Soft Tacos

Our family enjoys eating these as we can each make a custom taco by filling our shell with what we like best. I don't remember when I first thought of doing these. I don't think I ever saw it in a recipe book. I probably got the idea after eating at Taco Time.

Quick Tip: Grate cheese in advance and store in Ziplock bags. To keep from sticking, add corn starch or flour
Quick Tip 2: You can cut your lettuce so that it is shredded and keep it in a Ziplock bag for ease of use. Mine will keep for about a week in the fridge. I find our family will eat more lettuce if it is pre-cut.



1 pound Ground beef
½ Onion (chopped)
2 tablespoons Mexican Spice
*Note: the above amounts are only approximate. You will need to adjust amounts to your taste.

Tomato (chopped)
Green Pepper (sliced or chopped)
Lettuce (shredded)
Cheese (grated)
Salsa
Sour Cream
Tortilla shells

Brown ground beef with chopped onion and Mexican Spice. Place cooked ground beef with remaining ingredients on counter or table. Place tortilla shell on plate. Fill in layers across the widest part of the shell with desired ingredients. (Example: ground beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato, green pepper, salsa, sour cream) Fold in both sides then roll.

You can adjust the fillings to whatever you would like. We often use other coloured peppers than just green. My kids don't put much veggies in their tacos, but I put a lot. You can also make these ahead without lettuce or sour cream and then re-heat in the microwave.

Mexican Spice

Our family enjoys Mexican foods like Soft Tacos and Nachos. I used to buy the packages of spice mix from the store, but one day I thought it would probably be better if I made my own mix so that there wasn't so much sodium as three of us in our family have PKD (polycystic kidney disease). So now I have this recipe which tells me which spices to mix. Since we use it a lot, I buy the spice refill bags. Each spice is one bag (or jar, if it doesn't come in a refill bag). The amounts are what the container from the store says. I guess you could adjust it to your family's taste.

100 g Onion Powder/Salt
100 g Garlic Powder/Salt
85 g Chili Powder
80 g Paprika
50 g Cumin
20 g Oregano Leaves (can use ground oregano)
32 g Red Chili Peppers
approx 1-2 tablespoon(s) Salt (if using onion/garlic powders. Omit if using onion/garlic salt)

Mix all spices well in bowl. Store in airtight container.

These are the packages I used the last time I made this batch of spice. And the bowl I mixed them in.

I store my spice in a Tupperware Modular Mate. It is a long oval 1, which is the perfect size.