Date night picnic // Tacos salad & Mexican key lime pie

As we head into fall, I’ve been soaking up the last few warm days!  In my opinion, there is no better way to spend a beautiful afternoon than enjoying a picnic with some yummy food and a great view. So, over Labour Day weekend I packed up a Mexican inspired picnic for my hubby and I to enjoy together.

When you think of a typical picnic, most people think boring cold sandwiches and typical crudités. But instead of going the traditional route, I wanted to bring along one of my husband’s favourite foods… taco salad!

I’m not joking when I say taco salad is my husband’s absolute favourite meal. Every year I ask him what he wants me to make for his birthday dinner and he almost always requests taco salad… of course, I’m always happy to oblige since taco salad is one of the easiest things to make ever (but, shhh don’t tell him that)!

Typically, you wouldn’t expect taco salad to be a great to-go food, but when layered in a jar, it makes for an easy & healthy packed meal (hello back-to-school lunches!). The most important thing is to keep the lettuce from wilting by adding it to the jar last. Then, when you are ready to eat just turn the jar upside down and shake!

This time we kept our taco salad quite simple, but we also love to make a gourmet version using the Old El Paso Steak Carne Asada kit. Instead of using ground beef with the Old El Paso taco seasoning like we used here, we slice up some of our favourite cuts of steak and then make homemade guacamole using the seasoning included in the kit.

I love to end dinner on a sweet note and for our picnic I made individual Mexican key lime pies. Old El Paso makes the cutest tortilla bowls and when you bake them with a little butter and toss them in powdered sugar, they become sweet and crispy… the perfect base to fill with creamy key lime pie filling and top with torched meringue!

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into our date night picnic!  Make sure to leave me a comment if you decide to go on your own picnic adventure – I’d love to hear about it!  Oh, and definitely go make yourself some taco jar salads asap… best to-go food ever!
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