Wednesday, October 14, 2009

A Becky Smith Lunchtime Recipe That Is Quick And Tasty And Actually Pretty Good For You

Since you all have been so nice to share your traveling recipes and green bean tips with me, I thought that I would reciprocate and share a recipe of mine. This is a very hoity toity recipe which you can immediately tell by its hoity toity name which is: Tortilla Thingy.

And guess what? I even have pictures to accompany the recipe! Just like a real fancy cooking blogger! Which in the interest of full disclosure, I am not! Which, after you read this recipe and see my pictures, you will fully come to realize that fact even without me having to inform you. Because I am not good at taking pictures with one hand while cooking with the other. And because I don't have my ingredients all lined up in a fancy row with a gourmet kitchen in the background. And also because I even have dirty dishes in my sink. Gasp!

Alrighty then. With all of that out of the way, shall we begin?

This is something I make for lunch a lot. It could also be made for dinner with a baked potato and a vegetable for when you're in a hurry and are completely lacking in any good dinner ideas. Not that that would ever happen to you. Or me.

Yeah, right.




TORTILLA THINGY


Our first picture shows our cast of characters, er, line up of ingredients.




Just five little ol' bitty ingredients. That's not too overwhelming, now is it? (I hate recipes that call for twenty-seven ingredients, most of which I do not even have. Or know what they are.)

And just to prove to you beyond any doubt that I am not a fancy cooking blogger, here are the dirty dishes in my sink.



There. Now don't you feel better about your own dirty dishes? Let's have a moment of silence for the Sisterhood of Dirty Dishes.

After contemplating the dirty dishes, the first step in our recipe is to spray a pan with Pam.



Got that? Do I need to wait for any of you to catch up? No?

Okay. Good.

Then we sprinkle a little Lawry's seasoned salt into the Pam. Which is in the pan. Which makes it the "Pan Pam." Which sounds like a dance from the 60's. Not that I was even born in the 60's. Oh wait. Maybe I was. I can't remember.




Now usually when I sprinkle the Lawry's salt into my pan of Pam, it spreads out in a lovely, lofty, wafty manner and covers the pan in a well-organized layer of Lawryness. However, since I was sprinkling with my left hand and taking a picture with my right, the salt sort of got all clumped together. Your salt should not be allowed to clump. If it does, you--and your salt-- will be asked to leave.

Next, we take a flour tortilla shell and throw, toss, or place it into the Pan Pam. Let the Pam heat up a little bit first so that the shell "sizzles" a bit when it's placed into the skillet. The sizzling is my favorite part of the whole recipe. And no, I don't get out much.




Has everyone got that? Let's continue.

Now carefully place some shredded cheese (any ol' kind will do) on half of the tortilla shell which you previously placed in the Pan O' Pam.



Next, add some meat. Any kind of meat. Ham, turkey, bacon, pepperoni, chicken. Shoot. You could even put Spam in there if you wanted. Then you'd have a dish featuring Pan Pammed Spam. (That retching noise you hear in the background is Steve who utterly loathes Spam.)




I chose to add turkey. (And sprinkled some black pepper on it.)

Next you . . . Wait! Hold everything! We have an emergency! A cooking emergency! A cooking blog emergency!

I just realized that I neglected to take a picture of the next step of the recipe! I just KNEW I wasn't a fancy cooking blogger! What professional fancy cooking blogger ever forgets to take crucial photos??!!

Sigh. Let me sit and castigate myself a moment.

Okay. I'm done.

The crucial, unphotographed step to the recipe is this: Just about one minute after you add your meat and cheese (and any other ingredient you like--Nathan adds sliced jalapeno peppers), reach into the pan and grasp the empty side of the Panned, Pammed Tortilla Thingy. Fold it over the full side. (Or you could use a spatula and sort of swoosh it up and over.)

Um. There was probably a better way to explain that maneuver but that's the best I can come up with. (Since I am not a fancy cooking blogger.)

Then cover the pan with a lid that doesn't quite fit. This is a very important step. If your lid fits exactly, your Tortilla Thingy will not turn out and you will be tortilla-less. Just kidding. Fitted lids are definitely a benefit; I just don't happen to have one for this pan. Because remember, I am not a fancy cooking blogger. (Um. Did I mention that already?)



While the first side of your Tortilla Thingy is browning, go to your cupboard and get a glass. Because you must have something to drink with your lunch. (And just so you know, the reason there is a pen in my glass cupboard is because I have a grocery list taped to the door of that particular cupboard and I like having a pen within reach.)





