Taco Stuffed Avocados

March is here and the asparagus is on sale at Costco and the tulips in the front bed have sent up their first cautious inch of green and the slow cooker is still running every weekday but I can see the end of it from here, the place where the season turns and I go back to the sheet pans and the light dinners and the open windows. I have been cooking for winter for four months. I am ready for spring with the enthusiasm of someone who has had enough stew.

The Orem community center director sat down with me this week to discuss the formal partnership she mentioned in February. She wants to put the workshops in their spring programming calendar. She wants to pay me a per-session fee, which I have not been earning for any of these workshops and which I accepted after a conversation with Brandon in which he said: Michelle, you are running a service, and services cost money, and the cost is not the point of the service but the service cannot exist without the cost, and you are an accountant and you know this. He was right. I accepted the fee. The accountant in me did the math on how many sessions per year at that rate adds up to. Then I closed the calculator because some information needs to be received one step at a time.

Mason turned ten this week. I am not ready for this in any practical sense, but readiness is not a prerequisite for the passage of time, and ten arrived on schedule. I made his requested birthday dinner: beef tacos, not from the freezer, made fresh with the specific ground beef and seasoning ratio that he has been refining his opinion about since he was seven, when he first started telling me what was missing from the seasoning. He is right about the cumin. He has always been right about the cumin.

Ten years of Mason Larson. Ten years of the boy who builds things and measures by eye and knows what a space should be before it becomes it. The tape measure from Easter last year is now kept in his school backpack. I have not asked why.

When your kid turns ten and tells you exactly how much cumin belongs in the beef, you listen. These taco stuffed avocados are the version of Mason’s birthday dinner that I keep coming back to—fresh ground beef seasoned the way he likes it, piled into ripe avocado halves with all the toppings he’ll actually eat. No freezer shortcuts, no arguments about seasoning ratios, just the good tacos made right.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 20 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef (80/20)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup water
4 ripe avocados, halved and pitted
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup pico de gallo or diced tomatoes
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
Hot sauce, for serving (optional)

Instructions

Brown the beef. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and cook, breaking it apart with a wooden spoon, until browned and no pink remains, about 6–7 minutes. Drain any excess fat.
Season the meat. Add the chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper to the skillet. Stir to coat the beef evenly. Pour in the water and stir, letting it simmer for 2–3 minutes until the liquid reduces and the seasoning thickens around the meat.
Prepare the avocados. Slice each avocado in half lengthwise and remove the pit. If needed, scoop out a little extra flesh from the center to create a deeper well for the filling. Squeeze lime juice over the cut surfaces.
Fill and top. Spoon the seasoned beef generously into each avocado half. Top with shredded cheddar, pico de gallo, a small dollop of sour cream, and fresh cilantro.
Serve immediately. Arrange on a platter and serve with hot sauce on the side. Eat with a fork and spoon, scooping beef and avocado together in each bite.

Nutrition (per serving)

Taco Stuffed Avocados — Mason’s Birthday Beef Tacos, Perfected at Ten