Low-Fat, Filling Mexican Pizza

As you all know, I started Weight Watchers last week. I had a tremendously successful week! I went to my 2nd meeting today, and weighed in 5.6 pounds lighter! I feel wonderful about it! If you're unfamiliar with Weight Watchers, and all you see are the products for sale in the supermarket, you might think Weight Watchers stresses the use of packaged foods. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am so pleased with the program. It fits in perfectly with my family's lifestyle. I made this for lunch today and it's delicious, low-fat, and very filling. Plus, it's minimally processed -- just my style. Oh, did I mention that it took me about five minutes to put together?

Mexican Pizza Bagels

Per serving, you will need:

• 1 Bagel Thin (or Sandwich Thin)
• 1/2 cup "refried" black beans (cook 'em without fat and smash the leftovers!)
• 1/4 cup chopped raw onion
• 2 Tbsp salsa
• 1/3 cup shredded cheese made with 2% milk (I used a Mexican blend)
• 2 Tbsp low-fat sour cream

How it's Done:

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees (if I had a toaster oven, I would have used it instead!).
2. Toast the bagel thin. While it's toasting, warm up your beans.
3. Top the bagel thin with the beans, then salsa, then onions, then cheese.
4. Stick it in the oven for 3 or 4 minutes -- you just want the cheese to melt a bit and the food to heat through.
5. Top with sour cream and enjoy!

A Week of (Healthy) Bare-Bones Meals

Today's day five in my week of super-frugal recipes. You'll notice I don't use much meat this week. It's much less expensive to eat a plant-based diet. Therefore, my frugal tip for today:

Frugal Tip #5: Treat meat as a side dish or a tasty addition to a meal, not the main course.

If you find yourself in a situation where you need to cut your grocery budget, rethink your meat & potatoes approach. Even if it's what you've been doing your whole life, you can change now, and so can your spouse and/or children.

Today's meal uses up some of the scraps of foods leftover from other days. I encourage you to switch things up a bit with whatever you have around.

I don't have a recipe for you; just a set of instructions. Open up a bag of tortillas (flour, hopefully whole wheat). Spoon on any leftover beans and vegetables you have. Maybe you have some salsa and cheese in the fridge. If you don't, I suggest adding chili powder, salt, pepper, and garlic to the beans before heating them up. Anyway, you're making a leftovers burrito. It's easy, it's practically free, and it's tasty. As a matter of fact, I have a sixth frugal tip for you today:

Frugal Tip #6: PLAN to USE your LEFTOVERS.

Don't waste food. Plan to use them. Leftovers don't have to be the same dish just warmed over. Take your leftovers and transform them. Chicken becomes chicken soup and chicken burgers. Beans become Mexican pizzas and bean burritos. Change it up a bit. Add new spices. Make a main dish into a salad. Be creative.

And enjoy your quick and easy lunch. :)

Here, I've taken a whole wheat tortilla and stuffed it with my beans (leftover from Mexican Pizza), lettuce, and tomato. Filling, nutritious, and easy!

A Week of (Healthy) Bare-Bones Meals

It's day 3 in my week of bare-bones meals. I want to take a minute to talk to you about something I see a lot of people do that wastes quite a large percentage of money. So here's today's frugal tip:

Frugal Tip #3: Learn to buy, cook, and use dried beans.

Now, hold on. I can hear the groans already. But you're looking to cut your grocery dollar, aren't you? Then why is it that you keep spending 75% MORE on the same foods? Dried beans average $1 per pound. One pound of dried beans is equal to four cans of beans. One can of beans costs around $1. So why are you paying $4 for the same food you could be paying $1 for?

What? You don't want to heat up your house, you say? Worried about energy use, you say? Dump them in your slow cooker, cover with lots of water, and let them cook overnight while you sleep. No kitchen heat, less energy. Big savings.

Oh, and guess what! Beans cooked from dry taste so much better than canned beans. It's true. Not only are you wasting your money, you're also hindering your recipes. Yup. Try it. Cook your beans from dry.

On to today's meal plan:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar
Lunch: Chicken Soup from leftover chicken carcass (SAVE the rest of the chicken for tomorrow's meal, though)
Dinner: Mexican Pizzas (recipe follows)

Mexican Pizza
Serves 4

What You Need:

• 8 corn tortillas (make them yourself if you have a press)
• 2 cups cooked, rinsed, and drained beans (any type will do -- I used small red beans)
• 3 Tbsp oil
• 2 to 4 peppers (whatever's on sale or cheapest -- I used bell and sweet banana peppers from my garden) 
• 1/2 a large onion
• 1 large tomato
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• 1/4 cup shredded cheese
• 1 green onion, chopped

How it's Done:

1. Cook your beans. Save half for another recipe. Of the remaining two cups, place 1/2 cup in a food processor or blender with 1/4 cup water and puree to make "refried" beans. Set aside.
2. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add diced onion and peppers and tomato. Stir until the vegetables are soft. Add chili powder and remove from heat.
3. Heat the other 2 Tbsp oil in a separate skillet. Fry the tortillas, cooking 30 seconds per side. Remove to drain.
4. Assemble the pizzas like this: place a tortilla on a plate. Spread with some refried beans. Top with a second tortilla. Spoon the bean & pepper mix on top. Sprinkle with cheese and green onion. Serve right away.

I made corn tortillas today!

...and it was easy!

Day170.

Wow! Have I really been at this venture for 170 days?

Anyway, yes, I made corn tortillas. I thought it would be an intimidating process, but it was very easy. Here are the steps I took. Tomorrow, I'll tell you about the enchiladas I made with them.

