Some time ago, I was in search of culinary inspiration and asked my readers for good food blog suggestions. One of you beautiful people told me about The Pioneer Woman and ever since then I have been hooked. She’s really inspired me to take better pictures of the food I make which I’m finding to be harder than it looks. I blame it all on the really bad lighting in my kitchen.
Also, can I just say that I have been so absorbed by the “cooking” section of her website, that I just discovered and started reading the “confessions” section yesterday? She makes me chuckle every other sentence and sorta makes me wish that I lived on a ranch could visit a ranch for a weekend.
So anyway, this weekend, Alan and I did a lot of dining in in my attempt to spare restaurant-goers from my constant nose blowing and sad, weary face. On Friday, one of us had the foresight to thaw some beef (leftover from a beef stew we had made a while back) which meant that we needed to get clever since neither of us cooks much with beef. I wanted to see what we could make with $10, and as it turns out, a whole lotta deliciousness.
Yields: 9 tacos
Ingredients:
A can of pinto beans $1.09
Avocado $0.99
Corn tortillas $2.79
Cilantro $1.79
1 onion $0.99
2 limes $0.58
Beef (leftover from another recipe) $0.00
Shredded cheese (from our never ending Costco supply) $0.00
Total $8.23
I was really tickled with how great these turned out and how budget friendly they were. As a point of comparison, the going rate for super tacos at our favorite local taqueria is $3 a pop. If we had gone out for tacos, for $8.23, we could have had any combination of the following: 1 taco each and 1 Coke, 2 tacos for me and none for Alan, 1/2 a taco for me, 1/2 for Alan, and a game of Rochambeau for the second taco, or a large basket of chips with guacamole. While these could all make for decent meals, none are as satisfying as the six tacos we ate between the two of us for dinner that night.
Yay!! I'm so glad you found love with P-Dub!
Am I the only one that doesn't like corn tortillas? Flour tortillas are the bomb. Tacos are always a cheap and easy fix, whether it is with beef, chicken breast(boneless of course), hamburger, steak(of any kind, though the sirloin steak seems to be the juiciest I have found), or a veggie taco. Tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, avocado, olives(if you like that sort of thing), green peppers, and maybe a jalopeno or 2. Lather on the sour cream and taco sauce and you are in for a treat! Of course these are things we always have on hand, so I'm not certain if it would cruise in under your $10. Everything must be that much more expensive in California, Tacos at our favorite place here in Wisconsin are $1 a piece. And darn tooting yummy too!
Yum!! Those look delicious! I need to check out that blog you mentioned, I've heard it before and must see what the fuss is about 🙂
These look delicious! I love the added avocado and cheese. What a great meal for an even better price. I think I need to get better about eating in and getting my money's worth from my groceries.
I love Pioneer Woman, she is an awesome writer and photographer. I have tried about a dozen of her recipes and they all are excellent.