Experimentation with OAMC: Burrito

I stuck to my Meal Plan. A few weeks ago, I made Sweet Potato Burritos but there were so many! So I wrapped each burrito in plastic wrap, then put them in a freezer bag. I wasn’t sure what I should do with them after that so went searching.

I ended up cooking two in the microwave for 5 minutes, then crisping up the tortilla in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. (I probably could have been fine with just the nuked version so I’m thinking lunch…) I topped the burrito with Pace Picante sauce since the first time eating it was bland.

There was some cilantro in the fridge from I don’t know what, so I took a few leaves from that and added it to already hot corn. Very num! (Needed no salt or butter.)

Just another manic Monday

I brought my breakfast! Yay! I even brought snack-y bits from home! I don’t like microwaving in the Ziploc container though but did. The yogurt was in a disposable container but that was so I could just try it. I can get a larger container next time and portion it out like I do for cottage cheese.

My laptop lunch is getting closer! It’s in Pennsylvania right now so I should have it within a day or so! Woo hoo.

First weigh-in was tonight. Even though I had over-indulgences — self-indulgence was the topic this week — I had a loss. I figure because even though I went over my WPA, I still tracked and got back on track as soon as possible. I didn’t let those lapses become a gateway to “Oh, I had that, might as well have this.”

This leader is on Core and even though all the other women I joined with last week said they were going to try Core, not one did. Why did they want to do Core? “I don’t have to measure and can eat what I want.” Why did they not do Core? I kid you not, some said this. “I didn’t trust myself if I didn’t measure and count.” Wow. The reason for wanting it is the reason for not doing it. But the leader told us that it’s not that “scary.” We didn’t gain weight by eating too much broccoli. The foods on the list are, overall, not trigger foods. Rice/Pasta are limited to once a day because they could be.

On to the day’s food [30] journal….

Somebody saaaaave me (oh and a couple of dinners)

I think I mentioned my crazy course load this semester. Well, I knew it would be time consuming so planned for it. This means very little time for anything else, unfortunately. That means I missed hitting some local markets, planning meals based on sales and sleep. Ok, I did sleep a little.

Dinner: Taco Soup

• I love this recipe. I’ve been doing it for a few years now with some experimentation with ingredients here and there. All this is cooked for about as long as I want to wait. I guess it takes about 20 minutes to heat everything over medium.
  • 1ish pound of meat (or not). If ground something, it’s browned with the onion and garlic. If it’s leftover something, then I brown the onion first so that I don’t overcook the leftover something. If I’m vegetarian, then I up the bean count by one can.
  • Garlic and onion. I prefer chopped red onion. I add about 2-4 teaspoons of minced garlic. If I’m cooking without meat, then I brown them together in some heated olive oil.
  • 1-2 cans (rinsed and drained) pinto/black/kidney beans. My favorite combination is two beans. I like the difference in look. I believe this time I had one can of pinto and another of kidney.
  • corn for color. I guess I put in about 1-2 cups. If frozen, then I just have to keep that in mind when cooking. Just cook it a little longer. If canned, drained.
  • Rotel diced tomatoes with chile. Usually run about 2 cans of this. I add it with all its juice. It can get a little spicy but I like spicy. I’ve tried with other diced tomatoes with chile and keep coming back to Rotel.
  • Taco seasoning. I use a packet of low-sodium. I used to have my own taco seasoning mix mixed up but need to get a new jar of it going.
  • Ranch seasoning packet. I only use half of a packet because it’s so salty and stuff. I don’t think it needs a full packet and can save the rest for the next soup.

  With this, I had some homemade tortilla chips. I quartered some corn tortillas and placed them on a baking sheet. I sprayed them with Pam and put them in a 350 oven for about 13 minutes. They got too brown though so maybe 350 for 9 minutes?

Dinner: “Sticky” dump chicken, rice and squash

• Sticky dump chicken: I love the idea of dump chicken but this combination was not good to me. Way too gloppy and the smell as it was cooking was unpleasant. I love peanut butter but this wasn’t what I thought it would be.
• Brown rice: I used instant brown rice in the bag. I thought I’d have sauce from the dump chicken but didn’t So I added pepper to it and a pat of butter to moisten it.
• Squash and onion sauté: Again with the random makeups. I had a half bag of frozen squash in the freezer and wanted it. Over medium, I heated extra-virgin olive oil, added leftover chopped up red onion (probably about half an onion), and stirred it around till the onion started to soften. I then added the frozen squash and covered it for about 10 minutes or more. I took the lid off and added pepper and a little salt. With the lid off, the squash lost a little of the squishy look but not too much.
• Note: Obviously, the chicken isn’t happening again. But overall, the look was bleh. I was hoping for more punch. Ah well.

I can really tell when I have natural light in the photos. I held the bowl of soup up against my dining room window to shoot. The plate of squash and chicken was photographed on my dining table without outside light. I’ve included a shot of the squash cooking (at right) where there’s some window light coming in.

Hot to trot tilapia, nummy mushrooms and mean green beans

Since I noticed a chicken pattern, I decided to go for another meat. I took photos but tried a different way of importing from the camera. It seems one should increase the autosleep mode on the camera when importing to iPhoto. Ah well! Live and learn. Better to have just lost a few photos of the meal than a bunch of zoo pix! But I couldn’t leave this post without some sort of imagery, so behold the cat! He didn’t get any tilapia and that’s his sad face.

Dinner: April 28, 2008

• Blackened Tilapia
  I cooked it straight from frozen and wish I hadn’t. I also used olive oil instead of vegetable oil and wished I hadn’t. Since I used a non-stick pan, I cooked it at medium to get the ‘blackened’ look and then turned it down to finish cooking while I had tended to the other pans. I didn’t use celery seed or the lemon and doubled up on black pepper instead of using white.
• Last Minute Mushrooms
  I didn’t use the white mushrooms that I bought so tossed this new recipe in with the mix. They tasted fantastic! But how can you go wrong when butter is involved?
• Garlic Green Beans
  Another awesome new recipe that’s going in regular rotation! I love green beans and usually serve them dry or with some paprika. But the olive oil and garlic was awesome. Next time, I think I’ll do it in a saucepan instead of a skillet to save room on the stove.
• 5-Cheese toast
  I heard my name coming from the freezer and there it was! These heat up beautifully in the toaster oven.
• Strawberries
  Sliced some strawberries up for plate presentation. I liked the sweet to help with the heat of the fish.