Recipe: Pirate Ship Tacos

My son may be the world’s most picky eater. For a while he complained about tacos. Tacos! I mean come on. Apparently mixing more than 2 ingredients together was a deal breaker for him. I spent half my life living in states that share a border with Mexico. I love Mexican food. My primary source of fruits and vegetables is from salsa and guacamole. If I was forced to just eat one kind of food for the rest of my life, it would be Mexican. So I came up with this little trick to convince the kid to eat, and even figured out how to slip some veggies in. You can get creative and make these a little more colorful if you want, but the more beige my son’s plate is, the more likely he is to eat…

Here’s what you will need:

  • 1 Pound of meat (I use ground beef from my brother-in-law’s farm or my famous smoked pulled pork)
  • 1 package of Old El Paso taco boats
  • Fresh pico de gallo or salsa
  • 1 can of queso sauce
  • Triangle shaped tortilla chips, 1-2 per taco.

Directions

  • Warm up a couple Old El Paso taco boats with a few seconds in the microwave.
  • Time put some treasure in the ships cargo hold with Pico or salsa. Those aren’t fruits and veggies kids, those are diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. You can’t have a pirate ship without treasure in it!
  • Now add some meat over the top to safely hide the treasure away.
  • Now we make the ships deck out of melted hot queso. This will also serve as a way to hold the ship’s sails. 
  • Last, we add one or two triangle chips for sails. The mini Old El Paso taco boats will only take one chip, but the larger taco boats they make can have two or three sails on them.

I hope your kids enjoy these as much as mine do! You can make them even more fun with things like a guacamole tropical island on the plate with some treasure buried in it. Don’t forget a nice tropical cocktail for yourself as you enjoy the silence of them happily eating!

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