Taco Party

It has been a crazy long week already...
but we had a fun weekend before we jumped into madness!

Last Friday I threw together a last minute taco party for a few good friends.
I love having people over and I can easily throw an over-the-top party of any variety, 

but sometimes it's nice to keep it simple and low key. 

Find me a person who doesn't like a taco.  Easiest party food ever. 

It can be made vegetarian or meaty and requires little effort to pull together.

For taco fillings, I've made orange-chipotle pork, honey lime shrimp,
black beans with corn and cilantro... 

the taco filling possibilitys are endless and can far surpass 

the ground-meat cafeteria style some people think of when they hear 'taco'.

Toss out a few bowls of fixin's, a big bowl of tortilla chips & salsa, pour yourself a margarita and turn on the samba music because the part is ready to go.

This time I kept it suuuuuper simple.

shredded chipotle chicken

mild salsa

shredded romain lettuce

queso

onions

  guacamole

cilantro

black bean & corn rice
3 hot sauce options (we like it spicy!)

'skinny-girl' margaritas, corona and sparkling limeade

I love the real Bethenny Frankel Skinny Girl Margaritas,
but they are surprisingly hard to find around here. 

I've hit a couple of liquor stores and only been able to find a bottle or 2 at any one time...
and since it's a complete mixed cocktail, a bottle doesn't go very far in my experience.

So I figured I'd make a knock-off version of my own.
I first made these for my birthday party this past summer.  They were a hit.
(small disclaimer: this is nothing like a true fresh-squeezed margarita and real margaritas should take offense to me calling it such, but it is leaps and bounds better than the sticky sweet neon green stuff labeled as margarita mix at the grocery store!)

1 pitcher of prepared lemon-lime crystal light

1 cup freshly squeeze lime juice

3/4 - 1 bottle of Jose Cuervo Silver Tequila 

(this is a lot of booze, back it off if you're not professional margarita drinkers)

 

Rim glass with lime juice, then dunk in margarita salt

Add lots of ice, pour margarita and garnish with a lime wedge.

 

These weigh in at about 65 calories per drink ... not too shabby!