Almost 5 years ago I did a sodium analysis of a typical taco dinner I would serve for my family. As a result, I have modified our typical dinner to be much healthier with this homemade taco dinner makeover to reduce sodium.

 

I should also confess: I am obsessed with tacos. I love them for Taco Tuesday… or Taco Thursday …or Sunday… it doesn’t matter when. Therefore, almost every week we have some form of Mexican-style dish for dinner.

When I was a kid and my mom asked me what I wanted for dinner on my birthday, for as long as I can remember I always picked tacos. When I got older and I could make tacos myself, I insisted on making my birthday dinner tacos.

But why? Because I made them better than my mom. That is not a bad thing. After all, she is the one who taught me to make tacos.

The main difference between Mom’s taco meat and mine was that I took the extra time to get the ground beef “tinyerized” – my made up word. Who wants big chunks of meat in their tacos?

Below is my original taco dinner analysis along with some ways I have reduced sodium in this taco dinner makeover.

Original Taco Dinner

Makes 2 loaded tacos plus chips on side

• 1/3 cup canned fat free refried beans = 313 mg sodium.
• 1/6 lb hamburger meat = 53 mg sodium.
• 2 tsp from taco seasoning packet = 370 mg sodium. 
  
• 2 medium flour tortilla shells (2 servings) = 684 mg sodium.
• 2 tbsp medium chunky salsa = 170 mg sodium.
• 1/4 cup shredded mild cheddar cheese = 180 mg sodium.
• 2 tbsp all natural sour cream = 15 mg sodium.
• 1 oz serving tortilla chips (about 11 chips) = 110 mg sodium.
• 1/2 cup lettuce

Total sodium count 1895 mg

Improved Taco Dinner Makeover

Makes 2 loaded tacos plus chips on side

• 1/3 cup homemade refried beans = about 251 mg sodium. Reduced sodium by 62 mg.
• 1/6 lb ground turkey = 57 mg sodium. Increased sodium by 4 mg.
• 3/4 tsp homemade taco seasoning = 120 mg sodium. Reduced sodium by 250 mg.
• 2 small fajita-sized flour tortilla shells (2 servings) = 560 mg sodium. Reduced sodium by 124 mg.
• 2 tbsp medium chunky salsa = 170 mg sodium. No change.
• 1/2 oz freshly shredded mild cheddar cheese = 90 mg sodium. Reduced sodium by 90 mg.
• 2 tbsp. Greek yogurt = 11 mg sodium. Reduced sodium by 4 mg.
• 1 oz serving tortilla chips (about 11 chips) = 110 mg sodium. No change.
• 1/2 cup spinach. No change in sodium.

Overall Results

• The original version started with 1895 mg sodium for a taco dinner at home.
• In contrast, the made-over version had 1369 mg sodium.
• In summary, I reduced sodium by 526 mg in this taco dinner makeover

Notes:

You may have noticed I used smaller tortilla shells but didn’t reduce the amounts of the fillings. I like to load them up with just as much filling so when I wrap them up some of the filling falls out and I use the chips to scoop it up.

I also switched from ground beef to ground turkey even though the ground turkey has slightly more sodium. This change is mainly because ground turkey is so much cheaper than ground beef.

The ingredient amounts are not necessarily the amount that I eat, but I tried to stick to actual recommended serving sizes as much as possible. In fact, I typically do one tortilla shell and load it up tostada-style while my husband does two burritos. Then I use chips to scoop and eat my filling until I can roll up the shell and finish eating it burrito-style.

By far the biggest reduction in sodium comes from using homemade taco seasoning and using a much smaller quantity than what comes in the store-bought packets. To try it yourself, you can find my taco seasoning recipe here.

What food do you feel inspired to reinvent?