Taco Bowls

 

I started planning meals weekly in my beloved Hobonichi Weeks which I am also using as a health and fitness journal. It's really helped with cutting down on grocery expenses AND time AND back and forth with my husband about what to have for dinner- why did nobody tell me about meal planning?! Tonight on the menu: taco bowls. 

I didn't plan on looking up a recipe for this as it's pretty straightforward, but browsing TikTok for recipes brings me a lot of joy, so I searched it up. That's how I was blessed (?) with the idea of adding potatoes to the bowl. So, I quickly chopped the remainder of my yellow potatoes into bite-sized chunks, tossed with olive oil and seasonings (s + p, garlic, paprika and cumin) and threw them in the air fryer for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Easy. Normally I'd boil them first to maximize crispiness, but it's Tuesday night and I'm exhausted.

Next, I started on the meat. I browned a pound of ground beef and drained the grease, then seasoned with my own homemade taco seasoning. Store-bought will suffice of course, but I threw this together once and it's worked just fine. I can say it's got cumin, paprika and garlic powder, but don't remember the exact recipe I found on Google. 

Once the meat was thoroughly seasoned I added about 1 1/3 cups of beef broth and brought to a gentle boil. Then I allowed it to simmer for about 10-15 minutes covered.

Meanwhile, I prepared the rice and beans. Knorr Spanish Rice (I'M SORRY, YES IT'S STORE-BOUGHT) and a can of black beans. Like I said- Tuesday. Exhausted.

I ended up adding 5 more minutes to allow the beef to simmer, because apparently 1 1/3 cups of liquid was a little too much. Or I simmered it for too few minutes. Or some other 3rd thing.

Also, the rice stuck to the pan to no one's surprise, so I took it off the heat with ~1 minute to spare. When 5 additional minutes wasn't enough for the meat, I kept the lid off and let it simmer ANOTHER 5 minutes. In the meantime I microwaved the black beans for about 2 1/2 minutes. I always season them with salt and pepper, btw.

Once assembled and garnished with cheese, sour cream and fresh herbs if you're so inclined, you get the masterpiece shown above. Yeah... it's not the most aesthetically pleasing meal, but it was still not too bad. And not expensive or particularly unhealthy (if you omit the potatoes and garnish). 7/10.