Hide The Veggies, The Kids Are Looking

If I continue to be good at updating this, and you continue to read, you will notice a recurring "Tex-Mex" theme. It is undeniably my family's favorite kind of food. It's cheap, it's easy, and you if you don't give a frig about authenticity you can throw in whatever you have in the house. It's also a fantastic way to hide vegetables from your kids.

Last night was Burrito Night. Burrito Night differs from Taco Night in that the wraps are bigger and I make rice. I also plan for leftovers - I make a crazy amount of filling and I buy two packages of wraps. Then I make, individually wrap, and freeze a bunch of burritos. We can take them to school and work, they're good for when The Teen is hungry and rummaging around (always) and Jeffrey has a midnight snack when he's up late making comics. Sometimes I throw together a salad or a smoothie to go with, but if the filling has enough of the aforementioned hidden veggies I don't stress about it too much.

Here's the deal with hiding vegetables; if you chop them up small enough and it's in a sauce, they will not notice that the vegetables are there. You can do this in a food processor, but I don't. I have to keep my processor in the basement due to lack of cabinet space and I can never find all the parts and I hate cleaning it. I use this instead, and it is the best. Do not be fooled by it's Slap-Chop-like appearance. It works, it's machine washable and it fits in my cabinet and on my woefully small counter.

Here's a by-no-means-comprehensive list of things that I have put in burritos;

Spanish Rice
Leftover Rice Pilaf
Sweet Potato (with black beans...soooooo gooood)
Spinach or whatever greens I got from the CSA and have to use up
Carrot
Potato, mashed or otherwise
Rotisserie Chicken
Dal/Lentils
Broccoli
Summer Squash
Asparagus
Roasted Winter Veg

Basically if you can put avocado and cheese on it and wrap it in a tortilla, I will serve it as a burrito. We once had roasted winter veg with dinner and the kids wouldn't even look at it. The next night I chopped up the vegetables really small, added a can of beans and a packet of taco seasoning and they each had seconds. I win.

Last night was ground beef, potato, onion/garlic and spinach with yellow rice. We will all be having lunchovers today.