Once a Month Cooking

I have a tendency to be lazy. This laziness leads me to eat out more often than I should for health and fiscal reasons.

To combat this, I started Once A Month Cooking.

For me, this involves cooking a lot of food, putting one serving size in a Zip Lock bag, and then freezing it. Normally I'll prepare a pound of spaghetti, brown rice, two different crock pot soups/stews/chili. I will buy frozen veggies and place a serving in a bag as well.

I have found these steps have significantly reduced the temptation to eat out. All I have to do is grab stuff out of the freezer and warm it up.

Additionally, I know how much each serving costs. I'll spend less than $2.00 on a homemade meal when eating out costs easily four times more.

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Misty's XL Chicken Soft Taco

I know I just blogged regarding portion sizes, so I agree that posting a recipe for a XL taco seems hypocritical.

My burrito wrapping skills leave a lot to be desired, which leaves me to eat this soft-taco-style. If you can follow my logic here, you can see how I think of a burrito shell as a XL soft taco shell.

If you have mad burrito wrapping skills (I'm looking at you, Jackie), then go ahead and make a burrito! It might be significantly less messy.

Ingredients:

1 flour tortilla
1/2 cup lettuce
1/8 cup shredded cheddar cheese
50 grams chicken (1 frozen chicken tender)
2 Tablespoons black bean & corn salsa
1 Tablespoon sour cream
1 Tablespoon guacamole

Method:
Grill chicken
Assemble however you like!
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Kroger's Black Bean and Corn Salsa

I will be having company for lunch or dinner tomorrow, and I was contemplating what to make.  My guest will be SNP, and we're BIG Chipotle fans.  Since we're both on budgets, I thought I would make us some Chipotle-like food.  Either a remake of their burrito or burrito bowl.

I thought a corn and black bean salsa would be a better addition than the jar of salsa I have in the fridge.  I went on over to Kroger to get some black beans, as it was the only ingredient I didn't have.

Much to my surprise, there was a recipe on the back.  Here is the recipe:

1 15 oz can black beans
1 12 oz can whole kernel corn
1 medium tomato, finely diced
3 green onions, finely diced
1/4 c lime juice
1 t cumin powder

Once I got started on the recipe, I realized I didn't have any cumin.  I don't know HOW this is possible, as it's one of my essential spices.

Substitutions:
Since I was out of cumin, I used chili powder instead, and used a little more than called for. 
I used less lime juice than called for.
I used a white onion rather than green.  I think a red onion would work well, too.
I added some diced green peppers, too.  I felt it needed some color, and I didn't have any green chilies.
I added some garlic.  Again, this is a matter of personal taste.
I added a pinch of salt.  It tasted a little bland.

I was very impressed with the overall flavor of the salsa.  It is a very good, basic recipe to customize to something you and your family will love.  For lunch today, I mixed the salsa with a tablespoon of sour cream and guacamole and tossed with some romaine lettuce.  The only way this lunch could have been better is if I would have added some shredded cheese and some chicken.