Everyone loves taco night. Especially in my family. We’ve been making tacos for twenty years of our married life… and we’ve used McCormick Taco Seasoning for almost every beefy plate-full. I figured most everyone was doing the same thing, so I never thought about sharing my “recipe” for tacos.

But who knows… maybe there’s someone out there that hasn’t had a taco night at their house yet.

Maybe there’s some newlywed who is living off of Hamburger Helper like I did for a few months that first year of marriage.

Maybe you just want to see how some other family does tacos.

Maybe you live up North and haven’t ever heard of a taco. If this last statement is you, this post just might forever change your life for the better. I’m not sure I could live without tacos.

This is your meat without McCormick:

Sad, ugly, boring, bland meat. This meat is crying – but you can’t hear it. It’s crying out for flavor. Trust me. I know these things.

You don’t want to make your meat depressed. You don’t want your tacos to taste like polish cabbage roll stuffing on corn chips. Shame on you!

This is your taco meat’s best friend:

Just throw some meat and chopped onion on the stove – brown – season with McCormick Taco Seasoning, and voila! Taco meat, done. Your meat is happy now. Your taste buds will be, too.

Sure, you could make your own taco seasoning by hunting through your Pinterest boards… then going through the trouble of mixing a bunch of seasonings together with measuring spoons – and breaking your finger nails on all those little plastic sifting caps… but I’ve never wanted to waste the time or fix what hasn’t been broken – or break anything new. Especially since McCormick contains no MSG or artificial flavors – and is gluten free. We love our beef (or deer) McCormick taco meat.

How we serve tacos is more of a buffet system thing (as you can tell by my image up top). In fact, with six people at our little round 4-person table, and with all those dishes in the middle of the table, we are now considering moving dinner to the dining room. Especially on taco night.

First, I fry up the corn tortillas with either a dab of butter or a dab of oil. My husband loves yellow corn, but I’m more of a corn purist and try to buy white corn and Mexican to avoid as much GMO (genetically modified organism) as I can.

My kids like flour, so I sometimes throw in a few of those, too. My favorite are the uncooked thin flour tortillas – as they taste the most home-made.

Our HEB store has a tortilla station where you can get them fresh-made by a real Mexican lady (who knows – she might be from Canada – but I like to imagine she’s Mexican). With authentic, warm, quasi-home-made tortillas only a few miles away from home, I haven’t ever tried to master the art of tortilla making… but I have foodie online friends who say that once you know how to make them yourself, and get a taste for the home-made kind, you will be hooked.

With four kids and homeschooling, I just haven’t wanted to cross that manual-labor line just yet.

My next step would be to warm up a can of beans – pinto or black, refried or charro. And if you want to get fancy, you can make them from scratch – just remember to start yesterday before bed with the soaking.

I’ll admit it. About 85% of our taco nights contain canned beans. We may add some seasoning, sauteed onion, fresh herbs, milk, or bacon grease to them… even a little jalapeno… but canned beans are such a time-saver.

In addition to beans, I usually make Spanish Rice. This was my grandma’s signature dish. I’m planning to share the recipe with you tomorrow and link it back here then.

I also wash and chop lettuce and tomato and set out some sour cream and a bowl of shredded cheese. We usually don’t add salsa to our tacos at home because we like the McCormick meat seasoning so well, but when my husband makes home made salsa, or when his dad sends some home with us, we might use it. I’m picky about my salsa.

Are you leaning over your keyboard to take a bite? Not much better than a yummy beef taco. #truestory

But hang on… we’re not done yet…

We like eating guacamole and chips with our tacos, rice, and beans. We make it a few different ways. Traditional, “Chipotle” copy-cat, or Creamy. This recipe is for the creamy kind…