Ten-Second Taco Seasoning

I find something very satisfying about buying a small pack of pre-made spices to pour into my skillet on the night of my 15-minute stove-top dinner.

But I was saddened as I made my way down the aisle looking at the ingredients of every brand of taco seasoning on the shelves. I found that all of these lovely prepackaged, make my life easier, just dump it in the ground beef, spice mixes had one of two problems. Either they contained dairy, or they had a long list of twenty syllable words that are impossible to pronounce. Neither of these options works for me.

So I came home and created my own taco seasoning mix. No dairy. Only the ingredients I can pronounce allowed through the door. It's so simple, you can mix it up in ten seconds flat. (That's cookbook talk. When a recipe tells you how long it will take, always triple that time. Mind you, I don't have an assistant working behind the scenes handing me all of ingredients nicely chopped in pretty little bowls. And I like to dance between each step in the recipe.)

2 TBS chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregono
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp garlic salt
dash red pepper flakes (to taste)

Shake it, shake it, shake it!

This makes enough to season 2 lbs of ground beef.