- Taco meat, 1 lb
- Rice, 4 cups
- 1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilies (Ro-Tel or similar; I used the store brand)
- 1 can of black beans
- 1 cup shredded Colby jack cheese
- Sour cream
- Salsa (I use a mix of store brand chunky medium and guacamole, with a squirt of Sriracha)
This one isn’t terribly complicated, but it uses three pans; it’ll generate some extra dishes. It also makes four solid servings. You may want to make smaller servings, but I eat a good-sized lunch because my breakfast is so lightweight and I have a half hour for lunch.
Fry up the taco meat until hot. Rinse the black beans until they’re good and clean and drain most of the juice from the tomatoes and cook them together until hot. Make your rice as usual.
Split everything into quarters and combine. If you’re eating it immediately, use a plate or bowl. If you’re doing a meal for later, use an appropriate container. I use a rectangular container, put a quarter pound of meat on one end, a cup of rice on the other, and throw the bean and tomato mixture in the end. Add sour cream and cheese to taste (I assume 2 tablespoons of sour cream and ¼ cup of cheese below), add your salsa, and you’re good to go. If I’m eating this at work, it takes a couple of minutes in the microwave to heat up.
The grocery store where I do most of my shopping makes pre-cooked, pre-seasoned taco meat. It isn’t bad, if a little bland so as not to offend their target audience. It’s also cheaper than plain hamburger. I usually use it to make burritos or a bowl like this, while my wife prefers nachos. When I calculated the price and nutrition information, I used that stuff because it’s convenient.
Obviously you could also use fresh tomatoes and chilies, and dry beans you rehydrated, and you’d probably get even better results. If you want to go that route, by all means do so and let me know how it went. But this is intended as an easy version you can throw together on a weekday night and end up with a meal and lunch the next day or two.
Why Torgo Bowls, since nobody asked? There’s this truly terrible movie called “Manos the Hands of Fate.” One reviewer and connoisseur of bad movies described it as having been made by someone who quite possibly didn’t understand what a movie is. It’s famous because it was on MST3K back in the good old days, and it is an attempted movie that must be beheld to truly grasp its awfulness. One of the main characters was named Torgo, and he’s pretty much the best (for certain values of “best”) part of the movie because he’s just so gorram weird. I don’t know when I started doing this, but somewhere along the line I started calling tacos “Torgos.” So we have Torgo Tuesday. And now Torgo Bowls.
Nutrition Information (per serving): 631 calories, 64g of carbohydrate, 29 grams of protein, 22 grams of fat. It isn’t exactly a salad, but it’s far better than most frozen meals the same size.