May 3: Taco Night!

As many of you know, I am a huge veggie taco fan. Excessive veggie taco fan. Would eat them three nights a week if I could (and I used to when I lived alone). More often than not, we have the bulk of these ingredients in our house for a quick, easy meal.

We had an avocado left over, so I made a quick guacamole with the ingredients we had in the house. I chopped up two smaller tomatoes and diced a bit of red onion (maybe about a 1/3 of a large red onion).

Only two days ahead of Cinco de Mayo. Oh well.

Into this mixture, I added juice from a freshly squeezed lime and some salt.

Red pepper, it is not your turn yet. Back off the cutting board!

I added a medium sized avocado. I cube the avocado before scooping it out into the bowl. While holding the halved avocado in my hand, I (very) carefully use the knife to cut diagonally across the avocado in both directions (see below), so it comes out cubed. I find it's much easier to mash it this way.

I am not sure how I took this photo, now that I'm looking at it. I do not have a third arm, so maybe the spoon is wedged in the avocado, and is not being held by my right hand. How mysterious.

Here is everything all mixed together...were we to have fresh cilantro, I would have added that as well.

I taste the guacamole periodically to be sure it has enough salt and lime, and balance it out as needed. And because I am usually starving and staring at guacamole without eating it takes tremendous willpower that I do not have.

For the taco filling, I slice about half of a red onion and a pepper (green, red, whatever we have) into strips and pan fry it with a little olive oil.

We also include some rinsed canned black beans. You can pop them in the microwave for about 2 minutes, and they come out completely cooked.

After the veggies are done cooking, I wipe out the pan to get rid of the excess olive oil, and warm the tortillas. They get nice and soft after about 2 minutes on each side. My favorites are the El Milagro corn tortillas.

We pile everything into the taco shell. These tacos included the black beans, the cooked pepper and red onion, a scoop of jarred salsa, grated cheddar cheese, sour cream, the guacamole and some diced radishes on top.  

Yum! I love how colorful these tacos are.

Start to finish, with making a mini guacamole probably takes about 15 minutes. They are super easy and a quick dinner option if you are short on time, especially if you use the canned black beans. If you're looking for meat options, we've made them with seasoned chicken breasts, leftover steak, pan-fried fish, etc. with minor modifications in the ingredients (for example, adding cabbage, taking out cheese and making quick lime zest/sour cream concoction for fish tacos) based on what we have and what will go well with the protein being used. Chicken breasts marinated in taco seasoning or other spices also goes well.

In my opinion, the avocado is good simply diced and put on top of the taco, if you don't have the time/energy/ingredients to create a makeshift guacamole.