Weeknight Tacos

My husband and I love tacos. If you’re a real taco fanatic, you might not agree with what we consider to be “tacos” but with love it and, frankly, that’s all that matters. The good thing is that we can make them with any meat we have; ground beef, chicken breast, shrimp, or ground turkey. I’ve also read recently about lentils and quinoa tacos which I will probably try in the near future. As long as you have tortillas (I prefer flour tortillas), you’re good to go. We’ve learn to improvise everything else that goes in it. For starters, we want lettuce, right? Through our many taco nights we’ve learned to deal with different leafy vegetables. For example, one night, my lovely husband came back from the grocery store with a green cabbage, thinking it was boston lettuce. After laughing it off, we decided to cut it up and give it a try. The taste was definitely different but it was surprisingly good. I also like to use spinach instead of lettuce to get more healthy benefits.

So, last night, we ended up with “Mexican mix” cheese, a mixture of shredded lettuce (from our garden, yay!) and spinach, diced tomatoes, chicken breast (seasoned with spring onions, paprika, sea salt, pepper and fresh cilantro) and avocado. The only extra thing I wish I had added to the taco fest was grilled corn. I forgot that I had ears of corn in the fridge and I only thought about it once we were eating. Next time, maybe… 🙂 As for the sauce, I like the Ortega mild taco sauce while my husband has an admitted addiction to Cholula hot sauce (hence the half-gallon bottle you can see in the back of the picture).

Let’s take a moment to talk about the reason why I’m so glad I started using avocado. As wrong as it might sound to avid taco fans, I’ve always loved to put some mayonnaise on my tortilla before filling it up. As I kept reading about the healthy benefits of avocados, I figured I could try spreading that on my tortilla instead. What an awesome discovery! Now I don’t have to worry about using unhealthy mayo and I get extra taste and benefits as a bonus!

I’d love to hear what you all put in your tacos or what healthy substitutions you like to make!