Getting Yours Hands on Some Solid Meat and a Mean Taco Salad

Well, I Submitted to the Call of the Wild...

I bought some of you big fellow, thank you for your gift to my delicious meals.

Don't get me wrong, we are still flexitarian, eating meat only a few meals a week, but with winter approaching, no meat in the house, and my parents taking a break from raising animals this year, we needed a little something for the occasional meat eater in us all. 

There are any number of retailers that sell, local, quality processed, good tasting meat. Wal-Mart is not my go to, as you know. I have bought from the Kitteredge's at Bird Creek Ranch in Cascade, MT, and it is fabulous. I have procured from Montana City Meats at the Farmer's Market in Helena. This week, I went to Tizer Meats, a local butcher that sells its local meat in bundles for the penny pincher in all of us. Tizer Meats is a fine old time butcher and they had a coupon, so I tried, and have so far enjoyed. I bought a "family pack", and by my estimations enough meat to get us through the winter, spring, and maybe longer for $90. 

Tonight, I made my first batch of meal with ground beef, some mean taco salad, and I was pleased. It was fabulous, and here it is:

Mean Taco Salad

Ingredients: * means its local

2 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 walla walla onion, chopped (about 1 cup for us) *

1/4 red cabbage, chopped (about 2 cups for us) *

1 pound ground beef *

1 package taco seasoning (yes I cheated here)

1 cup whole skinned tomatoes *

8 corn tortillas, cut into quarters *

several pinches of salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups chopped lettuce *

1 cup shredded cheese of your choice *

Heat your oven to 350 degrees as you cut your tortillas and use your hands to spread about 1 tablespoon of oil over them. Spread them on a cookie sheet, sprinkle with salt and bake for 15 minutes or so.

While baking (and watching to avoid burning) chop your onion and cabbage and saute in 1 tablespoon of oil for about ten minutes. Add your ground beef and brown it, no need to remove your veggies. Add 1/2 cup water, taco seasoning, and cook until no more liquid sits around in the pan, maybe 5 minutes.

Remove chips from oven and cool. Add meat mixture on top of the chips and sprinkle with cheese and chopped lettuce.

Yum.