddar cheese on the top of some of our taquitos for fun. Then we stuck them back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

Once the cheese had melted and the taquitos were all golden and bubbly, they were ready to come out!

These came out super hot and gooey. The outside is crispy but the filling is soft and yummy! The kiddos and I loved these because they’re easy to eat and have so many of our favorite ingredients packed inside.

I love all the hidden nutrition stuffed inside these little guys. Lots of flavor and fun to eat! Also, taquito is just plain fun to say. Taquito!