taco bell, eat your heart out!

in the spirit of trying to prove that cooking dinner during the week isn't hard or time consuming, i'm posting a recipe (posted below) that i made tonight for some pretty awesome beef tacos. seriously, these were really, really yummy. and extremely easy to make: from prep to table in less than 20 minutes. yes, for reals!

in about as much time as it takes to drive to a taco bell, order and eat a beef meximelt (made of mystery-borderline-dogfood meat and god knows what other chemicals...don't get me wrong, *sigh* i miss them), you can instead have a wholesome, i-know-exactly-what-ingredients-went-into-this dinner.

i used prather ranch ground beef, and it was soooooooo GOOD! some of the best ground beef i've had. (is that a dubious honor? like saying, "those were the best pork rinds, EVER!") but seriously, dudes, if this is what pastured meats are like, i think i'll be able to get used to them pretty easily.

kevin and i really enjoyed this dinner. this is a *great* dish to make on a weeknight. try it out and let me know what you think!


Soft Beef Tacos

Taco beef
2 tsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef
1 cup hot salsa
1/4 cup beef stock
1 tbsp packed brown sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (or not...yuck, i hate cilantro)
juice from half a lime
salt and pepper to taste

Taco condiments
2 cups shredded lettuce
1 cup diced tomatoes
4-6 oz grated sharp cheddar cheese (or cheese of your choice)
salsa
sour cream

12 6" corn or flour tortillas

Heat oil in heavy medium saucepan over moderately high heat. Sauté garlic for about 2 minutes, then add ground beef and sauté until beef is no longer pink. Drain liquid from saucepan. Add salsa, stock, brown sugar, and soy sauce. Bring mixture to boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes until mixture thickens up a bit. While beef is simmering, get the taco condiments ready.

When beef is done, season with salt and pepper to taste, then stir in cilantro and lime juice. Heat tortillas one at a time in a skillet on high heat, about 5 seconds on each side; cover them with a clean kitchen towel to keep warm. Serves 4.