(Totally want to try making these homemade tortillas, yum! photo from The Health Seeker’s Kitchen)
Today I was at the gym and these two meat heads were being their general loud mouthed selves going on about drinking all night, getting up for class, sleeping through said class, and then coming to the gym to throw weights around…. And tacos! I guess there’s some kind of Taco Bar Thursday at one of the residence halls at ISU and they just kept going on about tacos. So here I am, working out, trying to mind my diet to trim some pound, and they keep just going on and on about these tacos – beef tacos, shrimp tacos, “I ate so many tacos last time I was like ‘uuuuuuhhhhh’ ” Taco Taco Taco.
I should tell you, I love tacos. I like chicken tacos, fish tacos, beef and bean, bean and cheese, tofu, avocado. Tacos are probably hands down my favorite food. After my 40 minutes of chest and bicep exercises are up I am jonesing for some freaking tacos. If I don’t get some tacos stat I’m going to have a serious melt down of give me now fits.
But I’m eating clean. I can’t have a cheat meal for 2 more whole days! Taco seasoning is loaded with msg, artificial flavors, weird gluten-something-soy-mono-no-what-the-crap-is-that-chemical-doing-in-my-food-type ingredients.
Wait.
I WILL make this work.
Taco seasoning wasn’t always packages in some little paper-plastic-aluminum sealed pouch. NO. Tacos have existed as long as flat bread – which is longer than sliced bread.
I will MAKE taco seasoning that is clean and on hand and delicious.
And so, after a quick look around on allrecipes.com I found this brilliantly easy recipe for a homemade taco mix, which I then modified thusly.
Taco Terror Craving Mix
For those times you are craving tacos, but don’t have any taco seasoning on hand.
Ingredients:
- 1 T chili powder
- 1/2 t. garlic powder
- 1/2 t. onion powder
- 1/4 t. dried oregano
- 1/2 t. crushed chipotlé pepper with seeds
- 1 1/2 t. ground cumin
- 1 t. mineral salt
- 1 t. black pepper
Directions:
Whisk, smash, or blend it all together. I used my handy mortar and pestle that my sister gave me, but a small food processor or little whisk would work really well too.
To cook:
Cook up meat of your choice – I did shredded boiled chicken today, but ground anything would work well too – drain off excess grease.
Combine meat, taco mix, 1/2 cup water, and 1/2 t better than bouillon (I used beef today, but chicken or veg would taste good too). You can also use 1/2 cup of the stock of your choice to replace the water and bouillon.
Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, simmer and stir occasionally until the water/stock has evaporated off.
Taco Toppings I love:
- black beans mashed with diced red onions
- cilantro
- tomatoes
- salsa
- sour cream
- shredded cheese
- lettuce
- avocado
We enjoyed the way it turned out so well that we had it for dinner too. I might make some more and have turkey tacos tomorrow! I do love tacos.
I hope you enjoy making your own taco mix as much as I have. It’s fun, easy, and much cheaper than store bought.
Until Next Time!
Kristin Michelle Roach
How ironic, my husband and I just made homemade chicken tacos today! We don’t use taco seasoning either. Instead we sauteed green peppers and onions with some salt, black pepper, cumin, and garlic powder then added the mixture to our black bean mush. We also made our own tortillas from scratch, something we’ve been doing ever since we were in the Peace Corps. They are really simple; just flour, warm water, butter and salt. We usually make our own salsa, but as a treat, Jon picked up some fresh stuff at the mexican restaurant down the street. We always use greek yogurt in lou of sour cream. It adds a nice texture and coolness to the mix. I LOVE our homemade guacamole, but we didn’t have cellantro or lime so instead we just mushed up the avocado to add to the rest. It was our first real dinner in ages and SO good!