Crescent rolls aren’t just meant to be rolled up, baked, and served alongside dinner, you know. That’s really just one of about a million ways to use them. They make such a great kitchen shortcut in so many recipes — stuff ’em, use ’em as a pie topping, or use ’em as a crust (which is more or less what we’re doing here with this Crescent Roll Taco Bake). This bake uses that handy dandy roll of dough, and then tops it with all your favorite taco fixings. It’s a sliceable, serveable way to go about taco night and I’m all for it.

The cast of characters here is simple but easy to change up to your liking. First off, you need a tube of crescent rolls, but the meat and beans you can change as you wish. (We’re using refried beans and ground beef — classic and family-friendly.) There’s shredded Mexican cheese (because this is a bake, and baked dinners call for cheesiness) and whatever toppings your heart desires. (We’ve got lettuce, olives, sour cream, and diced tomatoes.)

First up, you’ll roll out the crescent dough in a baking dish. You can find sheets of crescent dough, but it’s easy enough to buy the standard rolls and pinch the seams together.

Then you’ll spread your refried beans over the dough. It helps to warm the beans up a bit if they’re too stiff to spread and don’t feel like you need to use the whole can. Just use enough to make a nice thin layer.

You’ll top that with browned ground beef that’s been cooked in taco seasoning…

… and then a generous layer of shredded cheese.

Then it goes in the oven. It’s ready to come out when the cheese is melty and the edges of the crescent dough are crisp and golden brown. It already looks yummy, doesn’t it?

But then you get to top it with all your favorite stuff. Lettuce, guac, jalapeños, tomatoes… there’s really no limit! I love to bake this and set toppings out so that people can top their own slices. That makes it super family-friendly and great for company!