Meatless Meals: Lentil Tacos

So I’ll be including weekly posts encouraging you (my handful of readers) to be more frugal. I hope you see that it really can be fun!

One easy way to stretch a family budget, aka be more frugal, is to have at least one meatLESS meal each week. One of my favorites is Lentil Tacos. You may be asking, “What is a lentil?” Well, a lentil is a legume, kinda like a split pea. Found on your grocer’s shelf near the dried beans, a one pound bag in our area is about 97cents. I only use half a bag for tacos for our family of 6! The recipe I use is quick and easy too.  

I cook the lentils according to the instructions on the bag. Half a bag to 3-4 cups boiling water. No soaking required, yay! After about 15 minutes of simmering, I add 2TB homemade taco seasoning mix. I let it simmer another 15 minutes or so until the lentils begin to thicken. I turn the heat off and allow the lentils to sit. They’ll thicken more as they sit and will be comparable to refried bean consistency when I put them on our tortillas. We use whole wheat flour tortillas and fill them with lentils, cheese, salsa, sour cream or any other toppings you like on regualar tacos. Add a green salad, and you have a complete meal. A quarter cup of lentils contains 10 grams of protein and 11 grams of fiber, so this is also a very satisfying meal.

HOMEMADE TACO SEASONING MIX

1/4 C dried onion flakes

1/4 C chili powder

3TB salt

4tsp cornstarch

1 TB garlic powder

1 TB ground cumin

1 TB crushed red pepper

2 tsp beef bouillon granules

1.5 tsp oregano

Stir all dry ingredients together. Store in an airtight container. 2TB=one commercial taco mix packet

ENJOY!