What you need: Maseca Masa, some salt, some water, a tortilla press, a skillet, and a turner.

First, you combine 2 cups of masa, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1 1/4 cups water and stir it up until the water's all soaked in and the masa is a nice soft dough reminiscent of moon sand...only less gritty.

Then, you divide the dough into sixteen even-ish pieces.

...and cover them with a damp cloth to keep them from drying out while you work.

You place a ball of dough between two GREASED pieces of plastic wrap...

...and you press it flat.

The dough gets cooked for a minute per side on a dry skillet over medium-high heat.

And here's your reward. Store them covered if you won't use them right away.

They smell wonderfully sweet -- nothing at all like the bitter-smelling store-bought type, which makes me wonder if the store-bought type might have gone rancid by the time they arrive in our homes.

Anyway, I'll never go back now. Nothing beats homemade. Now, I can add corn tortillas to my list of things I no longer buy from the store.

Meatless Monday!

Day 67.

Meatless Mondays in our house are upheld this month as an act of contrition toward our bodies for the overly decadent foods we consumed on Southern Cookin' Sunday. To be kind to our overtaxed bodies, laden heavily with butter, salt, cream, and mayonnaise, we're opting for a meatless day today. Won't you join us?

Black Beans and Yellow Rice with an Egg
serves 5

Ingredients:

• 1 package (5 servings size) saffron yellow rice and seasonings mix
• 2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup taco sauce
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 a large onion, diced
• 5 large eggs
• 2 Tbsp butter
• optional for serving: sour cream, shredded cheese, green onions, salsa, and tortillas

How it's Done:

1. Prepare yellow rice according to package directions.
2. While rice is cooking, place beans, taco sauce, galic, and onion in a sauce pan. Simmer while rice cooks.
3. Fry eggs.
4. How to plate this: Make a bed of yellow rice. On top, place some beans. On the beans, put one fried egg. Top with green onions, cheese, and/or salsa. Serve with lettuce, tomato, sour cream, and tortillas on the side.

Wholly Guacamole!

Day 12.

On the menu tonight: chicken chalupas from scratch. Thanks to the handy dandy slow cooker, the chicken filling will be ready when the homemade chalupa shells and guacamole are ready, too.

This was my first time making chapulas. They aren't as pliable as Taco Bell's and are best served flat. But WOW! They're delicious. Well worth the effort.

Chicken Chalupas with Guacamole

Ingredients:

For the chicken filling:

• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast (my preference. It would be more frugal to use other parts, or even leftover roast chicken. Just remove the skin and bones first.)
• 
  
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar (stay with me)
• 
  
• 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
• 
  
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
• 
  
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 
  
• squirt of lime juice

How it's Done:

1. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 8 to 10 hours. Shred with two forks before serving.

For the chalupas:

2 cups masa harina

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp vegetable shortening

1 1/2 cups warm water

oil for fying

How it's Done:

Combine masa harina, flour, salt, and baking powder. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender or two knives, or your fingers. Add warm water. Knead until the dough feels like play dough and it easily forms a ball.

Divide into 12 pieces and form each into a ball. Using a tortilla press (WISH I had one!), a rolling pin, or your hands, press or roll each ball into a 5" diameter circle.

Heat a dry skillet to medium-high. Cook each chalupa on the dry skillet for about 3 minutes per side, until lightly browned.

Next, heat vegetable oil in your skillet. You want about 1/4" deep of oil. Heat to medium and fry each chapula until golden -- about 2 minutes total, flipping over halfway through. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels and continue until you've fried all the chalupas. Fill as desired and serve.

For the guacamole:

3 large avocados, pitted and chopped

1 large tomato, seeded and chopped

2 green onions, chopped

2 Serrano peppers, seeded and diced

splash of lime juice

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

How it's Done:

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Stir it up roughly to combine the ingredients, as well as mash up the avocado a bit. Chill until serving time.

Tortilla Soup

Here's a hearty soup that's not too spicy, but it's plenty flavorful. If you need more kick, a tablespoon of hot sauce in your bowl will heat things up nicely.

Tortilla Soup

makes a huge pot of soup

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef (totally optional -- can omit for vegetarian, or use shredded chicken instead)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion (cut in half -- dice one-half and put the other half in your blender bowl)
• 2 Tbsp minced garlic (half goes in your blender bowl)
• 1 cup fresh cilantro (shove a bunch in the measuring cup until it's full, then dump it in your blender bowl, saving a tiny bit for garnish)
• 2 cans fire roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 green bell pepper (cut in half -- dice one-half and put the other half in your blender bowl)
• 8 cups broth (beef, chicken, or vegetable)
• 2 cans of black beans, rinsed and drained
• 6 corn tortillas, cut into rough 1" cubes
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 2 Tbsp cumin
• 3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
• 2 cups frozen sweet corn
• salt to taste (I felt like it needed quite a bit and ended up using 1 full tablespoon -- perfect -- but I used sodium-free bouillon to make the broth)
• tortilla chips, cheddar cheese, and sour cream for serving

How it's Done:

1. Start out by blending the ingredients you were to put in your blender bowl and set this mixture aside. It will thicken the soup a little bit later.
2. Brown your ground beef in a large stock pot if you're using it. Add the diced onion and the other half of your garlic and cook a couple minutes.
3. Add the cut tortillas, bell pepper, cumin, and chili powder. Mix well.
4. Immediately add the broth and blender ingredients to your pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes to an hour. The longer you simmer, the more the flavors will meld.
5. In the last five minutes of cooking, add the beans, corn, and lime juice.
6. Serve over tortilla chips and cheese, with more on top for garnish. A dollop of sour cream is nice, too.