Homemade taco seasoning

Who doesn't love tacos?  I don't know too many that don't.  It's one of my favorite meals because it's easy, quick, relatively cheap and tastes delicious!  You all know by now that I love to make food myself instead of relying on packaged food.  This is one reason why.  It was a Monday and I hadn't gone to the grocery store for the week yet.  I didn't really know what to make, but I did have a pound of ground beef in the freezer.  I didn't have tortillas or taco seasoning, but I did have spices for the seasoning, and butter, flour and salt for the tortillas.  This did mean I had to spend about ten more minutes in the kitchen but it saved me having to go to the store with both kids and saved me about $4-$5 as well.  I'll trade ten minutes in my kitchen for 30 minutes of torture dragging whining children to the store in the rain.  Coats and car seats annoy me.  Anyway, back to the taco seasoning.  :)

A typical taco seasoning mix has this in it:
SPICES (INCLUDING CHILI PEPPER, CUMIN, OREGANO, AND RED PEPPER), ONION, WHEY SOLIDS (MILK), SALT, SUGAR, PAPRIKA, GARLIC, POTATO STARCH, AND CITRIC ACID.

This may not be a big deal to you but I don't really want added sugar in my tacos and I certainly don't need processed whey solids, potato starch and citric acid in it either.  Plus any time I can decrease my grocery bill, I will.  It takes maybe about a minute more to put the spices in yourself instead of opening a package and saves you about a dollar if you already have all of these ingredients in your spice cabinet.  You can also control the salt and spice if you make it yourself.  This particular recipe does have a little spice to it, so if you don't like spice, I'd start out with a lesser amount of chili powder and red pepper and work your way up.  


Taco seasoning

• 1 T chili powder
• 1/4 t garlic powder
• 1/4 t onion powder
• 1/4 t dried oregano
• 1 1/2 t ground cumin
• 1/8 t red pepper
• 1 t sea salt
• 1/2 t black pepper

Mix all together.  Add to browned and drained ground beef.  Add 1/4 c water and simmer until water is completely absorbed. 

Note:  This amount of seasoning was enough for approximately 1.5 lbs of ground beef for me.  Adjust to your tastes.