Day165 - Taco Seasoning

It is strange how many of these reviews start with, “We don’t normally eat…” or “We don’t often buy…” – I guess it just goes to show you how many DIFFERENT products we are buying and eating this year because of this review project!  But I fear I must start another one with, “We don’t make tacos very often…” because it is true, we don’t!

We were recently back at our “home” Trader Joe’s and saw a lady with some flour tortillas in her cart (which we do not buy very often and had never purchased at Trader Joe’s – oops – there is ANOTHER one of those disclaimers!).  Anyway, the sight of the tortillas, mixed with my hunger, made me think TACOS! 

So we set about finding the ingredients we would need to make tacos.  We don’t eat tacos often, and when we do, it is at a restaurant or my sister’s house I guess!  J  But this time, we were going to make them ourselves.  So we got:  flour tortillas (to be reviewed another day), hamburger (probably also to be reviewed at some point), and hot pico de gallo (which got a glowing review on day 25 of this blog).  We wanted some taco seasoning, but couldn’t find any where we expected it (by the jars of salsa, right?) so we assumed TJ’s didn’t carry it and planned to pop into another store on the way home. 

But before giving up, we asked an associate, who led us to the packets of taco seasoning in a very out of the way place on a very hard to find bottom shelf.  THEY HAD IT!  (Note to stores:  these don’t take up much shelf space at all, maybe you could display them in a couple different places?  By the canned refried and black beans, by the tortillas, and by the jars of salsa?  Just an idea to making shopping easier.)

These packets were HIDING!  

We are NOT taco seasoning experts.  I think I have only ever bought one brand and probably only invested in that a couple times in my life.  So I really cannot compare this TJ’s brand to any other, in taste, quality, or price.  But I CAN say it made good taco meat!  It was super easy, we followed the meat recipe on the package (onions, green peppers, can of  tomatoes (from TJ’s), beef, and the seasoning).  The package recommended using HALF of it for a milder taste, and ALL of it for a super spicy taste.  GO BIG OR GO HOME, right?  In almost all of it went! 

Tacos being made...  That is a pound of ground beef, which turned out to be a LOT for us (like 4 meals...)

I saved a bit to put on small Portobello mushrooms I sliced and was making to put on the tacos (wow, I just checked the blog and am surprised I have not reviewed these, we eat them a ton.  To be reviewed…).  It turned out that the taco seasoning on the mushrooms was super good and my favorite part of the whole meal! 

And the "Best Use of Taco Seasoning" award goes to - these mushrooms!

I think I will keep a packet of this seasoning in the cupboard to use on veggies.  I am going to experiment and see how it tastes on things other than hamburger meat! 

Price - .79 cents

Rating - 4