The Veggie Cooker

Plated Tacos

For tonight’s dinner we took a page out of our old recipe book and then shook things up a bit.  Typically, during our carnivore days, Eric and I would make tacos each Tuesday (hence the clever title).  We’d buy a pound of either ground chicken or beef and cook it up in the skillet.  When the meat was done, we’d add a special mix of spices and about a cup of water, stir and let it simmer until all the water had evaporated.  We’d then fix our tacos withmeat, cheese, sour cream and salsa.

To keep this recipe alive, we needed to rethink the taco filling.  A taco with just cheese, sour cream and salsa is…well, basically just a quesadilla.   I decided to try to saute up some veggies (yellow and red pepper this time) with our same mix of spice in place of the meat.  Still worried that the tacos wouldn’t have enough filling, I decided to add refried beans.  When I went into the fridge to grab the cheese and sour cream, I noticed our leftover olives, a few tomatoes and some lettuce sitting innocently at the sour cream’s side.  Couldn’t hurt, I thought.

So, tonight’s tacos were filled with sautéed peppers, cheese, sour cream, tomato, lettuce, olives, salsa and refried beans.  I

Taco fixings

actually found I liked these better than the standard meat, cheese, sour cream and salsa combo I’d enjoyed in the past.  There was more bite and crunch to the meal for one–I’m not sure why, but I’ve found crunch makes a meal oddly more satisfying.  Makes me feel like I’m accomplishing something, perhaps.

I think Eric on the other hand still missed the meat.  I’ve heard there are meatless protein crumbles (flavored chicken or beef) that you can use for such an occasion.  I think next week I’ll get some from Trader Joe’s and give them a try.

To console himself in his moment of longing for meat, Eric made some nachos with the taco fixings and some Hint of Lime tortilla chips.  That seemed to help him forget his blessed ground meat!