Rolled Tacos

Growing up on the Arizona/Mexico border, I ate a lot of Mexican food. One of the treats that I especially loved was rolled tacos (taquitos). These were usually made with leftover roast. They were just a way to use up leftovers, but they were so popular that some restaurants served them with beans and rice as a menu item. Our high school served them every couple of weeks, and the students loved them. By the way, the lunch ladies could be seen early in the morning actually rolling the tacos. No frozen, pre-formed cafeteria food back then!

What you need for rolling tacos are fresh corn tortillas. If they’re fresh, you don’t have to soften them before rolling. My mom bought tortillas at the tortilla factory behind our local Safeway store. She got them hot off the press and could roll them while they were still warm. If you don’t have a factory nearby, try a Mexican grocer or any store that sells a lot of Mexican products. Otherwise, just buy the corn tortillas in your favorite grocery store and soften them (see notes).

The salsa is homemade. I’ll save that recipe for another post.

Whole Grain Helper a la Vagabond

How about adding veggies and herbs to a simple boxed meal? Try the whole grain variety, too. I'm not fond of whole grain pasta, but I couldn't taste the difference in this dish. This is another meal I divide into one-cup serving containers for a quick and easy lunch. Much better than another frozen dinner! Microwaves nicely. 

Church Pot Luck Casserole

Need a quick and easy for a potlock? Or how about it's cold outside, and you need some gold, old-fashioned comfort food to stick to your ribs? This casserole will keep 'em coming!

Tomato Beef

My mom found this recipe in a newspaper about 50 years ago. This was long before stir fries became popular!

Mom's Sunday Roast and Gravy

When I was growing up, mom did a lot of baking, but this is one item that she didn't put in the oven. We lived in a warm climate, so she always used the stove top instead of the oven for cooking roasts, which had to cook a long time. "I don't want the oven on for several hours," she would say. "It heats up the kitchen too much." And so we have a roast cooked on the stove top.

Mexican Casserole

Originally, this was a crock pot recipe, but I never could figure out why it needed to be cooked for such a long time. It's a fairly basic casserole-style dish that only needs to bake a few minutes in the oven to bring the flavors together. So...goodbye to long cooking times (only for weekends), and hello to weeknight supper!