Tacos Locos -- These are CRAZY good!

Before we went GF, one of our favorite dinners (and extremely easy, too) was meat burritos/soft tacos on flour tortillas. I was never a big fan of the ready made crispy taco shells from the grocery store. I though they tasted like cardboard even when I followed the directions for heating them and they usually had many more ingredients than just corn and salt. And of course there were no guarantees that the corn used was non-GMO but that is for another blog post =)

When I first began this journey, it was laughable how naive (and uninformed) I truly was. Part of the problem was, of course, that my family did NOT have a diagnosed ALLERGY to gluten, but rather were asked to try removing it along with sugar for the sake of our adrenal glands. If our problem had been an allergy, I am sure I would have been given a much more comprehensive list of foods to avoid, but as it was, I had to figure things out, for the most part, on my own.

So when we first started this journey, I thought that flour tortillas had "less" flour in them and so therefore had "less" gluten...go ahead and laugh. I know. It seems so silly to me now, too. But at least now you all understand how truly I was walking blind at the beginning!

Long story short, I eventually discovered that my reasoning about tortillas was dead wrong and mourned what I thought was the loss of my all-time favorite, quick, last-minute meal. Then, through a sweet friend, we discovered the wonder of soft corn tortillas! The first time I had them, all I could say was, "Why have I never had these?" They were soooo good! And a quick perusal of the ingredients told me all I needed to know: corn, water, salt, lime. Wahoo!!!! Taco night was back and, in my opinion, better than ever!

On a side note, I am a huge advocate for non-gmo foods. It was a bit tougher to try and find corn tortillas made with non-gmo corn (85% of America's corn crop is now genetically modified in some form or another) but I am a determined woman, and after some digging, I found what I was looking for! =)

Here is a link to purchase my favorite brand if you can't find it in your local grocery store: www.amazon.com/La-Banderita-Yellow-Corn-Tortillas/dp/B00BCNPRTS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1362590945&sr=8-3&keywords=la+banderita+corn+tortillas

Note: They are in the process of getting certified as non-gmo/organic, which means it is not on their labels yet, but I have been assured by one of my other blogger friends who wrote an extensive letter to their company, that they responded back to her with an affirmative "yes we are exclusively non-gmo corn users"


Taco Night:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil
12 to 16 soft corn tortillas (small taco size)

1 lb. ground meat of your choice (or vegetable protein for you vegetarians out there)
1 16oz. can/jar kidney beans, drained and rinsed
McCormick Taco Seasoning (my fave because it has no MSG)
4 to 6 Tbspns. fresh chopped cilantro (for small amounts to sprinkle on tacos)
1 12oz. can sliced black olives, drained (for small amounts to sprinkle on tacos)
1 to 2 cups shredded cheese of your choice (for small amounts to sprinkle on tacos)
Sour Cream (I like Daisy brand, it has 3 ingredients: milk, cream, and salt)

Optional:
Diced Tomatoes
Shredded Lettuce
Sliced avocado or guacamole
Green or red taco sauce

Heat olive oil in small skillet on medium high until it crackles when you drip a drop of water into it. Using tongs, slide a single tortilla into the hot oil and count to 2 seconds. Use the tongs to fold the tortilla in half while it is cooking in the hot oil. Count to 7 seconds. Use the tongs to turn the folded tortilla onto it's other side to ensure even cooking. Count to 5 seconds. Remove the tortilla from the hot oil, being sure to drain excess oil back into the skillet before placing on paper towels (or brown paper bag) to drain and cool. Repeat until you have cooked enough tortillas to serve your family. (12 to 16 will feed a family of 4 depending on how many teenagers there are, lol!)

Brown ground meat in large skillet until fully cooked. Drain fat and rinse. Add kidney beans to ground meat and stir until fully incorporated. Do not mash the beans. Leave them whole. Add taco seasoning and a small amount of water until you get your desired amount of flavor and moisture and mix thoroughly. Remove from heat. 

Build tacos using the cooked shells/meat and as much or as little of the remaining ingredients as you please! But, for an absolutely knock out taco, try at least one with a little bit of everything listed, even if you are leery of some of the ingredients. They truly are FABULOUS!

Note: this is just a stock photo of tacos made with the ingredients listed above. I will post an actual photo of one of my own tacos the next time I make them =)