Skip to recipe?

My mom doesn’t really cook. I’m not saying that she can’t cook, just that she doesn’t. She’s a big fan of take-out. Which is funny, because she went through this cooking phase. Except it wasn’t really a cooking phase, but more of a buying kitchen stuff phase. She got a deep fryer, a bunch of chopping blocks and cutting boards, fancy knives, this cool vegetable peeler that makes peeling potatoes approximately 100% easier, and a whole bunch of other crap that I just don’t remember. This phase was a few years ago now. I inherited a bunch of the stuff when she finally admitted that she was never going to use any of it.

When I was a kid, she cooked more often. One of the things she made the most was chicken fajitas. I loved those fajitas, and when I started cooking for myself, they were what I made pretty much all the time. I hated raw meat back then. It was so gross to me; I couldn’t touch it. I remember one time, I think I was sixteen, I was house- and dog-sitting for her while she was having surgery. I had to make dinner for myself. I was still fairly new to that back then (I don’t know if that was a bit old to just start cooking for myself?), and was actually using precooked chicken breast strips I had gotten from the grocery store. It worked out well enough if I remember correctly. I used that precooked chicken for quite a while before my avó finally chastised me and gave me a raw chicken breast. I did not like touching it. So slimy and gross. But I got over it.

I still don’t like touching raw meat, honestly, but it doesn’t bother me enough to really even think about it. I don’t make those fajitas as often as I used to, either. I have replaced them with this beef mixture, which I most often use for burritos. I love these burritos; I make them all the time. They don’t necessarily taste better than the fajitas, but they are so much quicker and easier to make, and I can make a huge batch with little extra effort (which is why I always make a ton). The leftovers last for well over a week and I never get tired of them.

I used ground beef today, but you can use any ground meat you want. I use ground turkey all the time. Tastes just as good though, so if you like, go for it. I like using ground meat because it’s quick and easy and tasty, but you can use any kind of meat you want if you don’t like ground meat. Shove all the inexpensive filler vegetables and stuff in there that you can to stretch this meal out for days. I put onions, green onions, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, mushrooms, corn, and rice. I wanted to add chickpeas, but apparently my brother ate all of them. Use any condiments you like, too. I used sour cream, sriracha, cilantro (a lot), and cheese. Normally I also add salsa verde, but I didn’t have any — I only had a jar of moldy regular salsa, which, while green, was not something I felt like eating.

Taco seasoning packets are great if you don’t have all the spices you need. Honestly, I can’t taste the difference between them and homemade spice mixes. I prefer to use my own mix now simply because it’s cheaper. It’s fairly simple, just cumin, chili powder, and some paprika, smoked or regular, plus some garlic, powder or fresh! The proportions depend on your taste. I love cumin, so I usually put mostly cumin, followed by garlic, then paprika, then chili powder. If you’re not confident just throwing spices onto your food, get a small bowl and toss them in there instead. Smell the spice mixture. Smell good? Then it should taste good, too, so go ahead and throw it on your meat!

As usual, all the measurements are approximate or total guesses. Some are accurate. But the measurements are not important at all. This is so easy to make it’s almost impossible to screw it up. You just throw things into a frying pan. I have made this in various stages of inebriation, and it always comes out awesome. Add more of the things you really like, less of the things you don’t like as much, remove whatever you don’t like at all, and add things you like that aren’t in this recipe. It really is so hard to screw up.

• 2lb Ground Beef
• 5 cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 or 2 large Onions, diced
• 1 bunch Green onions, chopped
• 225g (8oz) Mushrooms, quartered
• 2 Bell peppers (any colour), diced
• 1 small can Corn
• 1 cup (uncooked) Rice
• 1/2 tbsp Cumin
• 2 tbsp Chili Powder
• 2 tsp Oregano
• 2 tsp Paprika
• 2 tsp Smoked Paprika
• Optional: Packaged taco seasoning instead of above spices
• Favourite condiments like sour cream, lettuce, cheese, etc.

