New Recipe: Number 12 ~ Taco Bread Bake

I joined a co-op dinner group. It makes my life so much easier. I made this recipe for the group & for us. I found it at this Fabulessly Frugal blog when I was searching for good freezer meals. I'll share how we do our co-op tomorrow.


I, of course, tweaked the original recipe to my likes. We made ours a little different then the 10 meals I made for the co-op. This is the recipe to make just one dinner. I simply multiplied it by 10 to do for the co-op.

Taco Bread Bake

Ingredients for the Family:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 white onion
• 1 tbsp Garlic Garlic (Tastefully Simple)
• Spices: onion powder, chili powder, cumin & Fiesta Mix (Tastefully Simple)
• 1 can of Rotel 
• Cheese (for this Irish broad, we can only agree on a nice Irish cheddar which may not make sense in a Mexican dish...but that's us!)
• Loaf of bread dough
• Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
• Egg (beaten for an egg wash)
• Cookie Sheet

Directions:

Brown ground beef with onions, Garlic Garlic & spice mixture (I use spice to taste). Mix can of Rotel into the meat. Roll out bread dough and spread meat mixture in the middle third.

Roll out dough...use flour to keep it from sticking.

Meat mixed with Rotel

Cover with cheese. Cut each side into 8-10 strips and then fold them over each other (best to just look at the picture). 

Sides sliced to be braided on top.

Braided on top,

Sprinkle with Crushed Red Pepper Flakes and Egg wash. 

Red pepper flakes & egg wash.

Bake 350˚ for 25-30 minutes (just long enough to cook the dough being the meat is cooked.

Beautifully baked!

To Freeze:

After assembling (omitting egg wash until right before cooking), wrap in plastic wrap and then tin foil and freeze. To prepare after freezing, allow it to thaw completely, apply egg wash and then cook as directed above at 350˚ for 25-30 minute.

When I made this for our co-op, I altered the ingredients a bit. Our co-op rules are no spice and we also fill out sheets for allergies, likes & dislikes.

Ingredients for the co-op (10 dinners):

• 5 cans of refried beans
• 9 lbs ground beef
• Taco Seasoning (used my big container from Sam's Club & followed directions for the amount of meat)
• 10 can of Mexican Tomatoes
• 2 large bags of Mexican Shredded Cheese from Sam's Club
• 10 Loaves of bread dough
• Glad Ovenware large container

Refried Beans

Ground Beef

Mexican tomatoes (forgot the cheese picture)

Wrapped ready for freezing.

I did not do the braid for this large amount. I assembled by spreading about 1/2 a can of bean on the bottom, then meat and tomatoes and then covered with cheese (sorry, no picture of the cheese). I folded the sides over, wrapped in plastic wrap, flipped it so the seam was on the bottom and then put them in Glad Ovenware large sized dishes. I froze these prior to bringing them to co-op. 

The instructions included: thaw completely, remove plastic wrap, brush with an egg wash or melted butter and bake at 350˚ for 25-30 minutes (or until golden brown).