I see these memes often that poke fun at taco-lovers- it'll say something like "I'd love to be skinny, but I'd rather eat tacos" or "I started a diet, but then I saw a taco." They always make it out to seem as though tacos are the work of the devil and cannot fit as a part of a good diet. FALSE! We eat tacos ALL THE TIME in our house!
Let me show you what taco night (which turns into tacos four nights in a row) looks like in our house!
-The meat
When we do tacos, we usually start with grilling both chicken thighs and flap steak. We always grill enough so that all four of us can eat off of it for three or four nights in a row, because why in the world would you want to go through all of the effort for only one night?? We also love doing tacos when we have people over, because, come on, who doesn't love tacos?
The chicken and steak marinate in a green tomatillo sauce and they get thrown on the grill-- we are partial to a charcoal grill here, but anything works.
When it comes off, it is put on to a cutting board and chopped up so that we can grab it and start making our tacos!
Once we finish making our tacos, we throw the extra meat in a large tupperware container and it waits for us in the fridge until the next night!
We don't use ground meat ever when we make tacos and we do NOT use those Taco Bell boxes to make anything.
(excuse all the juices on the cutting board- Charles likes his steak RARE.)
-The toppings
You've got to have options for everyone eating, so the toppings bar is a must-have! I prefer my tacos with lettuce, tomato, guac, and come avocado creme on it.
My husband prefers a street taco- cilantro, lime, and onion.
We also makes a sauteed onion and garlic mix that can be used on tacos, but we also make quesadillas with it. You can drop your meat, cheese, and onion mix on the tortilla, put it on a flat grill pan, and tada! Quesadillas! Once you have the meat and everything already, might as well mix it up!
If you cut enough of your toppings to use for multiple days, you can just throw a cover on it and use it as the same topping bar all week long so that the leftover nights are so super easy!
-The tortillas
While my girls prefer regular flour tortillas or hard corn tortillas, the adults here usually go for something a little different. Siete foods makes the most amazing tortillas. Our last taco night, we bought three different kinds of Siete tortillas: Cassava, Almond, and Chickpea. We also had flour tortillas and corn hard shells available. We like to have a little something for everyone.
Sometimes we don't use any tortillas at all and use large lettuce wraps instead. We might do a taco salad with it (just not use a shell.) There are all sorts of ways to enjoy tacos often without having to worry too much about diet. We make them fit into our lifestyle!
-The guac
While the grill is heating is up, its guac time. My husband's guacamole is such a hit!
The ingredients are all here on the cutting boards: avocados, cilantro, tomato, jalepeno, lime, garlic, red onion, and salt.
The finished product looks like this and is amazing!!
We use Siete foods grain-free chips. They are delicious and keep our taco dinners appropriate for our lifestyle. You can find them all at Whole Foods to try them out!
Notice that I didn't mention rice or beans, as we don't eat those on our taco nights at home. We fill up on the good stuff :) We do, however, drink a margarita or have a beer with it every now and then. Pacifico or Sol are great beers for taco night when you want to treat yourself!
We LOVEEEE taco night! Hopefully this can help you get some more tacos in your life without thinking it'll pack on the pounds. Let me know if you have any suggestions to make our taco night even better, and let me know if this helped you any!
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