Lightened Up Taco Ring

I get on kicks, as my husband would say.  I get cravings or ideas and then it's all I can think about for a while until I'm completely sick of it.

I did that with yogurt once when we first got married.

He came home one night and looked in the fridge and the whole entire top shelf was nothing but yogurt.

"Wow, it feels like I'm at the grocery store" was all he sweetly said.

Then once those were gone I was sick of yogurt all of a sudden.

It was about that time he started buying it for me and then wondered why I wasn't eating it.

Since then he's learned this is something that I do.

So, right now I'm on a crescent roll kick.

I think it's kind of fun all the things you can make with them.

They give you a way to be creative and most of the recipes are pretty easy too.

So I was thinking about making a taco ring and actually found that there was already a recipe for this.

This is the one I used.

I calculated the Smart Points to be 9 for a serving of two sections.


Ingredients

2 tubes of Pillsbury's Reduced Fat Crescent rolls(16 total)

1 lb of 97% lean ground turkey

1/2 cup of chopped onion

1/4 chopped bell pepper of choice(I'm using yellow for extra color)

1/2 cup chopped poblano(I added this in)

1 package taco seasoning mix

4 oz reduced fat cheddar or Mexican cheese blend

2 Tbsp water

1 egg white, lightly beaten for wash

Romaine lettuce

25 Black olives, sliced thinly

*** Note about the olives!***

If you use one single olive for the whole freaking batch it doesn't add any points.

However, if you add any more than one it bumps it up by 1 pt per serving.

If you use 25 olives it's still only 1 pt more per serving.

So, I suggest either have no olives or use all 25!

I honestly think it's kind of ridiculous to count 2 olives worth!

Do what suits you.



Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Brown the turkey, onion and peppers in a skillet.

Stir in taco seasoning, water and cheese and mix well.

Before WW I inhaled cheese.  I mean I LOVE it, so that was a big adjustment when I first started.

Now I'm surprisingly satisfied with smaller amounts.

The picture immediately below is 4 oz of cheese which looked like a TON to me!

So, I decided to set a little bit of that aside to sprinkle on top after it was finished cooking.  

Believe me there's plenty mixed in with the meat still.

Set aside.

Pull out a round a 13 inch round baking stone.

Unroll the crescent rolls and place them large side toward the center of the stone, overlapping slightly and fanning out, pointing outwards.

There should be a 5 inch diameter ring in the center.

Let me just mention this wasn't quite as easy to get them laid out, spaced out perfectly as it appeared.

Mine are far from perfect but I'm okay with that.

Spread the meat mixture evenly over the widest end/base of the crescents.

Then finish up by gently folding the tips up and over the top.

Some of the filling will be showing.

Brush the top of the dough with the egg white wash.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Here's a close up of the pretty side-

And the not so pretty side.  :0)

Fill the center of the ring with your toppings of choice.

I initially cut up extra yellow bell pepper and poblano pepper and then also chopped up a fresh Roma tomato, black olives and Romaine.  

Then I added a sprinkling of the cheese I'd set aside earlier.

This was FANTASTIC!!!!  

I had a feeling it was going to be crazy good and it was.  I had the foresight to invite my mom and dad over to enjoy this with us.

Good company makes it taste even better ;)

I also sent leftovers home with them thereby rationing myself!  

Let's just say I could've eaten half of the ring!!! 

Also I will admit that one serving would not fill this hungry girl up so I had extra salad.

This will definitely satisfy that Mexican craving.  

Enjoy!

Happy Cooking!