#TastyTuesday – Shredded Beef Tostadas

A couple of weeks ago I asked some of my blogging friends for recipes using roasts. You see, we get beef a half a cow at a time from farmers that we know well. We have it taken directly from their farm to our favorite locker (Lewright Meats in Eagle Grove, Iowa) and then it all comes home and fits (almost perfectly) in our upright freezer!  For some reason we seem to have a lot of “extra” roasts, so I’ve been trying different things from Pepsi Roast (it was pretty tasty) to other recipes that were not so much! (That one with the red wine, gak!)  Anyway, Jenny from In the Kitchen With Jenny was kind enough to share her Tostada recipe with me!  (You can find her recipe HERE!)  Now, mine were not hers!  Hers inspired mine, but I will admit that I don’t keep a lot of spices in the house and didn’t have the majority of what she used to make hers, so I just went with the general idea and came up with my version of Shredded Beef Tostadas.

I began by thawing the leftover beef out from my freezer.  Then, I shredded it by hand.  Using my small crock pot (the appetizer size.  I dissolved about 1 1/2 of a “serving” of taco seasoning in my beef broth and poured it over the

Top: Spread refriend beans on Tostada shells
Bottom: Top with shredded beef then shredded cheese

shredded beef in the crock pot.  Then, I had T turn put it on to cook at lunch time!  I let that simmer all afternoon.  By mixing the taco seasoning with the beef broth, it really mellowed the Mexican flavor and infused it while not being spicy or too overwhelming!  The first thing I did when I got home that night was to heat up my beans in the microwave…ok, I’ll be honest, the first thing I did was try a bite of the meat and it was AMAZING!  Then, to assemble I spread the tostada shells with the refried beans. (Amount depends on your preference, we are not big refried bean people, so our layers were thin!)  Drain the broth off your meat and add that next.  Finally top with shredded cheese (I used cheddar) and place under the broiler just to melt the cheese!  Top with shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes and onions (if you like) and a dollop of sour cream!  Enjoy!!

Shredded Beef Tostada

This recipe made more meat than we needed (I made 2 tostada’s each…even though we didn’t finish them!  They are much more filling than you anticipate!)  and so I used the shredded meat later in the week to make a healthy lunch!  I spread Light Swiss Laughing Cow Cheese on the inside of a whole wheat Smart Pocket by Toufayan

Mexican style shredded beef pocket from leftovers!

and then stuffed some shredded seasoned beef in there!  It had a great flavor and mixing with the Laughing Cow Cheese, it was creamy!!

I hope you enjoy this festive meal as much as I did and enjoy the versatility of the main ingredient!!

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