SPICY POTATO SOFT TACOS

My college daughter was distraught when Taco Bell temporarily took their Spicy Potato Soft Taco off their menu. She obviously was not the only one grieving because there was an online petition and so Taco Bell brought them back. I looked online at the product information and no surprise they are loaded with fat, salt, and chemical additives all at the low price of $1 per taco.

The recent taco discussion got my husband wanting a potato taco. I was willing to make a healthy option so he ran to Kroger grocery store to purchase the ingredients. He is still learning to read labels but I have to admit that except for the sodium acid pyrophosphate in the potatoes, the rest was pretty clean and definitely better than Taco Bell. I had never seen the Siete Cashew Queso options and was impressed that they did not contain oil. Next time if we cannot find cubed potatoes without a chemical additive I will use Trader Joe's Shredded Hash Browns instead (or cut my own but then there goes the fast prep).

What is sodium acid pyrophosphate? Here is a brief article on Livestrong website explaining what it is and supporting the idea that "Eaten in modest amounts, chemicals like sodium acid pyrophosphate are safe." (Do you believe that chemicals in our food are necessarily safe?)

Is Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate Dangerous?

I read an excellent book by gastroenterologist Will Bulsiewicz, MD called "Fiber Fueled." In it he expresses concerns over the abundance of food additives in processed foods and the amount of processed foods consumed in our country. There are studies showing that chemical food additives are damaging our beneficial gut organisms (microbiota). When our microbiota are not healthy, we are not healthy. There are ten thousand food additives that our government has labeled as "Generally Recognized As Safe" (GRAS) but more than 99% of these additives have not even been studied.

SPICY POTATO SOFT TACOS

What we did:

-Roasted the potatoes in our Breville oven, 450 degrees on the airfry selection for 15-20 minutes. I cooked half the bag at a time.

-Put desired amounts of the cashew "cheese" sauces on a fat free flour tortilla. Heated it very briefly in the microwave. Added the cooked potatoes on top of the "cheese." Next added chopped tomatoes, thinly sliced romaine lettuce and salsa.