Today's Dinner

As I mentioned in a previous post, I love burritos, and I have them despite needing to make some adjustments to the day's eating to accommodate them. After the latest round of burritos for dinner, I discovered that there was only one tortilla left hanging around and about 6-8 oz. of filling. I wanted to use everything up so I decided to try something which gave me all of the goodies of a burrito, but only required a lone tortilla.

"Deep Dish Burrito"

• 1 large flour tortilla (180 calories)
• 1 can refried beans (420 calories)
• *8 oz. prepared taco meat (ground turkey or chicken w/powdered seasoning mix) (~550 calories)
• 4 tbsp. Picante sauce or salsa (18 calories)
• green onions, chopped (to taste, at least 1/2 cup) (~20 calories)
• 4 oz. cheddar, Colby Jack or cheese of your choice (440 calories)
• 2 medium tomatoes, sliced or 12 cherry tomatoes, halved (~40 calories) - regular tomatoes are better, but I was out of them and used cherry ones
• salt and pepper to taste

total calories: 1668
4 servings: 417 calories per serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a pie tin with cooking spray or oil. Center the flour tortilla in the pan and press into the corners. Spread the beans evenly over the tortilla. Sprinkle the seasoned taco meat over the beans and press down into the bean mixture. Spoon the salsa over the meat and spread evenly. Sprinkle green onions (I like to use a lot) over the salsa and top with cheese. Arrange tomato slices or cherry tomato halves over the cheese. Press into the cheese mixture slightly. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 30 minutes until the tomatoes are wilted and the cheese is bubbling.

This dish was born of a particular circumstance, but it's going to stick around for other reasons. The protein to carbohydrate ratio of this is better than my standard burrito, and I can cram in more vegetables because I don't have to worry about wrapping the tortilla. Frankly, it's also nice not to have to split a burrito and eat it twice because of it's massive calorie value. This is a much more conservative meal to fit into a 1500 calorie day. This can be served "as is", or you can have it with a handful of baked tortilla chips. I've had it both ways depending on my mood. 

1 serving "deep dish burrito" = 417 calories

.7 oz. baked tortilla chips = 86 calories

total: 503 calories

*Note that this recipe includes only the meat and seasoning, but I actually mix vegetables with the meat so the calorie count is likely a little lower since I measure by weight and the vegetables (tomato, green pepper, onion) are lower in calories than the ground meat. It's almost certainly an incidental difference. The recipe for the filling with vegetables included is in my post on making burritos. Mainly, I just like to get a few more vegetables into the mix by incorporating them with the filling.