Easy Homemade Tortilla Bowls

On Sunday, we had some friends over for an early dinner. This usually means it's time to bust out the crock pot. My house smelled like a Mexican restaurant by the time we returned home from church - and it was heaven! For dinner, we had warm soft tortillas stocked with:

Slow Cooker Cilantro Lime Chicken

Fluffy Mexican Rice

Freshly Made Guacamole

Homemade Pico De Gallo

Thick Grated Cheddar Cheese

Sliced Green Onions

Chopped Crispy Lettuce

and Fresh Cilantro from my little herb garden

Served with homemade taco chips, freshly cut watermelon, and gooey brownies.

.... so you can imagine we had a bit of leftovers ready for dinner yesterday evening.

Unfortunately, we only had two burrito-sized tortillas left. I didn't want to just have the same thing again for dinner as we had on Sunday. If we have leftovers, I usually make them into a new meal (versus just attacking the Tupperware with a couple of forks... which was the case when we were both finishing up our undergrads). So I did a mini-transformation in my little kitchen, and turned those floppy-boring tortillas into beautiful, crispy taco shells/bowls for taco salad! It was super-easy, and added a little fun to eating our leftovers. And did someone say healthy? :) No frying needed!

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Easy Homemade Taco/Tortilla Bowls

Burrito-Sized wheat/white tortillas

EVOO (or regular vegetable oil)

medium-sized mason jars

cookie sheet

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Give each tortilla a 15-20 second nuke in the microwave (makes it easier to fold them over the mason jars).

Turn mason jars upside down (so mouth is facing down) on a cookie sheet. With a pastry brush, coat each tortilla (front and back) with EVOO, and drape over mason jars (creating a bowl - you might have to press down the sides a bit, to get the shape).

Put in the oven for about 9 minutes (watch them...).

Let sit for about 5 minutes to cool, and set.

Fill with your favorite taco salad fixings such as: seasoned chicken, seasoned ground beef, mexican rice, cilantro lime rice, cheese, lettuce, pico de gallo, avocado, green onion, olives, cilantro, tomatoes, refried beans, black beans, pinto beans, sour cream.... heck, anything. Go nuts.