If you’re in need of a meal prep recipe, this taco pasta bake might be your new go to. It’s super simple to make, loaded with cheesy taco flavor, and has fantastic macros for a pasta recipe.
One serving of this taco pasta bake has 24 grams of protein with only 28 grams of carbs and 250 calories. The recipe makes nine servings, so you could feed the entire family for a few days or double up on servings and have a 500-calorie, protein-packed meal for four days. Needless to say, this is nacho average taco pasta bake.
K, I don’t think we need to taco bout it anymore. Let’s get down to business.
How to Make This Taco Pasta Bake
Like most of my recipes, this is another ultra simple recipe. You’ll need seven ingredients total, but two are seasonings and two are canned. Other than cooking some pasta and ground beef or meat of your choice, this taco pasta bake is pure assembly.
I’ll quickly run through the ingredients you might have questions about modifying.
Pasta
I used Banza Shells which are made from chickpeas. They’re much higher in protein and lower in carbs than traditional pasta. If you’ve never tried any of the chickpea or lentil pastas, this is the recipe to start with since the blend of textures more than accommodates for the difference.
You could use another brand of “protein pasta” like the Barilla Protein+ I used in my Italian Sausage and Veggie Pasta Bake.
Or if you’d rather go with a regular pasta or save some time, you could use something like the Barilla Ready Pasta I used in my Garlic Parmesan Chicken Pasta or frozen cauliflower gnocchi in my Italian ground turkey soup. You can pop it in the microwave for 60 seconds and be ready to roll.
Obviously switching from the Banza pasta to a traditional pasta will increase the carbs and slightly decrease the protein, that might not be a problem for your nutrition protocol. If you have the carbs, I say go for it!
Another pasta alternative might be chopped corn tortillas. My ground chicken taco casserole and beef enchilada casserole recipes fold in six chopped corn tortillas before topping with cheese. It’s pretty great!
Taco and Ranch Seasoning
I used a packet of taco seasoning to keep things simple. If you’d like to reduce the sodium a bit or use your own spice mixture, I’d highly recommend the spices from my low fat nachos.
And if you don’t have any ranch seasoning on hand, you could use a bit of garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, dill, and powdered buttermilk.
Cheese
While I wouldn’t recommend going all the way fat free with the cheese, you could certainly use less cheese than the recipe calls for to reduce the calories. I was able to fully coat the taco pasta bake with about 3/4 cup cheese and decided to make it extra cheesy with another 1/2 cup.
If you stopped at 3/4 cup, you’d save about 20 calories per serving. Doesn’t seem like much when I put it that way. Cheese it up.
Update 10/2019: If you want to seriously up the cheese game, you could incorporate queso into the mix like in my chicken fajita pasta bake recipe!
Okay, the full recipe is below. When you make this taco pasta bake, I’d love to see it. Snap a pic and tag me on Instagram @mason_woodruff or join my free Facebook group and share it with the proton party!
Easy Taco Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 1 lb 96/4 Ground Beef
- 1 packet Taco Seasoning
- 1 packet Ranch Dip Mix
- 10 oz can RO-TEL, or diced tomatoes with green chiles
- 15 oz can Pinto Beans, undrained
- 1 box, 8oz Banza Pasta Shells, or Barilla Ready Pasta to save time
- 1 1/4 C (140g Reduced Fat Mexican Cheese Blend
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 400F.
- Cook the pasta as directed unless you’re using something like Ready Pasta.
- In a large skillet, brown the ground beef over medium high heat. Cook until no pink remains.
- Reduce the heat to low before adding the taco and ranch seasoning, RO-TEL, and pinto beans to the beef. (If you’d like a thicker pasta, drain the beans.) Stir well.
- Once the pasta is cooked, drain the water and add the pasta to the taco mixture.
- Mix everything together before adding the mixture to an 8×8 baking dish or comparable dish. Top with shredded cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes. (Keep an eye on the cheese to avoid burning.)
Notes
- 1 serving has 6 Smart Points.
No joke, I once made this recipe as my meal prep for the week for 4 weeks straight. Nothing beats this as a meal prep recipe I could eat it every day. It is so easy and so delicious. As a healthy tip I would swap the ground beef for turkey beef and it was still amazing. There are so many other good flavors in here you barely notice the turkey for beef swap.
This will be a weekly staple in our house! So easy and absolutely delicious. Even better the next day.
SO easy to make! As a working momma, healthy, easy, and tasty is the best combination and this checks all three. My two year old, who hates eating chicken and beef for whatever reason, cleaned off her plate. It was an easy way and sneaky way to get some protein to her. Will definitely make again!
Has anyone tried this with shirataki noodles? Would it work?
I’ve never seen anyone do it, but I imagine it would work okay. At least as well as anything with shirataki noodles can go.
I didn’t think I would like Banza pasta, but I actually do! It’s really good in this recipe. I think I’ll add more veggies to this, but it’s definitely going in the rotation. So good!
Have made this many times now for dinner and meal prep for my husband’s lunch. We love it! Also so easy to make.
This is my go-to recipe to feed a crowd. Pot lucks, parties, you name it. It is ALWAYS a crowd pleaser and everyone asks for the recipe 😉 I am a spice wimp so I use diced tomatoes instead of ROTEL, and I add TJ’s frozen roasted corn and some frozen onion in with the beef. I’ve made it both with regular pasta and with Banza. For some reason I also fill a 9×13 pan and not 8×8! It also freezes well – not that I usually have enough to freeze. 100/10!
I have made this recipe about a dozen times. Simple ingredients, so easy to put together, and delicious! Ranch dip mix really pulls all the flavors and ingredients together.
I typically make for dinner one night for myself and significant other. Then put in meal prep containers for the week. I make the dish into 6 servings and adjust the macros accordingly.
Literally my go to recipe that I make almost every week. This is SO good and SO easy!
Love this recipe!! So quick to put together and tastes amazing! Even my husband who is picky about “healthy” eating loves it!! Thanks Mason!