Quick Tip Tuesday: Make your own Taco Seasoning!

Tacos are a staple food in our household. In fact, they make an appearance on our menu just about every week. We used to buy the pre-made taco seasoning packets to season our meat, but once I looked at the ingredients...

From the Old El Paso Website:
"Chili pepper, salt, maltodextrin, spice, onion powder, corn starch, yellow corn flour. Contains less than 2% of: partially hydrgenated soybean oil, silicon dioxide (anticaking agent), sunflower and/or cottonseed oil, natural flavor, ethoxyquin (preservative)."

Um, YUCK! Maltodextrin? Hydrogenated oil? Preservatives? and what the heck is "spice"... aren't these packets supposed to be just spices in the first place?
No thanks, I'll make my own!

We love this recipe from All Recipes for taco seasoning, and best of all, making your own seasoning is totally cheap, easy, and customizable to your tastes! Heres what we use per one pound of meat:

1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

This can be made ahead of time and stored, but it is very easy to measure out these spices in the time it takes to brown ground turkey or ground beef. I usually add it into the drained meat with a little water to help it mix in evenly. I also like to add a little of this spice mix to black beans if we use those in our tacos.

I hope you enjoyed this "Taco Tuesday" quick tip! Thanks for checking in :) See you on Friday for a super easy fall treat that you can toss in your crock pot!

xo Allison