Taco Seasoning

We love Mexican food. If the rest of the food in the world disappeared, we would be happy. My husband puts everything in a tortilla. Everything. We love having "Mexican night" complete with the music, decorations, and maybe even a little tequila.

What I don't love is premixed taco seasoning. I don't use very much salt in my cooking, so the salt taste is over whelming to me. Instead I prefer to make my own, and it's super easy! This is the recipe that I use for one pound of ground beef:

1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp sea salt (if you use a lot of salt you can add a little extra)
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (we often up it to 1/2 since we like spice!)
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne powder (optional!! Not meant for small children!)
1 tsp ground pepper
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin

Once you have browned the beef, drain off any fat. Then sprinkle in the seasoning and about 1/4 cup of water. Cook until the water is gone. That's it, your meat is ready! You can also make larger quantities of this recipe and store them in an air tight container for the future. Just don't forget to warm up those taco shells!

My other love

We try our hardest to eat healthy. Although some days the healthy meal does get thrown to the side and pizza gets delivered. We aren't perfect. Actually we're far from it. We don't keep ice cream in the house because we'll sit down and eat the entire carton. Seriously. It doesn't matter how big it is. Just talking about ice cream makes me want to go buy some. If I ride my bike to the store will that cancel out the calories? I've actually investigated this numerous times and if I go to the second closest grocery then it does.

For the days where you do want to eat healthy, it's often hard to find a recipe that offers taste. And I don't mean the taste of cardboard. When cruising the world wide web one day I accidentally came across this website from Food Network and this particular collection of recipes. It was love at first site. I printed off seven recipes and had that week's meals planned. The first one I conquered was the Chicken Divan--healthy style. It was love at first bite. These recipes are fantastic! They offer healthy alternatives to meals we love. And they don't leave out the wonderful flavor.

So if you're looking for inspiration, look no further. Browse this collection and then look further at the site. I personally can recommend most every single one of these recipes. (There were a few we didn't make simply because we don't like that meal). Everyone we cooked, we loved. Now go forth and print off Food Network recipes. And use the time you saved searching for an idea for dinner taking a nap.