Steak Taco Salads

When menu planning for meals around Christmas, I was looking for things that were simple.  Tasty meals that would come together without much effort.

I ran across this recipe for Taco Salads that I thought sounded good, and getting the taco salad ingredients took about ten minutes to chop and dice, so dinner was on the table in no time.  This recipe resulted in one of the most flavorful taco salads that have ever crossed my table.

Steak Taco Salads
slightly adapted from For the Love of Cooking (individual links to each recipe below)
Ingredients
Marinade for steak
1 1/2 - 2 lbs of flank steak
1/3 cup vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup olive oil
3 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/2 teaspoons oregano
2 limes, juiced
4-5 cloves garlic minced

Directions
1) Combine all ingredients and mix really well.  Let steak marinate between 6 and 24 hours. 

Taco Salad
Flour tortilla, baked into a bowl
Flank steak, marinated for at least 6 hours 
Lettuce, chopped
Black beans, rinsed, drained and warmed
100 calorie snack packs of guacamole (my avacado didn't end up being good)
Cherry tomatoes, diced
Black olives, sliced
Red onion, diced
Fresh cilantro, chopped
Green onions, diced
cheese, grated
Salsa
Sour cream

Directions

1) Drape a foil square over the top of each can.
2) Fill a pizza pan or another rimmed container with about 1/2 inch of warm water and add 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil.
3) Quickly immerse a tortilla in water and then lift out and drape over the foil on the empty food can.
4)  Bake the shell in a preheated 450 degree oven until they're light brown and firm, about 10 minutes.
5)  Carefully lift the shells off the cans and flip them over so that they brown the part that was on the can.  Bake for 1-2 more minutes.
7) Grill or broil your steak until it reaches desired temperature.
6) Layer all the taco salad ingredients in the tortilla and enjoy.

I liked all of the flavors of the taco salad.  Each individual ingredient contributed some sort of flavor profile to the taco salad.  There are a lot of ingredients, but it is definitely worth it for this Taco Salad.  The meat was juicy and flavorful.  The only thing that I didn't like about this recipe was how prominent the soy sauce was in the marinade.  I would reduce the amount of soy sauce by quite a bit.  The soy sauce flavor just confused my taste buds because it seemed like a Mexican food recipe, but I kept tasting soy sauce.  Other than that one item, everything tasted fantastic.