Hear Me Roar

I laid down the law last night. The new house rule is: Everyone must at least taste everything on his or her plate. A taste consists of a full size, fork-full bite. Not a lick. Not a sniff. Not a teensy tiny bite off the edge...A full on bite. I am Veggie Mama. Hear me roar. I rule with a nylon spatula. Be scared.

So, tonight I decided to make one of Big Daddy Bacon's favorites- enchiladas. I usually use ground turkey for these, and happened to have one in the freezer, which I had bought on sale around Thanksgiving. So, in true frugal fashion, I butchered it myself. I cut off both breasts, and froze those in a freezer bag. Then, I cut off the two leg quarters and froze those for another meal. Lastly, I cut off all the bits and pieces of leftovers all over the turkey and ground it in my food processor for part of tonight's meal.


I have heard it said that if we all had to butcher our own meat, we would all be vegetarians. This whole carcass cutting experience confirmed the truth in this statement. It is not glamorous or pretty to be elbow deep in a turkey. I will just say that.


So, half of our enchiladas were made with a ground turkey mixture, while the other half were made with a veggie mixture, which I thought was completely delicious.

For the meat mixture, I browned finely chopped bell peppers (and I mean finely, in order to disguise them for K Picky). I then added garlic salt, onion powder (only because I realized I was out of fresh onions), browned the half pound of ground turkey, and added enchilada sauce, and melted in a fist full of shredded Colby jack cheese. I did use canned sauce, but I chose a can with a list of identifiable ingredients. Nothing on the ingredient list began with X.

I filled the tortillas with a few spoons full of the mixture, rolled them, and laid them in a baking dish. Then, I went to work on my new vegetarian recipe.

For the mixture, I used frozen spinach, frozen squash from our Papa's organic garden, fresh mushrooms, and bell peppers. I sauteed all of this, then added a few spoons full of the same enchilada sauce, and melted in some Colby jack cheese. I filled whole wheat tortillas, and filled the rest of my baking dish.

For the last step, I covered the enchiladas with the remaining sauce in my can, and covered it all with another fistful of Colby jack, and baked at 400 degrees until the cheese bubbled.

And, VOILA! I chopped half of an avocado to top it off. These were, in the words of Dora the Explorer's backpack," Delicioso!"

Wacky liked the "green stuff" in the vegetarian ones. I may have told her that that green stuff would make her healthy and strong (totally true), AND make her hair grow beautifully long, just like Rapunzel's (questionable...).

K-Picky was not a fan of the green stuff, even though I may have used the same lie/promise to persuade her...to no avail. But, she did follow the new house rule, and gave it a try.

We may have had a Godiva chocolate on the table, awaiting all who followed the new rule.

I am Veggie Mama. Hear me roar.