Everyone knows how to make tacos and likes them their way, but I just wanted to share a couple yummy recipes to accompany and garnish your tacos.

I make my taco meat using the Joy of Cooking recipe, or, if I don’t have time, Frontera Grill Taco Sauce (you can find it near the other sauce packets). It is really tasty and if you read the ingredients, it passes the “whole foods” test – it has less than five ingredients you can pronounce. You can’t really say that about the powdered packets.

We like Organic Valley’s reduced fat Monterey Jack (an exception to my “no substitutions” stance regarding cheese), shredded romaine lettuce, avocado, red onion, pickled jalepenos, heated-up frozen corn kernels, cilantro, and Salsa Lisa (hot) on our tacos, as well as this yummy spicy cream sauce.

Chipotle Cream

1 tablespoon (or more or less depending on your heat preference) of finely minced canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce*
About 1/3 to 1/2 cup fat free Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon low-fat or regular mayonnaise

Jen’s Easy Black Beans

These are the beans I serve on the side on taco night, but that sub for the taco meat on mine.

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp lime juice

Mix it up and warm up in the microwave. That’s it!

* If you open a can of chipotles for this you will use less than a quarter of the can each time. So pack the remainder up in a small container and freeze them. Next time you want make this sauce (also great for fish tacos and squash quesadillas), just scoop out one or two peppers with a fork and mince them while still frozen. Once mixed with the yogurt and mayo they’ll thaw in time for dinner.