Tacos with DIY taco seasoning

Last night was "ground beef smiley" night at our place (and if you get that refrence, you probably watch too many Friends reruns, much like we do) and The Hub really likes his ground beef (or ground anything, really) to be all gooey and saucey and seasoned - a la the way it is when you use the taco seasoning packets from the store...
So I found this recipe at Cooks.com and decided to give it a try..
It was only ok... I will use the IDEA behind it to season taco meat again, but will omit the sugar entirely, and probably use a small amount of corn starch seperately instead of adding it to the mix, to thicken the sauce a bit right at the end of cooking... I ate mine on top of a bed of romane lettuce dressed with lime juice and salt, along side 1/2 avacado pureed and mixed with a bit of onion... everything else was so good, I didn't really notice the ground beef (actually, I used a mix of ground beef and extra lean ground pork, since that is what I had in the freezer) when it was in my salad... But when I sampled it after finishing the seasoning and sauce as directed, the consistancy and the flavor (sweet? yuck!) just weren't where I wanted them to be.. I get the IDEA behind it, it just didn't come together right...