Fill the glass with ice. Or not. Depending on your preference. Personally, I must have wheel barrows full of ice in my glass or I am not a happy woman. And we don't want that. Since I am already not a fancy cooking blogger.




By this time, your Tortilla Thingy should be ready to flip. So flip it already!

Of course, you may want to remove the lid first. (It's just a thought. Far be it from me to tell you what to do.)

Let the other side of your Tortilla Thingy brown for a minute or two. And be sure to replace the lid (which may or may not fit) so that the cheese continues to melt. And become gooey. This vital step allows all the cheese calories to leak out.





And now, we are about to have our voila' moment!

Voila! (See, I told you it was coming.)




Presenting one Tasty Terrific Tortilla Thingy.

Ta-da!

But wait! There's more!

Now we have to "plate" our creation. ("Plate" is a term that fancy cooking bloggers throw around all the time. Not that I would know anything about that.)

First of all (and I lied earlier about only needing five ingredients; I didn't want to overwhelm you right at the beginning), find something you can dip ye olde tortilla thingy into. Salsa, buffalo sauce, bar-b-q sauce, ranch dressing--it's all good. I chose lite Ranch.

(Actually, my all time favorite dipping sauce is Chick-Fil-A sauce which I hardly ever have in the house. And when I do manage to sneak a packet of it home with me, I always hide it from the rest of the family in a shameful display of Pastor's Wife Selfishness.)

You also need a side dish of some sort. I like Sun Chips.




Plate your creation. Step back and admire.



There now. Wasn't that fun? Don't you feel like a fancy cooking blogger now?

Me either.

________________________

Note: If you are cooking for more than one, put the tortilla shell in the pan and cover the entire thing with your ingredients. Then add another whole tortilla shell on top of that, spray it with Pam and flip over at the correct time.

Whatever you deem the correct time to be.

Cut the larger Tortilla Thingy into quarters and share with a friend.

Or eat it all yourself.

Because remember? The cheese calories have all leaked out.

12 Had Something To Say (Just click here!):

Anonymous said...

Becky: I know what I'm having for supper tonight. Being from Canada, we just celebrated Thanksgiving this past weekend and I think the family is tired of warmed up leftovers so this with turkey inside sounds wonderful.
Mel

lesley said...

Yummmmmmmmm

Anonymous said...

Tortilla Thingy = Quesadilla

Don't your non-stick pans get gunked/gummy up after using Pam in them again and again? I only use Pam in my stainless steel cookware. In the non-stick cookware, I spray canola oil from a fancy-schmancy oil spray thingie: add oil, pump the lid to pressurize the fancy schmancy thingie, and spray away. I think the fancy schmancy oil sprayer thingie cost about $10, but in the long run turns out much cheaper than cans of Pam.

Anonymous said...

We love these too and call them quesadillas. I love your dishes as I have the same pattern.

Danette Baker
Spokane Washington

Anonymous said...

I have a recipe similiar to your tortilla thingy quesadilla...

I use slice cheese, lunch meat, and maybe a little ranch dressing or mustard. Roll all ingredients up into a little burrito and pop it in the microwave. Too easy!

Leah said...

Hmmmmmmmm. That looks great. :-D

I'm always looking for a fairly simple recipe as I'm not so great in the kitchen. I think this is one I could handle! :-D

Sue G said...

Slow news day?

Waiting for a Becky Smith recipe that doesn't include cheese because, as you know, I abhor cheese. Not only do I detest it, I think I may even be a bit afraid of it.

Just sayin'.

In closing, let me say that I am thrilled to learn your skills include cooking and photographing at the same time. I probably would have cooked the camera and snapped the tortilla.

Ann Martin said...

This sounds simple enough for me to fix. Will be good to try some night as I don't fix lunch. Jim eats breakfast and skips lunch. It depends on the time I eat breakfast as to whether or not I have lunch. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

My kids' favorite quesadilla is cheese w/ bbq chicken. If we don't have chicken, they just like cheese and bbq sauce. I never tried it with the seasoning on the outside (sounds yummy!) but when I make them for the kids, I don't spray the pan with anything--the tortillas never stick--and there's even fewer calories!

Tammy said...

We do a dinner version with: a bottom layer of fat free refried beans, topped with some corn and black beans, topped with leftover shredded chicken, topped with cheese. Yum!!

Beverly said...

All I can say is that you're a very brave woman for showing your dirty dishes!

And "YUM", of course!

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