“It’s raining tacos, From out of the sky, Tacos, No need to ask why...” I have had this song by Parry Gripp stuck in my head ever since we went on vacation with friends in July, 2019. We made tacos several times that week. One evening, while my friend and I perused some quaint little shops, our hubbies played with the kids outside on the sidewalk. We exited the shop only to hear all 5 of them singing this song at the top of their lungs and shouting “cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese!”
It’s been stuck in my head ever since. Let that sink in for a moment. I’ve had this as an earworm for over 6 months. Earworms, much like communicable diseases, spread easily from person to person. But unfortunately, unlike communicable diseases, no amount of bubble-gum flavored pink goo is going to GET THEM OUT OF MY HEAD.
Nonetheless, I continue to make a lot of tacos. In fact, they are my go-to recipe when hosting dinner parties for mixed company—meaning both carnivores and herbivores. Because I make tacos so frequently, I’ve found a way to make them quickly and healthily. Hence, this recipe is called “10-Minute Tacos.” And no joke, they can be made in 10 minutes flat—I timed it!
10-Minute Tacos
Equipment
- frying pan (preferably a seasoned cast iron skillet)
- spatula
- sharp knife
- Cutting board
Ingredients
- 1 lb organic grass-fed ground beef (93% lean)
- 1 15-oz can organic black beans
- 2 tomatoes
- 2 avocados
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
- 1-2 packages taco shells
- salsa
- 1 spritz avocado oil cooking spray
Instructions
- Make sure the ground beef is thawed and ready to go. I typically freeze my ground beef, so this necessitates thawing it in the fridge overnight or by whatever method you prefer.
- Spritz the cast iron pan with avocado oil and preheat. Should only take a minute or so.
- Add thawed ground beef to pan and brown the meat, using a spatula to stir every minute or so. The meat should take less than 10 minutes to cook thoroughly.
- While meat is cooking, wash and chop avocados and tomatoes.
- Open can of black beans and rinse and drain.
- Grate the extra sharp cheddar cheese.
- After meat has finished cooking, serve buffet style, allowing everyone to layer their taco toppings in the shells. Eat and enjoy!
Notes
10 Minutes Total
This meal can truly be made in 10 minutes, start to finish—but you have to be on it—no distractions! The key is to thaw your meat and wash your produce ahead of time.
I like to wash all my produce when it comes into the house so that it’s prepared whenever I need it. I just soak everything for 15-20 minutes in a clean sink filled with water, 2TB of baking soda and a couple drops of soapnut extract. Then I rinse everything and allow the veggies to dry thoroughly before putting them away. According to a recent study at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the baking soda supposedly does a fantastic job of removing pesticides. This is really helpful to know for when organic produce is either unavailable or unaffordable. I have no way to truly test this study myself, but using baking soda to wash produce is cheap, easy, and I figure it can’t hurt to try it. (Consumer Reports did a great article on this practice in October, 2017.)
If you clean your produce ahead of time, then, when you are ready to cook, your veggies are already clean and you can chop the veggies, prepare the black beans and grate the cheddar cheese all while the ground beef is cooking.
Variations
To boost the nutritional value of these tacos, I almost always replace lettuce with baby spinach. My kids don’t notice the difference when it’s layered under all the toppings. However, feel free to use whichever you have on hand.
I love that this meal can accommodate groups of people with all kinds of dietary needs. Vegan? Just skip the ground beef and cheese. The tacos are delicious without them. Keto? Skip the beans and replace the taco shells with butter lettuce. Gluten free? There’s no gluten to be found.
I’ve even tried making these with Beyond Meat (a plant-based ground meat substitute). Honestly, it was delicious and my kids couldn’t tell the difference. And for the first time in 10+ years, it was nice to be able to eat something that actually tasted like meat. It was definitely a treat for me. Beyond Meat is the only meat substitute I’ve found (thus far) that doesn’t contain soy protein isolate. (Because of my endometriosis, I avoid processed soy like the plague because it contains a lot of phytoestrogens which mimic the body’s natural estrogen and can potentially wreak havoc on my system. Recent studies are unclear as to whether or not soy helps or hurts endometriosis, but for me, I’d rather not take the chance.)
That said, Beyond Meat is considered a highly processed food, which makes me a bit leery. Until I can do some more research on it, I plan to use it sparingly—like once or twice a month, max.
Equipment
I always use my cast iron pan to brown the ground beef. It cooks evenly and quickly and is virtually non-stick. I have several sizes of the Lodge Cast Iron Skillets that I repeatedly use. They are great quality, durable, affordable and easily bought on Amazon. Honestly, I cannot recommend them enough! The 8-inch skillet is extremely versatile and costs less than $10! What’s not to love?
Leftovers
Save your leftovers, people! The leftovers from these tacos make for a phenomenal taco salad the next day that comes together in about 5-minutes flat. In fact, tomorrow’s blog post will probably include that recipe. Enjoy!