Taco-Stuffed Tomatoes

Meat!  Rice!  Cheese!  TOMATOES!  How can this go wrong?

The answer is, IT CAN'T!

This is a little more intensive than most of my meals.  Stuffed foods take a lot of prep work.  It's just sort of a fact of life.  But they are totally worth it.

Taco-Stuffed Tomatoes
Servings: 1 (with some extra filling to nosh on)

Ingredients

Also, beef and celery.  Side note:  Uncle Ben needs some oil-absorbing sheets to get rid of that shine.

• Tomato
• Onion (a 1/4 inch slice should be enough)
• Garlic (1 small clove; I used half a large clove)
• Cheddar Cheese
• Rice
• Ground Beef
• Celery
• Taco Seasoning, or if you don't have it (like me; stupid moving and my incomplete pantry!):
• Chili Powder
• Cumin
• Paprika
• Crushed Red Pepper
• Salt and Pepper

Directions

Brown your beef!  I used about 1/4 lb fully anticipating extra tastiness at the end while I waited for the whole thing to bake in the oven.  (Also, it seemed a little silly to only cooking, like, 1/16 lb for just one tomato.)

Beef.  Greatest.  Meat.  Ever.

While that's going, make some rice.

 
Now, this is a case where you should definitely make more than enough to stuff a tomato.  Rice is always good to have on hand.

But wait! you cry, forlornly raising up a Chinese take-out box of hardened, stale rice, You can't store rice!

Ah, my little reader.  What you have been missing is this trick culled from my Korean former-roommate:

...mmm, mushroom and spinach pizza...

Freeze it!  Seriously.  It retains its moisture and just needs a quick zap in the microwave to be just as fluffy and delicious again.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

We chopped up some onion and minced some garlic.

(Yes, Mihwa, I used my onion goggles:

Victory against onions is mine!  P.S. Sorry for my own brand of Uncle Ben shininess.  Summer has this shocking ability to make you sweat.  Weird, I know.)

Add your onions and garlic to your almost-done beef and cook until almost clear.

Finally, we get to the TOMATO!

Slice off the top.

There's something innately mad scientist-y to cutting off the tops of things.  Like I'm going to replace its insides with chimpanzee brains.

Scoop out the inside pulp.

Try not to break the structural integrity of the skin; as you can plainly see, I caused a small tear in it.  There will be aesthetic ramifications later!

Save the pulp for later; it'll add moisture to our stuffing mixture.  (Save more than you think you'll need; I used too little of mine and my tomato's inside ended up a little dry.)

If you don't have enough juice to make the stuffing wet, add a little bit of salsa.

Back to the filling.  Chop up some celery; I used about 1/4 a stalk.  I know using celery sounds weird, but one of my favorite parts of tacos is the refreshing crispness of the lettuce.  I use celery in this because it retains its crunch, unlike lettuce which would wilt.

Now, we put everything together!  Add all the spices to taste; personally, I just added the heck out of the chili powder and cumin.

Mix it all together!

And now stuff your tomato!

Of course, no taco is complete without CHEESE!

Put this sucker in a 375F oven for 15-20 minutes or until tomato is tender and cheese is bubbly.

I know, I know.  You're hungry NOW.

Well good thing there's more stuffing for you to eat!

I suppose technically you could stuff another tomato...but who doesn't love taco salad?

When your tomato is done, take it out of the oven and admire its beauty.  Well, quickly, before you devour it.

See what I mean about structural integrity?  *sigh*