Tacos! Taco Salad! Taco Bowls!

Look, I know it's Monday, but is it ever too early in the week to talk about tacos? I'm already dreaming about the black bean and potato tacos I'm going to eat tomorrow after my evening run. Let's talk about some tacos (and taco-related items) from the recent past.

Last Tuesday, I picked up the Global Café Taco Tuesday special for an awesome takeout meal at home! They've started offering a deal every Tuesday where you get four tacos of your choice with free chips and salsa, and then you can add on a margarita for $2.95. I think I paid around $12 for all this food! Maybe $14? But I did add avocado to my order so I could add that to my Black Bean Tacos, and they give you a LOT of avo in one order. The salsa was habanero garlic and mango pico de gallo. And the margarita was fantastic! The manager/bar guru Juan makes his margs very strong! One is all you need. Oh, and there were about twice as many chips as you see here. I just portioned them so I wouldn't eat the whole bag at once.

Here's a recent Taco Salad. I had this for lunch the day before my St. Jude virtual half-marathon. I love having grain-filled salads the day before a race. They say you should watch fiber intake before race day, but as a long-time vegan, my gut microbiome is pretty sturdy. I can handle a lot of fiber without issue! This has lettuce, quinoa, black beans, avocado, roasted corn, and salsa, plus some Simple Truth vegan sour cream.

On Black Friday, I purchased the No Meat Athlete Health & Fitness Bundle, which had a whole bunch of awesome vegan e-cookbooks. There's one called Plant-Based Power Bowls, and I made this Mexican Power Bowl from it. It has roasted acorn squash, bell pepper, onion, and garlic over Mexican rice with homemade refried beans, mango pico salsa, homemade oat/nooch-based cheese sauce, guac, and homemade tortilla chips. It took forever to make since each element was homemade, but it made enough for three bowls, so lunch was covered for a couple days. Really yummy and fun to eat!

Here's a recent breakfast of Avocado Toast with Pan-Seared Tofu.

And here's my Friday morning treat from LuLu's — Salted Plain Bagel with Cashew Cream Cheese and Muscadine Jam. The space LuLu's is in — Puck Food Hall — is closing after next weekend, so I only have one Friday at LuLu's left! I'm so sad. They will continue to sell food at the Cooper Young Farmers Market, so I'll see them there. And I hope they find a new space soon!