taco night?

I love tacos! It's one of my favorite dinners.

When it comes to tacos, I really love grinding my own chicken breasts. The ground chicken you often buy in stores (unless labeled 97-99% fat free) has skin ground in with the meat. I buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts and trim the fat off. Then I cut them into 1" cubes and pulse them through my food processor until fully ground.

I'll usually toss that in a pan with some homemade taco seasoning (that way I can control the sodium) -- there is a fabulous recipe on AllRecipes.com. I'll add in some corn, reduced sodium black beans, lettuce, tomatoes, jalapeño, avocado and cheese.

I either like soft tacos or taco salads. For soft tacos, I use Target's Market Pantry brand low-carb flour tortilla (80 calories per tortilla with 11g of fiber!) It's the green labeled package in the tortilla aisle. I don't really care about the low-carb, I just love the high fiber count. Or if I'm having a taco salad, I'll crush up some whole grain corn taco shells and build my salad around those.

As far as cheese goes, I like full-fat all the way. It tastes better (and melts into the warm ground chicken) better than reduced-fat cheese. Plus, because I am using home-ground chicken breasts (which have much less fat than ground beef, 93/7 turkey, or 90/10 store-ground chicken) I have the space in my macros for a higher fat cheese.

I use ground chicken or turkey and make salads instead of individual tacos.

I use the broken pieces in the bottom of the bag of tortillas and throw them on the top to give it that taco crunch.

It is also easier to add a bunch more stuff that would fall out of the shell if trying to eat a taco, like beans and avocado.

If I am in a hurry, I make the salad with rotisserie chicken and a bag of lettuce from the grocery store.

Here is a pic of a taco salad that I make:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=483931168348130&set=pb.282449018496347.-2207520000.1392737312.&type=3&theater

I am mexican and I cook my tacos the original way. Lean ground beef or ground turkey, I don't use seasoning, I use onions, pepper and little garlic, I don't buy taco shells, I use corn tortillas and I never put sour cream and cheese, I use guacamole and homemade salsa because I like my food spicy.

La Tiara shells are very light and crispy, and low carb which probably appeals to a lot of people.

These are SOOOOOO good too - Smaller than an old el paso shell but I think they taste way better.

I make them with Yves Mexican ground round. Saves a ton of calories and isn't oily gross like meat can be.

For everyone saying lean beef and low fat cheese, sour cream etc, what makes that any healthier?

Who said healthier? It's lower calories. Much easier to fit two 160 calories tacos in my day than two 300 calories ones. Plus I can hardly tell the difference in taste when it's all mixed in anyway... It might be less filling, but it doesn't bother me one bit.

Anything where you season the meat a lot, switching to turkey or chicken is kind of a no brainer for me. I agree, tastes exactly the same and I prefer it being less greasy. When I have a steak I have a steak. When I'm making tacos, or chili or something, no reason not to go with the turkey.

Easy Chicken Tacos
Place 3-4 skinless chicken breasts in crock pot. Add 1 cup of your favorite salsa. Cook on low for 5 hours or 3 hrs on high. If chicken is frozen, add 30 mins. When done, shred the chicken and start making tacos!

I make my tacos with ground turkey. Has hardly any to no grease.

Mmm love tacos! Could make your own taco seasoning and i use cheese shells instead of tortillas. Just had them tonight!

If you really want to enjoy taco night, be sure to use protection.














Grease splatter is no joke!

We have taco Tuesday every week at our house. Really it's Mexican food. Sometimes I make the crunchy American tacos, chicken or steak fajitas, you can put chicken breast with salsa in the crockpot and make shredded chicken tacos. My faveorite is to make shredded beef tacos using bottom round roast a can of beef consumee one orange juiced crushed red pepper and an onion halved. Either simmered on the stove, or in a low oven or crockpot. Shred when done. I sometimes make a home version of cilantro lime rice, and corn salsa like chipotles.
The shredded beef tacos are my go to dish when I need to prepare a meal for a family. With all the toppings there is usually something for everyone.

Am I the only one who weighs everything on their tacos? I weigh out one serving of everything and try to fit it in one taco.

I make a taco salad - I skip the shells/wraps all together. I sometimes add cheese, sometimes don't.

So basically lettuce, hamburger, seasoning, salsa, sour cream... yummy!

If I do want a real one - I get the 80 calories wraps!

plain black beans
refried beans
fat free sour cream
romaine lettuce as holder instead of taco shell/tortilla