Taco party!

Menage a trois tacos

Taco party!  No innuendo.  Just some soft, warm tortillas stuffed with juicy, succulent meats slathered in sauces.

Oh, food porn, lol.

 Tacos are great for THE UNFATTENING because they pack tons of flavor in just a few bites.   Straight out of the bag, flour tortillas are way more appetizing, but I find a good corn tortilla has a more complex flavor and doesn't fill you up.  And if you choose corn tortillas over flour tortillas, you can totally eat more tacos because they have fewer Calories.  The key to making store bought corn tortillas delicious is to heat them up properly.  Basically, rehydrate the tortilla with water (quick dip in a bowl of water) then put it on the grill or hot pan.

Today I had an assortment of taco fillings available.  It was like having my own personal Chipotle, only better because I didn't have anyone around me pronouncing it Chipolte.

• On the top left is grilled skirt steak with tomatoes and queso fresco.
• The skirt steak was dead simple. Just salt and pepper and don't overcook it.  It seriously took like 2 minutes on each side on a hot grill and then I let it rest.
• On the top right is grilled squid with chopped tomatoes and a cilantro dressing (basically this recipe, more or less).  
• The squid was a little chewy.  I'm still trying to figure out how to make great grilled squid - really tender, but done, and with a good smokey char flavor.  This was grilled a few minutes on each side, sliced into rings, and then seasoned with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
• On the bottom is pork carnitas with coleslaw and queso fresco (I would leave the cheese off next time). 
•  The carnitas took the longest, but other than breaking down the pork shoulder into chunks, takes very little effort and only a handful of ingredients for fall-apart, porky succulence with hints of citrus.   
• When making coleslaw, salt the cabbage for 30 mins first to get rid of excess bitterness and to achieve that nice pickled crunch. Remember to rinse the cabbage before mixing in the dressing (e.g. mayo, apple cider vinegar, honey, celery seed) and go lightly with the salt. 

So these tacos alone would have been a perfect, reasonable holiday lunch for THE UNFATTENING.  However, thank goodness for extra weekly points on Weight Watchers because these tacos were followed by grilled pineapple (fine), ice cream (sugar free - not bad), mixed berry pie (okay, not too much.  oh, but you put more ice cream on it?), grilled margherita pizza (oh goodness, no room, but who can say 'no' to a piece of grilled pizza with tons of basil??!), and some tortilla chips here and there...  I basically ate a day's worth of food in one sitting.  It hurt a little, but follow that with some relaxing on the patio on a beautiful day with family, AND the fact that I didn't go over my points for the day, AND had absolutely no desire to eat any more today, it was worth it. We'll see how I feel about it when I weigh myself this week, but you live, you learn.

But sometimes you just gotta pig out.

Speaking of pig...what to do with all the left over carnitas...?