×
Select Page

Old-School Crunchy Tacos

Portland, Oregon:  The goal for the day was to stay home ALL DAY and I met my goal. (However... even with working out on the treadmill... I did not reach my step goal. Still, there is something to be said about staying home all day, accomplishing tasks.)

Lunch was yet another noodle bowl - this time with celery and carrots and baby kale leaves on the bottom.

At the Asian grocer the other day, Dave asked why I don't just use the instant packages of ramen. I asked him to look at the sodium content. Nearly every brand sold had over 1200mg of sodium! Why? I think a bowl of noodles with over 1200mg of sodium (and all sorts of other chemicals) is a ridiculous thing to eat. Never mind that I practically lived on ramen (10 for $1) in college. So, I boil a pot of noodles and I boil a pot of stock. At least I know what is in there. And I do add salt. Just enough.

Taco Tuesday! If you recall from our lunch at Chipotle this weekend, I was served a crunchy taco. Back in the day, I would brown a pound of ground turkey or beef, add the spice mix and serve tacos in crunchy shells with shredded lettuce, shredded cheddar, and chopped tomato. (Talk about a sodium hit!) It had been a very long time since this crunchy item had been enjoyed, so I added old-school taco shells to the shopping list. They were good!

But not as good as a fried taco. In the Palm Springs area, a crunchy taco is a soft-shell corn tortilla, filled with meat/cheese/beans, folded and fried on each side until the shell becomes crispy and the filling ingredients become all melty. It's a greasy delicious mess to eat.

The filling for our tacos tonight were a combination of black beans, pinto beans and green chilies (all from cans), with cumin, coriander and chili powder. Toppings were pico de gallo (from the grocer) and avocado slices.

The dinner didn't take but a few minutes to prepare.

They would have been much more enjoyable with grated cheddar.

And though we did enjoy the crunch, I will probably not be buying crunchy taco shells again. The packaging was out of control. (Though, remember in the olden days... three or four, or more, shells were broken when you opened the box?) Now the shells are protected with bullet-proof armor. Our packaging IS recyclable, but still - TOO MUCH packaging! I will stick to regular corn tortillas.

INDEX OF VEGAN MONTH MENUS

Until my next update, I remain, your crunchy correspondent.