I am always trying to come up with new ways to get J interested in reading. I love reading and I feel like he should too, but more often than not it’s just a chore for him. He came home the last day of school with a list of summer reading projects they could receive extra credit for in September and one project in particular really jumped out at me: Make a recipe based off of a food in your favorite book.
This we can do! J is always asking to help in the kitchen, so I didn’t have to do much convincing once I told him he would be in charge of dinner. One of his favorite books is Dragons Love Tacos, so that made this pretty easy. J read the book, came up with an idea and gave me a list of what he would need, then he set to work making dragon tacos!
If your kids are too young to use the stove or to knives you can prepare the meat and chop the veggies ahead of time, so that everything is ready to assemble when they are in the kitchen.
First, we browned our ground turkey (or ground beef if you prefer). If you’re using a taco kit follow the instructions to prepare the taco meat.
OR
Brown the meat, then add 1/3 cup water and 2 Tablespoons homemade taco seasoning (which is so easy to make! You can find my recipe here), simmer gently until the sauce has thickened.
While the meat is cooking J shredded the lettuce, while I chopped the tomatoes and sliced the bell peppers (if you’re using olives for the eyes, you should slice these now too). Grab some salsa, sour cream shredded cheese or any of your favorite taco toppings while you’re at it.
When the meat had finished we warmed the tortilla shells in the oven at 325 degrees for 3-5 minutes (or in the microwave for 15-20 seconds).
With the cooking part done, I placed all of the ingredients within easy reach and let the boys set to work creating their own fearsome taco loving dragons.
J layered meat, cheese and lettuce, then used tomatoes for sharp dragon teeth and salsa and bell peppers for flames. He attached the eyes and dorito scales with sour cream, but the possibilities here are only limited to imagination and what you can find in your kitchen!
And don’t forget to read the book so that you know what you should never, EVER put on a dragon’s taco!
- 1 lb lean ground beef (or turkey)
- 1 hard shelled taco kit OR taco shells and your homemade taco seasoning
- Shredded lettuce
- Shredded Cheese
- Grape tomatoes, halved
- Sour Cream
- Salsa
- Black olives
- Sliced red or orange bell peppers
- Small bag of Doritos (optional)
- Brown the ground beef and then follow the taco kit instructions to finish cooking
- OR
- Brown the ground beef, then add 2 Tablespoons homemade taco seasoning and 1/3 cup water, simmer until sauce begins to thicken.
- Add meat, cheese and shredded lettuce to a taco shell. Lay the shell down on one side and arrange grape tomatoes like large teeth. Spread some salsa in front of the taco and add bell peppers to look like flames.
- Use some sour cream to stick two olive eyes on top of your dragon taco (we used blueberries because I forgot to get the olives, but all agreed olives would have tasted better!). Use a little more sour cream the stick Dorito “scales” on the back and you have yourself a Dragon Taco!
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