Mexican Pizzas

Filed under Recipes, teaching by on 16 March 2011 at 6:26 pm {3 comments}

I’m working for the weekend this week.

There are days when I enjoy making food from recipes that require thought, time, special ingredients and preparation, and then there are Fridays. Teaching, regardless of what some people in the media might tell you, is usually enjoyable and almost always exhausting. I don’t know how people teach and have kids. I can’t imagine coming home from working with 70 students to deal with several more for the rest of the night.

On Friday’s I want easy to make food and a glass of wine or beer. I want to watch TV. I don’t want to cook elaborate meals or go out. Usually, we make some type of pizza, chicken bbq nachos, or we get take out.

Now we have something new to add to the rotation:  Mexican pizzas.

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Mexican Pizzas

Ingredients:
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 large can, drained black beans
4 soft taco sized tortilla shells
1 cup shredded cheese (I like Cabot 50% reduced fat jalapeno)
Taco sauce
Olive oil

Procedure:

  1. Preheat oven to 400
  2. Drizzle oil in pan add onions sauté for a minute or two and add beans
  3. Fry beans and mash a bit with spatula
  4. Prepare two cookie sheets by spraying with non-stick spray or spreading some oil
  5. Place two tortillas on each cookie sheet, spread with beans and sprinkle half the cheese.
  6. Cover each tortilla with another tortilla and drizzle with taco sauce and sprinkle with the rest of cheese
  7. Bake for 10 minutes
  8. Top with sour cream, yogurt, or guacamole and green onion.

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You could certainly add chicken, or extra veggies but simple is my MO on Friday’s.

Better than Taco Bell pt. 1

Filed under Food, Real Food, Recipes by on 22 September 2010 at 7:11 am {5 comments}

Most of the time I would consider myself a foodie. Per Wikipedia, “foodies are amateurs who simply love food for consumption, study, preparation, and news.”  Ok. I guess my upcoming statement will still fit that definition.

I LOVE TACO BELL!

It’s true; I love it. It’s not that I don’t know all of the negatives, I do, but it doesn’t change my feelings. The negatives do however change how often I make a run to the border. I can’t even remember the last time I was there, certainly months ago. However, I have been craving it. Over the last few days, we’ve brought the Bell to the house. I give you grilled stuft burritos.

How we never did this before is beyond me.

Here’s the quick info:

  1. Cook brown rice
  2. Chop onion, garlic, jalapeno add to an oiled pan, cook until onions are close to transparent and add a drained can of black beans
  3. Leave this entire mixture on medium high to high heat. The beans will thicken and become similar to refried beans.
  4. Warm up two tortillas add rice, beans, cheese(I used Cabot 50% reduced fat jalapeno), and taco sauce.
  5. Grill them – they grill quickly so be careful

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Enjoy the beauty of a cheesy burrito that has was less than the 700 calories and 30 grams of fat from the Bell.

This Ain’t Mickey D’s

Filed under Food, Real Food by on 20 July 2010 at 8:58 pm {one comment}

Since I’m home most of the day, I’ve been trying to do things the most economical and environmentally friendly way. This takes more time or at least more preparation but honestly yields better food. My breadmaker was the star of the show again today with homemade wheat buns.

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I wanted something really great to put on my homemade buns, so I created a new black bean burger recipe. The black beans were dry, I picked through them, boiled them for two minutes or so (I may have been watching the View and I may have forgotten them) and then let them sit for a few hours.

We topped our burgers with some Swiss cheese and bbq sauce. These were so good and served with a side of garlic fries. I wasn’t a huge fan of these burgers. They weren’t bad, but I missed the softer texture that you get when you use canned beans.  It was still a really satisfying meal though.

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These fries were amazing; I’ve had them bookmarked forever. While they aren’t low fat or low carb, they are totally worth it. We didn’t even need ketchup.

I controlled every ingredient in this meal (OK I didn’t make the BBQ sauce), so even with the fries and cheese this had to be way better than going to McDonalds.

I still have a sore throat, so I think I’ll kick back with some tea and Eat, Pray, Love.

Body Pump & Protein

Filed under Fitness, Food by on 14 April 2010 at 9:02 pm {no comments}

Today was a busy day. After work, I vacuumed out the car and pulled out all of the junk. The first place I went to use the vacuum took my $2.25, which did not make me very happy. After that I wiped down everything in the car, now all I need is a new air freshener.

Then I took a nap. Honestly, I take a nap almost every afternoon. I am a child; I know.

After Jeremy got home we went to his first Body Pump class. I haven’t been in ages. It is such a tough workout. I think I did a pretty good job of choosing weight tonight, but I’m sure I’ll still be sore tomorrow. After the first time I went, I could hardly walk down stairs. My entire body hurt.  Here’s Jeremy after his butt kicking:

 body pumped jerem

Once we got home, we were both starving. While Jeremy took a shower, I made dinner. I figured since we’d worked so hard we needed a protein packed dinner. I’ll warn you in advance that this meal is ugly, but it’s one of our favorites.

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All of this plus black beans makes something not so pretty but oh so good. Cook the onions, pepper and beans first, then add the eggs. Scramble it all up.

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Serve with a side of chips, a little shredded cheese, and a topping of guacamole.

Ahh. . .  now we’re kicking back watching How I Met Your Mother Season 2.

T.G.I.F., well almost

Filed under Cooking, Food, TV, Work by on 28 January 2010 at 6:57 pm {one comment}

Things at work have not gone well this week.  I really like to be able to control situations. Unfortunately right now the only thing I can control is my attitude and I’m not exactly excelling at that. It seems everything that is happening at work is totally out of my control. Biggest issues:

  1. My students aren’t attending school. The attendance average for all my classes today was less than 50%.  When this happens not only are they not learning, but I worry about the reasons they aren’t attending, which with my students could be grave. In addition, it will be a pain in the butt to get them caught up, whenever they choose to return. 
  2. Some of the policies or lack there of at my school are making me feel so frustrated. I work at a very traditional school, which I understand. But the lack of value they place in diversity makes me feel isolated and dare I say it discriminated against. I’m going to have to figure out someway to get around this. Alerting the newspaper doesn’t seem like the best idea, and  lately I’ve had this going through my head.

    (I heart That Thing You Do).

  3. Lastly, some of my co-workers drive me nuts. I wish they would go far, far away.

With all that said, this is the semester of English that I prefer teaching, and I am so thankful to have a job.  But a long week is a long week, and I really just wanted something warm and comforting for dinner. So when Jeremy suggested quesadillas, I was definitely on board. I knew the warm, melty cheese with veggies and black beans would at least make me forget if not remedy my problems.

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Between this and a good laugh at my Thursday night NBC line up, I’m hoping to get out of my funk.  I’m a bit concerned that I may be getting sick. Ugh. . .

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