Looking for a fun & healthy family meal that your entire Trim Healthy family will enjoy? Stop your search you found it – THM tacos in a bag will make everyone at the table happy (even those that are off plan).

You might call them “walking tacos” but around here we call them THM tacos in a bag. A little bit of nachos, a little bit of tacos and a whole lotta good.

Save a plate tonight and eat your Trim Healthy Mama dinner out of a chip bag! The kids think it is hilarious, you do less dishes and everyone likes the way it tastes.

(Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.)

THM Tacos in a Bag

Tacos are kind of a universal favorite. I mean everyone loves tacos right? I know my family does & it is such a simple meal that doesn’t require a ton of effort from me.

Win!

Trim Healthy Mama Taco In a Bag Ingredients

Here are the items that you need for your taco dinner in a bag.

The Base:

An Individual Bag of Baked Tostitos (E) (These often come in and out of stock on Amazon. Join my THM Deals group – I often update when they are back in stock and on sale!)
Lean Ground Turkey (E) Make it like this in the Instant Pot for the most flavorful taco meat ever!

The Toppings:

Diced Tomatoes (FP)
Non-Fat Greek Yogurt (FP)
Jalapenos (FP)
Salsa (FP)
Diced Onion (FP)
Shredded Lettuce (FP)
Corn (E)
Black Beans (E)
Pinto Beans (E)
Fat Free Refried Beans (E)
Brown Rice (E)

Adding the following toppings would make this recipe a delicious & on plan crossover (XO):

Full Fat Cheese (S)
Avocado (S)
Sour Cream (S)
Olives (S)

The fun thing about walking tacos is that you can customize the bag exactly to your liking and your family can make their dinner just the way they want it.

And that is even more important on Trim Healthy Mama because no one wants to make multiple meals. Since you choose your toppings, you can make this work for off plan family members or those that want a different fuel than you.

How To Make Your THM Walking Taco Bag

Making the THM tacos in a bag is an easy weeknight dinner that is fun to eat. My 7 year old thinks it is an incredibly fun way to eat her dinner.

Here are the items that you need to prepare.

Cook your ground meat, drain grease and season with THM Taco seasoning. (I like this Instant Pot method for the meat)
Warm or cook any other toppings that need to be prepared (rice/beans/corn).
Place bowls out with the remaining toppings that you have chosen.

Building Your Taco Bag

Open an individual bag of baked Tostitos and crush the chips lightly. You just want to break the chips up gently but don’t reduce them to crumbs!

Start scooping the toppings that you want right into the bag! The chips are an E so if you want to keep it that fuel, only use FP or E toppings.

What’s in My Bag

I crush my chips a bit and then add in a tablespoon or two of corn and probably around 1/4 cup of fat free refried beans. I don’t measure the beans but that is roughly the amount.

Next, I add in the turkey taco meat. Then I add the Greek yogurt as a sour cream sub, diced tomatoes, onion, salsa and jalapenos.

With whatever space I have left, I pile in a bunch of chopped baby spinach. As listed, this would be an E meal.

Full disclosure: I love adding a big sprinkle of shredded cheese for a XO to make this meal even better!

Eating Tacos in a Bag

Now for the fun part! Eating your THM tacos in a bag.

Grab a spoon and mix your taco meat, veggies and chips together. Scoop up a big spoonful and enjoy eating your dinner right out of a bag.

Hey – whatever we have to do in order to do less dishes on THM right?!

Avoid Overdoing the Carbs

I listed multiple E toppings that you can throw in your chip bag. But it is important to remember that the chips already have 19g of carbs so you don’t want to go overboard with too many additional E toppings.

Counting and measuring is something that I despise in a way of eating so you won’t often see me saying that I measured 1/4 a cup of beans and 1/3 a cup of whatever. It isn’t how I eat & thankfully it isn’t what THM preaches. That being said, just be mindful.

As an example, one bag of chips with 1/4 cup of black beans and 1/4 cup of corn will keep you under the recommended carb limit of 45 grams per meal.

Last note is for the Trim Healthy Husbands! One bag does not fill my husband up so he eats two. While eating two bags of the chips is not ideal in my eyes, I’m not his keeper! He does go heavier on meat and FP toppings though so numbers wise, it really works out.

If I am still hungry after eating my taco bag, I usually just make a little side salad with lettuce, meat and FP toppings.

Want an “S” Walking Taco Bag?

Not tested yet (tell me if you try it) but I’m thinking an individual bag of pork rinds could work here! Pile it high with cheese, ground beef, sour cream, avocado and black olives. Sounds pretty good to me!

Or if I want an S meal while my family in having THM Tacos in a bag, I will just make a big salad with the taco meat and toppings.

Print Recipe
THM Tacos in a Bag

Servings

people

Ingredients

Base for

4 Individual Bags Baked Tostitos
1 lb ground turkey taco meat prepared and divided

Toppings

Shredded Lettuce or Baby Spinach (FP)
Black Beans (E)
Whole Kernel Corn (E)
Non-Fat Greek Yogurt (FP)
Salsa (FP)
Fat Free Refried Beans (E)
Olives (S)
Sour Cream (S)
Cheese (S)

Servings

people

Ingredients

Base for

4 Individual Bags Baked Tostitos
1 lb ground turkey taco meat prepared and divided

Toppings

Shredded Lettuce or Baby Spinach (FP)
Black Beans (E)
Whole Kernel Corn (E)
Non-Fat Greek Yogurt (FP)
Salsa (FP)
Fat Free Refried Beans (E)
Olives (S)
Sour Cream (S)
Cheese (S)

Instructions

Open an individual bag of the baked Tostitos and gently crush the chips. Don't crush them to crumbs, just break them up a bit.

Start adding in toppings. Add a portion of cooked ground turkey taco meat and then whatever toppings that you like.

