For the Seasoned Ground Beef

1. Prep the onions, garlic, and tomatoes. Then get the ground beef cooking in a large skillet over medium heat.  Once it is cooked about halfway through, add the diced onions.  Cook these together until the meat is cooked through.
2. While the meat is cooking, start the cilantro lime rice recipe process by measuring and rinsing the dry rice.
3. At this point, you can drain off any excess fat from the cooked beef, if you prefer.  It is easiest to line a plate or shallow bowl with paper towels and put the meat/ onion mixture on this to drain excess fat, then back to the warm pan to continue the recipe.
4. Next, add the diced tomatoes and cook for a few minutes.
5. As the tomatoes are softening in with the beef, you can proceed with the rice recipe by sautéing garlic in olive oil in a medium saucepan, adding in rinsed and drained rice to coat it with the oil and garlic.
6. Crisp the rice in the oil for 2-3 minutes.  Then add water and salt and bring to a boil.  Reduce temperature to simmer and cover for 15 minutes.
7. Back to the seasoned beef, now you can add the garlic, Knorr seasoning or bouillon, water, cumin, paprika, and salt.  Stir to combine all of the spices and ingredients.  Then, allow the mixture to simmer until all of the liquid is absorbed.  This could take 5-10 minutes or so, and is a great time to continue with the rice recipe (see below) so that your rice and meat are finished and warm around the same time.

For the Cilantro Lime Rice

1. If you are cooking beef and rice simultaneously, at this point, your rice will be cooked with sautéed garlic and is ready to pull off of the heat (if rice is tender and water is absorbed).
2. Let sit for 5-10 minutes with lid on.  Prep the zest, juice, and cilantro during this time.  Then, add lime juice, lime zest and cilantro. Stir to combine the flavors.

For the other Bowl Ingredients

1. Prepping the remaining bowl ingredients only takes a few minutes, so while rice is sitting off of the heat and the seasoned beef is simmering, you can prepare these final toppings.
2. If using, slice bell pepper and onion and sauté with 1-2 T olive oil over medium high heat for 4-5 minutes.  Avoid over-cooking these veggies as soggy peppers and onions are not as tasty as slightly al dente ones!  We like to use higher heat to have a bit of color to the veggies, but avoid burning them.
3. Next, you will want to drain and heat the beans. Since this recipe has a lot of separately made ingredients, you may want to warm the beans quickly in the microwave to save on clean up time. Or, you can also heat them  in a small saucepan.  Then, chop the avocado into cubes.

Assembling the Beef Taco Bowl with Cilantro Lime Rice

1.  First, put desired amount of rice in a bowl.  Then, add seasoned ground beef.  Next, select desired toppings of sautéed veggies, beans, and avocado cubes.  Garnishing with a squeeze of lime adds a nice finish.