Monday, March 12, 2012

Tortillas Saved the Day!


Remember the time when tortillas saved the day? 

Oh, you have no idea what I'm talking about?

The truth is...

When your pantry is kind of bare or you really don't want to cook, you can pretty much put anything on a tortilla and call it dinner.

I'm only telling you this because I've been there. Flour and corn tortillas are one of the must have staples for my kitchen. My favorite time to stock up on them is when I can get the packages for one dollar or less. Tortillas freeze well, so it's smart to pick up a few packages when the price is low. I've created countless tortilla dishes and put together some surprisingly delicious flavor combinations out of sheer necessity.

With a little creativity you can achieve culinary greatness with tortillas and create nutritious and satisfying meals for any meal of the day.


Breakfast:
Egg, Sausage and Cheese Breakfast Burritos
Egg, Bacon and Potato Burritos
Potato and Salsa Burritos

Snacks:
Tortilla Chips and Crisps: Cut tortillas into triangles, spray with a little vegetable oil and bake until crisp. You can season them with anything under the sun. Salt, sugar, herbs, honey, cinnamon..

Make Tortilla wraps with cream cheese and herbs, or cream cheese and fruit

Lunch:
Anything goes. If you can put on regular bread, it's considered a sandwich. Trust me, just put it on a tortilla.

Ham and Cheese
Tuna Melts
Peanut butter and jelly roll up
Cream cheese and ham
Swiss cheese and ham

Dinner:
A small amount of meat or seafood can go a long way. “Tortilla”-anything is a great way to use up the odds and ends hanging around in your refrigerator.

 GRATUITOUS WORD PROBLEM 


Let's say you made steaks for everyone last night and there is only one steak left over. Let's say you have a family of 4. 
Shred the steak and apply this formula:

Complicated mathematical formula for SLU3  
(Steak Leftover Usage Cubed) which will yield D4

STEAK X CHEESE X TORTILLAS=DINNER for four (SLU3=SCT=D4)


Yep. Problem solved!

Add a side salad or a quick vegetable and you're done.



                                                                                                                                                                     

You can make this work for nearly any leftover meat or seafood.
Just put a little protein on the tortilla and load it up with vegetables, add cheese or beans and there you have it!

A few ideas:

Tortilla Pizzas
Quesadillas
Open Face Tacos

Here are some great ingredient ideas so you can mix it up with different combinations to make some nice tortilla creations:

Start with a flour or corn tortilla...

Add:

Any type of meat or seafood or go vegetarian with beans

Mix it up:

Beans (pinto,kidney, garbanzos, black beans)
Cheese (string cheese, cheddar, pepper jack)
Cream Cheese
Herbs (Parsley, Chives, Green Onions, Cilantro)
Coleslaw Mix
Shredded Cabbage or Carrots
Onions, Mushrooms, Tomatoes, Cucumber and Lettuces
Avocado
Fruit (Mango, Apple, Raisins)
Red Onion
Peanut Butter and Jelly
Cinnamon
Honey
Bananas
Spices

Of course, this ingredient list is not all-inclusive.
Let what you have on hand inspire your inner frugal chef!

Here are a few good tortilla based recipes from www.dinnertool.com




(If you don't have the heavy cream, I'm sure it's still very good with strawberries alone)















 So now you have a reason to say, 

"Remember that time when tortillas saved the day?" 



Save on all the things you love to do!

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