Food and Health Communications

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Kitchen Hack: Open Faced Tacos - Street Tacos

Looking for a new way to serve delicious tacos? Go open-faced! I first saw these delicious street-style tacos while visiting a friend in LA.There are several advantages to making your tacos open faced. Here are 3 of them:

  1. They look bigger when they are open-faced instead of folded.
  2. You can use soft corn tortillas instead of fried ones.
  3. They look gorgeous when they are topped with fresh herbs and a drizzle of plain, non-fat yogurt.

Check out this chicken taco, complete with grilled chicken and veggies, herbs, and plain yogurt. One taco is just 143 calories!You can vary the protein and veggies. This is a great way to use up leftovers. To make them vegetarian, used cooked pinto or black beans instead of the chicken. For a really fun way to serve them, offer a variety of ingredients, complete with warm corn tortillas, and allow everyone to make their own.Corn tortillas have more flavor and less salt than flour tortillas and they come in smaller sizes. Check out this chart (source: USDA, manufacturer's data):

Tortilla Type and Size Calories, each Sodium (mg)
6-inch corn tortilla 58 3
6-inch flour tortilla 90 206
10-inch flour tortilla 217 500

Topping ideas:Protein - lean chicken, fish, shrimp, cooked beans, lean beefVeggies - grilled onions, peppers, corn kernels, fresh tomatoes, steamed broccoliSauces - salsa, nonfat yogurt, lime juiceGarnishes - fresh herbs or hot sauce