I love Taco night…I love everything about it, from the spicy ground beef to the mounds of freshly cut veggies you pile on top. Taco night was and no doubt will always be a family favorite night as long as I’m cooking and preparing our meals.
Now, as a lot of you know, earlier this year I began living and eating a Paleo lifestyle again…and there was no way I was going to eliminate one of my favorite meals…so I hit the kitchen and came up with a paleo friendly version of Taco Tuesday.
Now to be totally honest here…I don’t buy the 100% grass fed beef…I live in a pretty small town where it can be a challenge finding/buying certain items.
So I have come to terms with the fact that my diet is not 100% paleo, however, I am preparing and cooking meals with the freshest ingredients I can find…all while trying to do it within a fixed weekly budget.
So getting back to Taco Tuesday night and how I have made it paleo friendly was pretty easy actually. I just substituted the corn shells for Romain lettuce leaves and the store bought salsa for my fresh Pico de Gallo. I also substituted the rice in my Mexican rice dish with a cauliflower rice and voila…Taco Tuesday…Paleofied!
These are super healthy and could be made with beef strips, chicken strips or even fish, but for this weeks meal plan the ground beef was on sale, so I tailored a few recipes around it and this was one of them.
If you do decide to cook up a batch of taco meat, I highly suggest you make extra. Tomorrow morning for breakfast will be an omelet with taco beef filling topped with my fresh Pico de Gallo and a few slices of avocado and of course the remaining taco meat will be for lunch as the leftover Taco night meal is really portable.
Just throw your taco meat into a microwave safe container, your leftover cauliflower rice into another microwave safe container, fill a container full of the Pico de gallo and throw a few lettuce leaves into a zip lock bag and you’ll be the envy of your lunch room!
What you’ll need
- 1 ½ – 2 lbs ground beef
- 1 head romaine lettuce
- ½ onion finely diced
- 1 – 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 cup of Pico de Gallo
- 1 avocado, peeled, pit removed, and diced
- 1 – 1 ½ oz of taco seasoning (CLICK HERE to get my homemade recipe)
- ½ cup water
How you’ll put it together
So you’re going to start by adding a bit of Olive oil to a preheated pan adding your onions, garlic and your ground beef. You’re going to cook it on medium heat for about 8-10 minutes or until all of the beef is cooked. I use my potato masher to break the hamburger down as it cooks.
(NOTE: If you’re going to try the potato masher make sure to check that you can use it in your pan…unless your potato masher is made of plastic…I’d hate for you to ruin your good frying pan if it has a Teflon nonstick coating.)
Also, I really suggest draining any excess grease from the pan. I usually pour the mixture into my kitchen strainer and then return the beef/veggie mixture back to the pan.
You’ll then stir in the taco seasoning and the water and set the heat to low. You’re going to let that simmer for about 10 more minutes or until the water has cooked off.
While the beef is simmering you’ll prepare your lettuce leaves and when done you’ll simply spoon your taco meat into the lettuce shells and top with your fresh Pico de Gallo and diced avocado.
I served mine with my Mexican cauliflower rice. If you’d like to give that a try you can find the recipe by clicking HERE.