taco

My Go-To Taco Seasoning

June 7, 2017

Taco seasoning has to be one of my most used, if not THE most used, seasoning or spice (other than salt and pepper) in my spice cabinet. I use it on so many things, it’s not even funny. If you have been around here a while, you know that’s true. My favorite things to make are all things Mexican (or Mexican-inspired), which means I use the spice mix that makes up my taco seasoning in almost every other meal.

Sure, you can buy your own taco seasonings. But making your own at home is so much better because you can control the taste! Say you like really spicy foods, but most commercial taco seasoning is too bland for your taste. Well, when you make your own, you can go crazy with the cayenne. You can also control the salt content, which can sometimes be shockingly high in the store-bought stuff.

All I’m saying is….make your own taco seasoning!

Glad we cleared that up.

HOW I MADE IT

This will be the shortest description of a recipe ever:

Put all the spices in a bowl. Mix them up. Store it in a jar.

Boom. Done. Any questions?

Okay, so maybe you want a little more than that. Like what spices do I use in my taco seasoning, for instance.

The taco seasoning is mostly a mix of garlic powder, chili powder, onion powder, and cumin. At the very least, you got to have these four.

Then to really add some extra spice and flavor I add oregano (Mexican oregano is preferred), cayenne pepper, and chipotle chili powder. Chipotle chili powder really puts this seasoning over the top for me. It adds some heat but also a subtle smokiness.

By the way, don’t you love those spice jar labels? I recently went through my whole spice cabinet and organized it. One of the things I wanted to do was to put everything in the same sized jar and give them cool labels. Since most of my spices are from Savory Spice, I actually was able to buy empty jars from them for super cheap, then I put these labels on any of the jars that didn’t have one.

Anyways, back to the seasoning…

I make a batch of this stuff maybe every month, if not more frequently. I run through it pretty quickly. Here are three of my favorite recipes that all use the seasoning: Taco Chili, Southwest Chicken and Rice Casserole, Fajita Roll Ups.

Really, you could throw it on some chicken breast, ground turkey, ground beef, flank steak, veggies, or black beans and making yourself a really nice taco filling! But don’t limit yourself to just tacos. It’s good on a whole mess of stuff!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:166]

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One Pot Turkey Taco Chili

May 2, 2017

Do you have those recipes that happen on complete accident? I have lots of them. Some of them are goods, some of them are definitely not good. Actually there is really no in between.

This taco chili happened on accident when I started making chili and realized that I didn’t have any canned diced tomatoes. What I did have was a jar of salsa….which is pretty much just a bunch of diced tomatoes (and a few other things).

I was skeptical at first, not knowing if the salsa (I used my favorite pico de gallo) would totally over power the salsa. But then I just decided to lean in and go with it, adding my favorite taco seasoning and turning this into a taco chili. The result: fantastic!

I had every intention of showing you every detailed step of this chili, starting with chopped veggies and every step along the way until you have a nice bowl of chili.

Well, my husband called and I got distracted, so instead I have a picture of chopped veggies and a bowl of the finished chili. You can fill in the blanks, right?

If you have made chili before, this is exactly the same. Except that you will be adding salsa in place of diced tomatoes and taco seasoning instead of your normal chili seasoning.

You could also add some black beans and corn, like I did, to really round out the taconess (Mariam-Webster, I have a new word for you!) of this taco chili.

Then to kick it up even more, you could add your favorite guacamole, maybe a few tortilla chips!

Thats exactly how I ate it. I ditched the spoon and dug right in with a handful of chips. It was just like eating a crunchy taco out of a bowl!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:156]

Southwest Chicken and Rice Casserole

August 24, 2016

Despite my love of cooking, there are just those days where my motivation and inspiration in the kitchen are really lacking. This typically occurs on Wednesday or Thursday when the stress of the work week have just worn me out. On those days, I have to fight the urge to run out and buy dinner (usually something pretty unhealthy) and force myself to make something, even if it’s just baked chicken and vegetables.

This Southwestern chicken and rice casserole was born out of one of those situations. I didn’t want to cook. And I really didn’t want to do dishes. I decided instead to make a quick and easy chicken rice casserole that only required one dish.

In the bottom of a casserole dish, I mixed together rice, chicken stock, sour cream, peppers, onions, and pico de gallo. I topped that off with some chicken breasts seasoned with taco seasoning. I then baked the whole thing in the oven while I snuck in a quick workout.

Don’t you love meals that allow you to multi task!? I sure do!

After the chicken was cooked through, I topped the chicken with some extra pico de gallo and cheese, the popped it back in the oven to get the cheese all melted and delicious.

All that was left after that was to serve it up. My husband and I each served ourselves one chicken breast. But along with the rice, I was full after only eating half a breast. If you want to make this for a larger group, I would recommend cutting each breast in half.

I have officially added this recipe to our list of easy weeknight favorites. It’s one of those recipes that is easy enough to convince me I don’t need to go out to the nearest restaurant, where I will probably make some bad decisions.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:72]

Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas

June 24, 2016

I know I have shared this flour tortilla recipe before, but I wanted to update it since the recipe and pictures didn’t quite survive the transition to my new blog design. But if I am being really honest, I am updating this recipe for myself. I reference this recipe A LOT, so the fact that I couldn’t easily search for it on the blog was not working for me.

We make these flour tortillas as often as we can because they just taste so much better (and are better for you) than the store bought ones which are probably weeks old and packed with preservatives. The tortillas that I make are taste so much like the ones I used to get from the number of the local Mexican food spots I frequented back home in San Diego.

Fresh, homemade tortillas can make just about anything taste good. and they are actually much easier to make than you might think. The recipe is essentially flour, water, oil, and salt. This time around I used coconut oil instead of my usual olive oil. While they were delicious, there was definitely a hint of coconut flavor. If that doesn’t appeal to you, stick with a milder flavored oil, like olive oil.

No fancy equipment is needed for mixing. I just dig right in with my hands to mix all the ingredients together and form into a ball. Once it’s in ball form, I wrap it in some plastic wrap then pop it in the fridge for a few minutes to set up.

After the dough has chilled for a bit, I divide it into evenly sized balls of dough. Mine were about 1.4 oz each, but you can make them as big or small as you want. I then press the dough balls in a tortilla press. A tortilla press is not necessary, but if you think you will be making tortillas on a regular basis, then I would recommend shelling out a couple bucks for one. If you don’t have one, just roll out the dough with a rolling pin. In fact, I like my tortillas pretty thin, so I roll them out even after I have pressed them.

Once I roll out a tortilla, I pass it off to my husband to cook. We have our system down pat! I roll, he cooks. Roll, cook, repeat. His cooking technique is 15 to 20 seconds per side. You will know when the first side is ready because bubbles will start to form. The second side will cook just as quickly!

We like to store the tortillas in a tortilla warmer as we take them off the skillet so they stay warm and don’t dry out. Once we are ready to eat, we just grab a warm tortilla and assemble.

There are few things better than a fresh, homemade tortilla. Which is why I like to spend a few extra minutes to make them if I am cutting some corners on the filling. For instance, my chicken taco recipe is so simple and requires very little time and effort on my part since I let the slow cooker to all the work. To make the chicken I put chicken breasts, a container of pico de gallo, and about 1 tbsp of taco seasoning in a slow cooker and let that cook all day. Then I just shred with two forks. Easy right? But it tastes like I slaved away for hours when it’s wrapped up in these tortillas!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:49]