One Pot Turkey Burritos

I wouldn’t call this a ‘recipe’ exactly. I wing my cooking, so I don’t have measurements and stuff like that. But this dish is virtually impossible to mess up.

So here goes:

Ingredients:

• 1 package of Ground Turkey (lean or not, doesn’t matter)
• 1 small jar of your favorite Salsa
• 1 can of Black Beans
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 package of tortillas (flour, corn, spinach whatever floats your boat)
• 1 package shredded cheese (Mexican mix, cheddar, whatever you like)

To Make:

Grab your largest skillet/frying pan. Pour enough olive oil in the pan to coat the bottom. Be liberal and don’t feel guilty about it! Olive oil is tasty and good for you!

Add the entire package of ground turkey and cook until brown on medium heat. Make sure you chop it up into nice small bits with your spatula as you cook.

When the turkey is browned, grab your favorite jar of salsa. I used to like it super spicy, but my stomach can’t handle that anymore. I use mild salsa. Now, add salsa to the meat — just dump it in right from the jar. I eyeball this. It works out to about 1/4 to 1/3 of the small jar, depending on how spicy I want it. You can add as much or as little as you want.

Now grab your can of black beans. You can use refried, but I usually use the whole black beans. Open that sucker up and dump the whole thing in. Drain if you want, but I don’t. I like the juices.

Your skillet’s getting pretty full at this point, so carefully fold it all together and then turn it down a bit, cover, and let it simmer for a few minutes. You just want it to simmer long enough for the flavors to all mingle together and the beans and salsa to heat through.

Note: If you want it nice and juicy, keep that lid on. If you want your burritos a little less sloppy, keep the lid off and let some of the liquids evaporate off as it simmers.

Once the ingredients have all combined, grab your tortillas and a plate. Put one tortilla down and then grab your cheese.

Spread your cheese liberally on your tortilla, then spoon your turkey burrito mix onto your tortilla. Remember to do the cheese first so the hot burrito mix will make it melty and gooey!

Wrap it up and voila! You’ve just made a yummy turkey burrito. Top with your favorite toppings (cheese, sour cream, salsa, whatever) and serve alone or with chips or spanish rice.

Enjoy!

My son just turned 2, and as his birthday was approaching, we were faced with a quandry. He’s allergic to dairy, eggs and nuts. So what kind of birthday cake could he eat?

I’m not a baker. Oh, I can follow a recipe, but my antique kitchen isn’t conducive to complicated cooking, and finding a cake recipe that was dairy and egg free and didn’t taste like cardboard? On top of that, my husband is allergic to vanilla and apples. I needed help.

My friend suggested that I try calling a bakery. I found a wonderful little bake shop in town that was willing to give the cake a try. He had to do a little research into the problem, because they’d never made a dairy-free, egg-free cake before. While I don’t have the exact recipe the baker used, here is a list of the ingredients that he came up with for our cake:

Chocolate Cake

• All Purpose Flour
• Salt
• Sugar
• Cocoa Powder
• Baking Soda
• Vegetable Oil
• White Vinegar
• Soy Milk

Icing

• Powdered Sugar
• Shorting

As you can see, the cake looked beautiful. But would it taste good? I’m happy to report that it was rich moist, and the icing was sweet and yummy! Billy, however, wouldn’t touch it. LOL. I guess having deprived him of cake all year long due to allergy concerns, it was just too funny looking for a picky toddler.

However, my husband and I enjoyed it! The only difference I could tell between it and a regular cake was that it dried out a bit faster in the week after Billy’s birthday than a regular cake might have done. That is, it didn’t have as long a shelf life.

But if anyone out there has a child with egg and dairy allergies, and is facing the problem we were, check out your local bakeries and feel free to give them this ingredient list.

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