Taco Takeover: From Christa's Kitchen

Taco Tuesday! YES! We did this a lot when I was growing up. It probably was one of my favorite meals. My mom would brown ground beef with a packet of taco seasoning. She would grab a pack of shredded cheese, a tub of sour cream, jar of salsa, and chop lettuce, tomato and onion.  We would put all of that inside a crunchy taco shell. This is an American style taco and it was gooood! Now, I wasn’t about to give up on one of my favorites, so today I’ll show you how I changed things and still keep the flavor and reduce fat and calories.

Mom’s Taco Recipe

My tacos would look something like this

1lb ground beef

1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese 

8oz sour cream

1 jar of salsa

1-2 tomatoes (diced)

½ onion (diced)

½ head shredded lettuce

1 packet taco seasoning

Package of crunchy taco shells

1^st ground beef is going to be replaced with lentils

2^nd cheese and sour cream are out. I don’t use dairy free cheese or sour cream because it is still high in fat, but that’s up to you.

3^rd I’m going to add chopped cilantro and lime juice with the tomato and onion for a nice mild pico de gallo. Mild for the kids, I keep the jalapenos on the side.

4^th replace crunchy shells for soft corn tortillas

Now I want to share the difference in fat and calories in both recipes:

Ground Beef 90% lean 50g of FAT 970 calories / 85% lean 65g of FAT 1050 calories

Cheese 1cup 38g of FAT 460 calories 2 cups 76g of FAT 920 calories

Sour Cream 42g of FAT 450 calories

Taco shells (pkg of 10) 28g FAT 650 calories

I do realize one person wouldn’t eat 2 cups of cheese, 8oz of sour cream, 1lb of ground beef with 10 taco shells. But, I bet you’d eat at least 3, I know I did. So, after t everything is totaled divide by 10 then multiply by 3.  You’ll be surprised.

TOTAL FAT 158-211g

CALORIES 2480-3020

NO FIBER!

AFTER THE RENO:

1LB Lentils 2g of FAT 520 calories

Corn tortillas (10 tortillas) 7.5g FAT 500 calories

TOTAL FAT 9.5g

CALORIES 1020

Remember this is for the entire recipe and we are just comparing fat and calories of the selected ingredients. I don’t worry about calories/fat in fruit or veggies. I focus on the things that make a difference.

35g of FIBER in ONE POUND OF LENTILS!

 Figures above are a good estimate but not exact. Figures are from http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/

Taco Takeover: From Christa’s Kitchen

PREP 10 min
COOK 10 min

Taco “meat”

1 lb cooked lentils

1 packet of taco seasoning

½ cup water

Place lentils in skillet over med-high heat. Then sprinkle seasoning on top and add water, stir until dissolved. Reduce heat and simmer until it thickens.

Just added water

5 min later it thickened

Pico de Gallo

2 cups of tomato (diced)

½ cup of onion (diced)

2-3 TBSP of cilantro (finely chopped)

Juice of 1 lime

Salt to taste

Mix all above ingredients in bowl. 

Brown rice, lentils, pico, romaine, & corn tortillas

1-2 cups of shredded lettuce or spinach

CORN TORTILLAS

BROWN RICE  (OPT)

So I cheated a little bit with this dinner and made more of a taco salad instead of individual tacos. I had a few corn tortillas on the side and then made my tacos.  Either way works!

My plate

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