Taco Seasoning

See that kitty up in the header? His name is Sammy. And Sammy is a beeeeeg taco salad fan! Well technically, he's a carb slut and he's lusting after the corn tortilla chips broken up on the top. Someday if I have help, you'll see a thought bubble coming from his wee noggin that says "I can haz taco salad?"! For those of you that might be concerned that I'm feeding our 15 year old boy taco salad, you can stop "freakinout" as my young niece Kate would say. Much to his chagrin, he subsists solely on a raw food diet...'cept for the stuff I happen to drop while cooking. He's quite the sneaky hoover.
All this is leading up to writing up a recipe for the seasoning mix I've just started using. Most of you probably have something you like already, and I'm the only one that's just started mixing up her own taco spice combo in lieu of "the envelope". But, in the case that there are any other people out there that still need converting...here's the recipe.


Taco Seasoning:
(This will make enough for ~2 lbs of meat...if not a little more)

This seasoning mix approximates the icky little envelopes of taco seasoning you can buy, but without all the icky little things in it! Tasty, easy, and you can always adjust the spice and salt level to your tastes.

4 Tbs chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp paprika
5 tsp ground cumin
4 tsp kosher salt (if using regular salt, cut back the amt....or you can just cut this from the mix altogether and just add whatever amt. of salt you want to the meat when cooking)
2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp ground cayenne

In a small bowl, mix together chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, oregano, paprika, cumin, salt, pepper and cayenne. Store in an airtight container.

Taco Meat:

In a small bowl mix 2 1/2-3 TBS spice with 1 1/3 tsp of arrowroot powder, or 2 tsp cornstarch and set aside.
Brown 1 pound of ground turkey, or beef with fresh diced onion, drain.
Add spice mix, 3/4 cup water, and simmer for 5 minutes.

Use in tacos, or as we did last night atop of a big pile of thinly sliced Romaine with all kinds of other goodnesses for taco salad.