Clean Tacos and Mexican "Rice"

Last week I posted a picture of our Mexican night dinner consisting of lettuce-wrapped-tacos and quinoa "rice" on my instagram account and within minutes I had comments and texts from friends and family asking for the recipe.

First of all, way to make a girl feel like Julia Childs over here! Wow, all the love made this mediocre mommy cook feel like a kitchen goddess *blushes*. And secondly, you asked and I have delivered. Although I should note that the fanfare will reduce at this point because after you read this and see how absolutely easy this dinner is to put together you will say to yourself, ooooh no wonder she made that.

This dinner is made of three important parts: the tacos, the guacamole, and the quinoa "rice".

To make guacamole, mix avocados, tomatoes, green onion, lime, salt, and cumin into a bowl. For more details including the amount of each ingredient and some tips for preparing a wonderfully delicious guacamole, then follow this slightly more detailed recipe here.

To make tacos, brown a pound of grass-fed, hormone-free beef in a skillet. Once done, mix in taco seasoning (store bought or make your own with some cayenne, garlic salt, paprika, cumin, salt, and oregano) and some water so that it thickens up a bit, about 5 minutes.

Next assemble the tacos to your liking. We layer romaine lettuce leaves (to act as our taco "shell"), then the warm beef, shredded cheese, and homemade guacamole. If we have any on hand, we also add fresh salsa and chopped cilantro.

And just like that you have yourself a clean taco! Does that sound easy or what?

Now for the "rice". You'll need quinoa. Now the thing about quinoa is that it does not taste good. What? Right it doesn't taste good at all. In fact my cousin, affectionately known as Little Wayne, said that quinoa tastes like birdseed. And he's right! Unless seasoned, quinoa tastes rather bland. So in order to make quinoa good, you must add good stuff to it. Basically quinoa is just the healthy protein-rich way to get other good food to your mouth.

To make Mexican "rice" using quinoa you should cook the quinoa according to the directions on the package. (We only use one cup uncooked and because quinoa nearly triples in size that is more than enough for us for dinner and leftovers.)

We used red quinoa but you can use either the red or white, they taste the same!

Once the quinoa is done, add all the good stuff you want to make Mexican "rice". We added yellow pepper, jalapeno, cilantro, green onion, lime, fresh tomatoes and sea salt.

The result was wonderful! It is what you would get if pasta salad and Mexican rice had a baby. But it's so much better for you than pasta salad or rice could ever dream of being!

Once you have all that goodness added, dinner is ready! Put all of that on a plate and serve it up to your hungry family.

Oh and just because they are so cute together, here is Parker Bear and "Little" Wayne together at Thanksgiving 2012!