Homemade Taco Seasoning

I try not to use too many pre-prepared products when cooking, as they're not typically the healthiest and are tend to be chock-full of products that you can't even pronounce. Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food provides an excellent discussion of how the majority of what we eat nowadays consists of man-made products that didn't even exist 100 years ago and that are not healthy to be eating. In my opinion, the book needs to be interpreted with a bit of moderation, otherwise you could drive yourself crazy trying to follow his principles of health eating. However, his arguments seem quite sound and convincing to me (ex. only eat foods your grandmother would recognize, only eat foods whose ingredients you can pronounce, etc.). I definitely recommend this book as a good read.

So that being said, I use the following recipe to season beef when making tacos instead of using the prepared Old El Paso seasoning packets. The taste isn't quite the same, but I find it similar enough. I sometimes stir some water into the beef to blend in the spices and then just let it cook off prior to serving.

It hadn't crossed my mind yesterday when making this that this is the most impractical meal to make when you have a month old baby. Almost all meals are now eaten with one hand while breastfeeding Logan with the other. Tortillas are messy enough to eat with two hands!! I don't think that I'll be making this again for awhile!



1 tsp:
chili powder
cumin
cilantro (I used ground coriander b/c I usually don't have fresh coriander on hand, but I'm sure that would be better)
oregano
garlic powder
dried onions
seasoning salt

Add to taste, as desired:
black/red pepper
paprika
dried chilis