*Remember that if the chips are an E fuel, so if you want to avoid a XO, you will want to add toppings that are either an E or a FP.

Once you have added all of your toppings, use a spoon to gently incorporate everything together. Enjoy your THM Tacos right out of the bag!

When first starting Trim Healthy Mama, understanding when to eat S and E meals can seem a bit overwhelming. Learn the easiest way to use THM fuel rotation to keep you on plan and losing weight!

If you are just starting or about to start Trim Healthy Mama, welcome! The THM community is so happy to have you join this way of eating.

I remember starting THM years ago and having questions. Lots of questions! What do the E, S & XO acronyms mean? Do I really have to eat every three hours? When do I eat each different fuel?

All these questions can seem overwhelming but there are tons of resources that explain this plan simply and make it easy to follow.

If you have lots of questions, check out this Trim Healthy Mama A to Z post that tackles every question you might have from A to Z! But here we are going to discuss THM fuel rotation. When to eat S meals, E meals, FP & XO’s – when you finish this post you will have an idea of how to plan out your schedule of eating for success.

(Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.)

THM Fuel Rotation – When to Eat S, E, FP and XO

Learning when to each fuel is a question that I see over and over in the THM beginners group. And I have good news and bad.

The good news is that there is no hard and fast rule as to when to eat each fuel. (This is only bad news if you are a stickler for a plan!) What I like about this is that you really can’t mess up.

So you can get that potential failure out of your head. There are a few guidelines & I’ll share how I usually do it to give you an example but overall you just can’t mess up!

Planning Your THM Day of Meals

There are pretty much two types of Trim Healthy Mama’s. Those that plan & those that like to live on the edge and pick their fuel every 3 hours as meal time pops up. And maybe there is a third THM that meal plans and then follows that plan loosely over the course of the week.

For example, Monday meal plan says spaghetti for dinner and Tuesday say tacos. On Monday if I’m craving tacos, we just move the meal plan around. You guessed it – this is my style of THM.

So let’s take a look at how that works.

Meal Planning Fuels

When creating a meal plan, list out all the fuel type next to each meal. This will help you to make sure that you are getting the number of S & E meals that you desire.

You can check out this meal planning on THM post if you need some help & this free printable THM Meal planner.

Free Style Fuels

The other method of fuel rotation is simply eating what you feel your body needing. So as a simple example, this morning I woke up and walked into my kitchen. I thought about eggs but it just didn’t sound good.

After searching around, the loaf of sprouted bread seemed to be calling my name. I went from thinking I would eat eggs (S) to craving the sprouted bread (E). I ended up making a spur of the moment breakfast of sprouted toast, cottage cheese, a few sliced tomatoes and everything but the bagel seasoning.

How Many E’s Should I Eat per Week?

5 to 7 E meals per week are recommended on THM. Some people do more and do great losing weight. There are other mamas that can’t do as many E meals if they want to shed the pounds.

It is important to remember that these are guidelines and to watch how YOUR body does with the E meals vs. the S meals and then plan accordingly.

I like to get my E meals in at breakfast and as snacks since I prefer an S meal typically for dinner. That is just a personal preference though!

But Aren’t XO’s Bad?

I see a lot of misinformation about XO’s on the Facebook groups from time to time. It typically comes from a well meaning mama that just hasn’t completely learned the plan. They tell a group of mamas something slightly inaccurate & it spreads from there.

Here are some things I see about XO (Crossovers):

False: Crossovers are not on plan. Crossovers are definitely on plan. A crossover is simply a plate that is an E & a S mixed together. Example: A steak (S) and a sweet potato (E) at a meal = a XO because you mixed the two fuels. (A FP food is like Switzerland and is not offensive to either an E or an S meal. So you can have a FP on your S plate or your E plate without crossing over)

False: XO’s are not good for weight loss. The sisters never say that you can’t lose weight eating an occasional XO. They just say that it is harder to lose weight if you are eating lots of them and that they may be better left to those at goal weight, nursing mamas, kids and men.

However, many of us find that an occasional XO (for me that looks like once a week but could be different for you) actually jump starts weight loss sometimes. It is also a great way to avoid going off plan. Going back to my steak example, if having a sweet potato with your steak on a date with your husband helps you avoid the bread basket – I say do it!

What About These Sad FP’s?

Fuel Pulls have very little fat or carbs. You can eat them with E or S fuels without crossing over.

Many people find them less satisfying than the E or S fuels but they have their place. They help to bulk up S or E meals with very few calories which is a great way to get full when you are trying to lose weight. We don’t count calories on THM but we try not to abuse them too!

Some find that having a meal of just Fuel Pull foods will help aid in weight loss. You can definitely add in a FP meal here or there but there is no recommendation or rule that you have to do this. You can read more about FP’s here.

A THM Fuel Rotation Example Plan

THM fuel rotation is really mostly a preference and not a hard and fast rule. But I know that when you are starting something new, sometimes an example or a guide is helpful to form a visual of what you should be doing.

If you are following the 5-7 E meals a week guideline, that means that you can think about one E meal per day in general. So here is how I would conduct a THM fuel rotation for one day.

Breakfast: THM Veggie Oatmeal Hack with blueberries (add protein powder or some lean deli meat/Greek yogurt for added protein) E meal

Lunch: Snacky Lunch (Salami, Cheese, Cashew, Mini peppers) S Meal

Snack: Light Laughing Cow Cheese on Celery with a light sprinkle of Everything But the Bagel Seasoning and lean turkey lunch meat – FP Meal

Dinner: Salsa Verde Chicken and Queso Cauli Rice – S meal

Want more inspiration for meal plans and THM fuel rotation? Try these free plans.

New to THM? These Guides Will Help Make Life Easier!

E Meal