taco night basket

Our family has always loved taco night. It is easy comfort food at our house and I feel good making it because it’s not from a box or a freezer. I am not a home-cooked every night type of mom, after all.

We do taco night once a week pretty consistently and have for years. I wish I could find the picture of our first born enjoying taco night at table level. Laid out like a topping.

And by the way this was a random recommendation to me by my aunt who is wonderful with babies. When they are super tiny and can’t roll yet but want to scream all through dinner time (aka the witching hour) just put them right on the table. It really did work for ours.

Just don’t walk away from the table! I know you wouldn’t but I just had to add include a baby safety disclaimer if I’m going to recommend laying them on a table…

Anyway, as much as we love taco night, we’d love to mix it up a little. Currently taco night for us includes browning hamburger meat and adding a seasoning packet and then sitting out soft tortillas, sour cream, jalapenos, lettuce, cheese and some sauces. We include chips and salsa some times.

If I’m feeling like we are in a rut, I make chicken tacos instead. I just cook the chicken with a seasoning packet and some salsa in my crock pot all day and then shred it in the stand mixer, but all toppings stay the same.

It’s a very tex-mex approach that I do love, but I am excited to start our year of varying taco nights!

Here’s how I got the idea:

My husband, who has always been an excellent gift giver, needed another gift under the tree and I was drawing a blank coming up with a great idea.

He had been intrigued by the Man Crates commercial so I went to the website. They do have really cool gifts, but Travis really likes to research his stuff. Be it fishing gear, knives, grill stuff, hunting stuff—he enjoys the hunt for exactly what he wants, and I didn’t think a big box of items he hadn’t selected would be his favorite.

That is until I came across the taco man crate and thought he would love it!
However, for $100, it came with a tortilla press (which we already have) some sauces, some corn flour to make your own tortillas (um…yeah right), a tortilla warmer and a cook book.

Not to knock Man Crates at all because I love the idea of it, but I knew I could DIY this crate with more bang for my buck.

First of all I needed a crate and luckily was traveling to a town with a Michaels so I picked it up for under $10.

I filled it with:

the taco tuesday cookbook or try this Taco Tuesday cookbook adult taco holders

dinosaur taco holders for kids (it’s a family meal night after all!)

a tortilla warmer

Chips

a 6 pack of Mexican beer

sauces

Margarita salt

I did two this year:

Depending on how many taco holders you’d like, what sauces and food items you want to include or what cook book you go with, this cute and fun family basket can be done for about $60-$90.

Plus, I love the crate to use for storage or books or toys!

I am a huge fan of themed gift baskets/boxes and think this would be well-received as a wedding gift, a house warming gift, a father’s day gift, etc.

I have perused the book and it gives so many taco recipes from breakfast tacos to pork tacos, street tacos, and so many more. It will be a year of adventurous taco eating for us and I’ll share any of the stand out recipes along the way!