MAKES 12 TACOS
I like to do interactive dinners that bring my family together and Taco Night is a household fave. With tacos you can pick and choose exactly what you want. And they make a great spread if your kids have different tastes and needs. One of my friends has teenagers and in her case, “My boys had really severe allergies and my daughter would only want to eat things that would kill them” she says, so this recipe developed a way that everyone could choose what they wanted, staying happy and healthy!
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 red bell pepper, seeded, peeled, cubed on smallest cube
plate of your PrepOn Kitchen Prep & Chop
1 clove garlic, chopped fine
1 small shallot, cubed on smallest cube plate of your PrepOn
Kitchen Prep & Chop
1 pound ground chicken, beef or turkey
2 tablespoons of plain tomato sauce (don’t use Marinara
because it’s seasoned)
1/4-1/2 cup bone broth (if I’m making beef tacos, I use beef
broth, for chicken or turkey tacos, I use chicken broth)
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 packet of organic taco seasoning
SURROUNDIN’S
12 taco shells (1 box)
Soft tortillas (if desired)
Sliced avocado or guacamole
Tomatoes, seeded and cubed on smallest cube plate of your
PrepOn Kitchen Prep & Chop
Cilantro, chopped
Salsa
Sour cream
Iceberg lettuce, sliced into thin strips
Grated cheddar cheese
Hot sauce (optional)
METHOD
1 Heat olive oil and butter in your PrepOn Kitchen 12” Frypan over medium-low heat. Add bell pepper, garlic and shallot. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often, or until shallot is soft and translucent. Add meat, tomato sauce, 1/4 cup of broth, cumin and salt. Chop with the flat end of your PrepOn Kitchen Nylon Turner to break up the meat and mix in the taco
seasoning. Cook over medium heat for about 5-7 minutes, or until meat is cooked through (with chicken and turkey sometimes I have to add a little more broth throughout the cooking process to prevent the meat from drying out). Once the taco mixture is cooked, set aside.
2 FOR THE SURROUNDIN’S For soft tortillas, wrap them in stacks of 5 in parchment-lined aluminum foil and warm in a 350°F degree oven for 10 minutes. Then keep them warm and soft by wrapping them in a slightly
dampened clean dish towel.
3 Warm the taco shells on a baking sheet in 350°F degree oven for 5 minutes. Here’s a tip: I layer them loosely inside one other, and gently wedge a metal 1/4 or 1/2 cup measuring cup into the last shell to keep it open so they don’t close up like a clamshell! Be careful after cooking them, as the small metal measuring cup gets very hot.
4 Place all the surroundin’s and meat in pretty dishes in the middle of the table with serving spoons. Dig in!
Make sure to do a quick re-seasoning on your pan because the acid from tomato sauce and taco seasoning can strip the pan seasoning. Simply clean with hot water, place fry pan on your stove, wipe a thin layer of high smoking vegetable oil with a dry paper towel, let it smoke for a moment. Then turn off and allow to cool. Wipe with a dry paper towel.
VARIATIONS All these ingredients can be used the next day for a great taco salad. I’ve also heated broth with the taco meat, chopped spinach and cooked rice and thrown it in a thermos for an awesome nutritious soup on-the-go.