Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Vegan Tacos

I've actually found one of the tastiest and most successful ways of transitioning to a healthier diet is to take a good look at the meals that your family already loves and find a way to make them healthy (vegan in our case.)  Swapping out a few simple ingredients is a great way to do this.

We are a taco family.  I was raised on tacos.  My husband was raised on tacos.  Our children will be raised on tacos.  We just love tacos around here.  So one of my first challenges was to try and figure out a way to make tacos something that we could turn vegan.  I scoffed at the idea at first ("there is no way you can make a good taco vegan!") but then I embraced it and here is how we have made our tacos vegan.  And still incredibly delicious if I do say so myself.  :)

I start off with sauteing a green pepper and onion in water (I do all my sauteing in water or vegetable broth, read about it here.  I will also be doing a post about this before long.)  Then I added in a package of Morningstar Meal Starter Crumbles and let them defrost, then added in a can of rinsed and drained black beans and a package of taco seasoning.  (You can make your own taco seasoning.  I've seen a few great recipes, but I haven't been able to find one that is exactly to my liking so I'm still experimenting.  If any of you have a great one please share!  I'd love to learn what you use.) The result is this yummy taco "meat":

Garnish the tacos with whatever you'd like.  Here is our assortment from last night:   
I always use spinach because it's packed with vitamins, calcium, and iron.  So it's super good for you.

Here is the rice cheese I was talking about a few posts ago.  My kids love this stuff! 

And the final product.  Yummy yummy tacos!   

This really is one of my families all time favorites.  We have it about once a week.  It's always a hit.  Obviously tacos are one of those things that you can take and run with.  You can do so much with them.  Add whatever you want.  Make it your own.  They are very easy to turn into a healthier option for you family.  Good luck!

Another great recipe tomorrow.  Stay tuned!