Easy Tex-Mex Beef

1. 1.

   Chop, dice, or mince all your vegetables before you do anything else; I put each ingredient in its own bowl. Heat your favourite cooking oil in your largest frying pan on medium or medium-high. When the oil is hot (one way to tell is to drop one piece of onion into the oil; if it bubbles and sizzles, it’s hot), add the minced garlic and cook until it is brown and smells awesome, then add the onions and cook for a few minutes. Add the green onions and cook a couple more minutes, then add the mushrooms and do the same.

2. 2.

   Pour two cups of hot water into a medium-sized pot and add one cup uncooked rice (any kind you like; I used basmati today but used calrose last time). You can soak and rinse the rice first if you remember and have the patience to do so, or you can skip that and just let the rice boil over (which I do pretty much every single time because I never remember to rinse it). Place the pot on the stove burner and turn the heat to high. Once it’s boiling (if you didn’t properly rinse your rice, you will know it’s boiling when it boils over and there’s starchy water burning on your stove, making loud hissing sounds), turn the heat to low and leave it for ten or fifteen minutes, until all the water is gone.

3. 3.

   Add the ground beef and seasoning to the pan (the seasoning packets usually say to mix them with water first, but I always just dump them straight in), and mix everything together well. Turn the heat up to high and cook the beef thoroughly. Once cooked, add the bell and jalapeno peppers, cook for a minute or two, and add the corn. I like to keep cooking until the liquid reduces to almost nothing, but you can stop anytime after the ground beef is fully cooked. Once you’re satisfied, turn off the heat. You don’t have to remove the pan from the burner, but you can if you want. I usually leave it there.

4. 4.

   Once the rice is fully cooked, add it to the pan and mix well. Alternatively, you can keep it separate and add it later to the individual burritos. I like to mix it right in because it soaks up the excess liquid, which keeps my burritos from becoming drippy messes. Sandwiches and wraps are two of the greatest things in life, but I hate it when they drip liquid everywhere.

5. 5.

   Assemble your burritos if you’re making them! Take one flour tortilla, and spread any saucy condiments you want onto the center; I used sour cream, sriracha, and salsa verde. Leave space on all sides for rolling. Add your other toppings of choice right onto the condiments in a line; I added cilantro. Sometimes I put sliced avocado and diced tomato. Put your meat mixture on top of that (It’s easy to put too much! Be conservative, or it won’t roll up nicely), and then add some cheese if you like cheese. I like adding the cheese last, because, if you grill or toast your burrito, the cheese melts and seals the burrito shut. Cheese is food glue. If you don’t know how to roll a burrito, look up a video on YouTube. I don’t think I’m going to explain it very well. Turn the tortilla around so that the line of toppings is horizontal. Take the left and right sides, and fold them over the filling. Take the end that is closest to you, and lift it up and over the filling. Tuck the tortilla end that used to be closest to you underneath the filling as best you can, and tuck the right and left ends in as well, and then finish rolling it away from you. It should stay shut. (Seriously, watch a video; that was confusing.)

You can eat it now if you want, but I like to grill mine. I use my George Foreman grill, and turn it up to high. When it’s fully heated, I place the burrito on, flap side down, and shut the grill. I remove it a minute or so after, once it has nice dark grill lines and is slightly crispy. You can also put it on a baking sheet in a toaster oven or regular oven, flap side down, and bake until it’s as crispy as you want it.

The meat mixture is great for a variety of things, besides my preferred burritos. Sometimes I make tacos, or nachos, or just in a bowl with rice. I want to get spring roll wrappers and make burrito spring rolls, and I want to bake it in a dish with tortilla chips and cheese on top. I made it into a meatloaf once, too. Most recently, I rolled the meat up with some cheese in 7″ tortillas, fried them, and had them with sour cream, salsa, and guacamole dips. Get creative and have fun.