enJOY it

an archived personal and craft blog from Elise Blaha Cripe.

Tacos

The month leading up to our wedding and then the six weeks after, Paul and I were without a permanent place to live. It was a crazy and exciting time but we were so relieved to finally, after ten weeks, find an apartment in San Diego and have a kitchen again (and all our wedding gifts to cook with). To celebrate, we decided to eat only home cooked meals for one month.

I tell this story because, almost two years later, we are right in the middle of another "eat only at home for a month" experiment. This is because Paul is back and excited to be cooking again. And also because with someone else in the house, I feel like meals are worth effort again. And mostly because we ate a lot of meals out on our trip down the coast and were ready for a change. I love this challenge and kind of want it to continue forever.

On Tuesday, we made tacos for the first time. And they were awesome.

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Paul grilled chicken (we LOVE our grill and the plan from here on out is to once a week grill enough chicken to last for three different meals) and made up a simple salsa.

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The base is just frozen corn (heated in the microwave so it's "cooked"), chopped tomatoes (with seeds and extra juices discarded) & diced onion. Paul mixed those together in a bowl and then added a squeeze of lime, salt & pepper to taste and a bit of cayenne pepper. The measurements are all relaxed, just be sure to taste test throughout to make sure it's shaping up into something you'd like on your tacos.

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We also added sour cream, queso (the key to making tacos taste legit – I picked some up at Target and then just crumbled it with my hands) and homemade guacamole. I would hardly call our simple guac mix a recipe, but if you're curious, for ours we just chop up a ripe avocado and add a bit of lime, garlic salt and pepper. That's it. No tomato, onion, cilantro or anything fancy.

Our finishing touch, which we both agree added to the flavor, was grilling the white corn tortillas for about 10 seconds a side once the chicken was done. The grill warmed & stiffened them so they didn't break apart while we were eating.

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Seriously – a win of a dinner. We both agreed that tacos will be added to our short list of meal stand-bys. And like I told Paul, the whole prep and cooking process will go a lot faster when I am not trying to make things look cute for photos.

p.s. our yellow tablecloth is Williams Sonoma. The white dishes are Crate & Barrel and the blue plates were bought at Target in the dollar spot for $2.50 five years ago.

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24 responses to “taco tuesday.”

  1. Paige Avatar

    The comment about making “things look cute for photos” totally made me laugh since I can relate. I have told my Mister that
    #1 he was in my light
    #2 he was going too fast for me to get a good “during” shot
    or #3 “we can’t eat until I get done” about…30 times this week. He still loves me regardless of my annoying habit of photographing food and I’m sure Paul still loves you too.

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  2. Rebekah Hanna-Lozano Avatar

    Did you season the chicken at all before grilling? We just moved into an apartment that allows us to have a grill, and we’re SO excited to finally get one! My husband drags me to the barbecues in every store we go to that sells them 🙂

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  3. Frankie Avatar

    Tacos are the best! Yum. We make ours with grilled tilapia or cod (I don’t eat meat), and they’re my favorite. Also, if you like it, cilantro makes a nice addition to most salsas.

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  4. cinback Avatar

    So wish I had a Target up here in Canada…

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  5. Skye Avatar

    Do you have a patio or deck for your grill? I don’t remember one in the home tour, but I could be blanking.
    I’ve seen that cheese and never bought it because I had no idea what to do with it. Now I just feel silly! Tacos, so easy! I’ll have to try it.

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  6. Natalie (QSOgirl) Avatar

    oh my word, this makes me so hungry for tacos!!

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  7. Rae Veda Avatar

    Those look so yummy! I have been craving tacos lately. Maybe I’ll make some this coming week! Have a great weekend. xo, rv
    http://aneclecticheap.blogspot.com/

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  8. Lana Avatar

    That’s so funny as I like to have “Mexican Mondays”! I definitely agree, toasting the tortillas makes all the difference. 😉
    Yum!

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  9. elise blaha Avatar

    We do have a patio out back where we grill and where the garden will go. I will be sharing more of it once the garden is started. 🙂

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  10. elise blaha Avatar

    We do and have been trying different marinades. This particular one was a garlic, olive oil rosemary mix that Paul found online. Not sure of the exact site. It marinaded for about 36 hours before we grilled.

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  11. kristen Avatar

    Mmm – those look seriously delish!! I still love those Target plates – what a steal!

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  12. tate Avatar

    tacos are a staple in our house too. we make them once a week and joke that we will probably have them once a week for the rest of our lives since they are totally kid friendly (we aren’t even married yet! ha)

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  13. MandyF Avatar

    I thinks it’s funny that eating at home for a month is a challenge, here in the Netherlands almost every (average) family eats a home cooked dinner at home every day! Eating out is a luxury not everybody has. Me and my bf go out for dinner maybe 4 times a year. The rest of the year we cook ourselves 🙂
    I did notice that on vacations in other countries, grocery shopping is much more expensive than in the Netherlands, so it’s often cheaper to go out for dinner.

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  14. elise blaha Avatar

    we are pretty good about it and really only go out to eat/take out dinner once a week or so. It not a hard challenge, but it is something fun to do.

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  15. Mandy Avatar

    It sure is! I’m trying out a new recepy every saturday, now I’m into Donna Hay’s cookbooks. Always fun to try something new! And your taco’s look delicious btw!!

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  16. Amanda Avatar

    These look amazing! Thank you for sharing!

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  17. Funnelcloud Rachel Avatar

    You just made tacos for the first time?! Tacos of some sort or another are on our menu on a weekly basis! Our favorites: beer-battered fish tacos – the best!

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  18. Susan Bowers Avatar

    we eat tacos every tuesday at our house (only lately have I been trying to go with some variations of mexican every other week); but for years it’s been taco tuesday. we eat an old recipe my mom got, in the early 60s, from a neighbor when they were in the military. my mom made the same recipe while i was growing up and now i make them. my kids love them – unfortunately they are not healthy – but oh so good

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  19. alex Avatar

    This looks too good. I love guacamole, but coming from real avocados. Avocados in the US don’t taste as good as the ones from Mexico. But this still looks too good!

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  20. Chrystina Avatar

    What an awesome challenge!! When I leave the job that I currently have… which isn’t going to be any time soon, that will be the first thing that I do. Right now I think I eat 92% of my meals out. Keep having fun!!

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  21. robyn Avatar

    One thing that will make your tacos even better is homemade tortillas. They are super simple and delicioso. I use the recipe found here: http://www.texasrollingpins.com/tortillarecipe.html
    I usually do half whole wheat flour. If you aren’t fond of crisco/shortening, you can replace it with butter or coconut oil. I’ve done both with yummy results.
    To make it even easier, I dump all the ingredients in my mixer and use the bread hook.

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  22. cooking grill Avatar

    yummy tacos, this is my favorite.. 🙂

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  23. Michelle Avatar
    Michelle

    Frozen corn is already “cooked” so you’d be safe just letting it sit out and defrost. Frozen veggies are usually blanched before they’re flash frozen, so you’re safe eating them without heating as long as the package doesn’t say otherwise.

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  24. Nat Avatar

    Word on the making chicken for multiple dinners. We’ve been wanting to perfect a roasted chicken recipe but never thought to do it since it’s a lot of chicken for 2 people. We’ve gotten really good recently at using the leftovers for new dishes (throwing into pasta dishes, adding to soup, adding to an asian dish, etc.)

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