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.

Today's Dinner

This is one of my favorite meals, though it does take some adjusting of the rest of the day's eating to have it. This is essentially a big burrito which I split into two and have both as dinner and as a big snack between lunch and dinner. Eating it all at once would be too much food, and eating just half of it without a substantial side (like a salad and soup) would be too little. I usually plan the day such that I have a small breakfast, snack, lunch, and then this burrito in two parts with a low calorie vegetable accompaniment. That being said, half of it would probably do if you have something else on the side, but I prefer to have the whole thing in the manner I've described.

Burrito filling:

1 tsp. oil (for frying) (40 calories)
1 small onion, diced (28 calories)
1 small green pepper (or any color pepper), diced (37 calories)
1 large tomato, diced (32 calories)
1 lb. ground turkey or chicken (1075 calories)
taco seasoning (either a packet or your own spices) (90 calories for whole packet)
total for all of the filling: 1302 calories

Heat a non-stick skillet and then add the oil. Swirl to coat or use a spatula to push it around. Add the onion and saute over medium heat until semi-translucent. Add the green pepper and cook until shiny and still crisp (about 5-10 minutes). Finally, add the tomato and cook the entire mixture over medium-low heat until the vegetables are about 50% of their original size. If they start to burn, lower the heat. When the vegetables have shrunk, add the ground meat and cook until very lightly browned and most of the residual juices have evaporated. Prepare the taco seasoning as directed. This amount of filling will make a great many burritos so you'll want to freeze the meat in small portions.

Burrito preparation:

1/4 can Rosarita refried beans (105 calories)
2 tbsp. salsa (10 calories)
2 oz. cheese (220 calories)
2 oz. burrito filling as prepared above (approx. 125 calories)*
1 large tortilla (180 calories)
chopped green onions (to taste) (negligible calories)
total: 640 calories

Place the refried beans, cheese, and burrito filling in a bowl and mix completely. Spread the filling onto the tortilla, sprinkle with salsa and green onions. Fold and seal the seam shut with a little warm water. Cut in half and wrap each half firmly in foil (this is essentially to keep the filling from spilling out of the cut end when you heat the burrito). Keep in the refrigerator until you're ready to eat. Place a foil wrapped burrito half in your toaster oven and heat for about 10 minutes.

half burrito: 320 calories
carrot sticks: 25 calories
total: 345 calories

I like having the ground meat and refried beans mixed together in this way for their respective textural properties. It's also nice to have both types of protein. On my 1600 calorie diet, it isn't too hard to fit the entire burrito into my day, but it does require some care in timing when I eat and how much I eat. Frankly though, I find that it is worth it because I'm actually less hungry when I eat half of this around 4:00 pm and the other half around 8:00 pm.

*Note that I have to guess the calories on the filling because it's impossible to measure exactly how much of 2 oz. of the filling is vegetable and how much is meat. I am making my best guess, but I doubt it is off by much more than 10 calories either way.

Today's Dinner

I love chicken eaten over glutinous rice. The combination is very good in terms of the contrasting textures, and you don't have to add gravy or butter to the rice because it will take on the flavor of the meat that you make with it if you eat them both together.

The ground chicken was seasoned only with salt and pepper and was cooked in a cast iron skillet. Using cast iron lends meat a nicer flavor than using a non-stick pan. I also threw in some garlic cloves and fried them up with the burger, though I used a very scant amount of oil in the process. One other nice aspect of cast iron pans is that they can work with little oil after they are seasoned.

The burger was perfectly cooked (still juicy) and the texture of the ground meat went very well with the rice. I mashed and cut up the garlic with the side of my fork and ate it with bites of chicken and rice. It may be a bit strong for some people, but I really enjoyed it. The garlic was softer and mellower because of slow cooking in the cast iron skillet.

I had hot tea and water with this, and the chocolate was "dessert". I usually don't eat sweets right after dinner, but I had had a low calorie day and was in the mood for it. The chocolate was two small squares of a large bar of hazelnut milk chocolate (chocolate with whole nuts in it) that I bought a long time ago and have slowly been eating over a period of months. It has been in a Ziploc bag my refrigerator, buffeted around as other food is shifted around it, for quite awhile so it looks a little bruised. It was delicious though. You can compare the squares to the size of the grapes to see just how small they were.

I took a multivitamin with this meal, as I try to do every night with dinner.

carrot salad (1 serving):

• 1 carrot, peeled and grated (25 calories)
• 1 tsp. oil (any type you like) (40 calories)
• 1-2 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. whole grain mustard
• salt, pepper, parsley to taste
  total calories: 65 calories
  

Add the lemon juice, oil, mustard, and spices to a bowl and whisk together. Stir in the grated carrot with a fork, cover and place in the refrigerator to marinate for an hour or so. You can eat it fresh, but it's nicer is you let it sit for a bit. The flavors combine much more smoothly and the carrot gets a little softer.

chicken burger (4 oz.) = 142 calories
garlic cloves = 14 calories
1 cup glutinous rice = 168 calories
grated carrot salad = 65 calories
3.4 oz. red grapes = 66 calories
hazelnut chocolate = 90
total = 545