We often have quesadillas for lunch.  It’s just so quick and handy.

This time I made ‘em cute with my Christmas tree cookie cutter.  Big hit with the short folks around the ranch!

That’s pretty much all I’m willing to commit to until my headache is gone.  Well, and laundry, a crockpot full of beans and some cornbread after while.  Oh, and I need to plan the menu and make the grocery list.

*Note: I am not teaching math while I have a headache.  I’m sure this headache will pass before the kids are grown, so I’m not gonna loose any sleep over the lack of math this week.

But, for lunch and some sort of stab at academics today I need simple.  And my part needs to be brief.  And quiet.

Baked potatoes are very quiet.  As long as I remember to preheat the oven by 10:30 or so we can have nice baked potatoes for lunch.  Left over beans warmed in the m’wave go good with that.  Easy and packed full of nutrition.

The quick and easy bit is after you poke the ‘taters full of fork holes, spray ‘em with your spray oil (Pam or whatever) then sprinkle coarse sea salt on ‘em before baking for an hour at 400°.  Super easy, super nutritious, super cheap-o, super yummy.

Journaling is something I have read about forever.  Heard great advice concerning this from Aunt Victoria.  Made a couple of half-hearted efforts to get going with it, and let it fall off the map.  Well, we’re all over the journaling these days.  The younger three are doin’ it.  Yes, even Sally Mae (the girl was born with a pencil in her hand!)

Turns out, journaling is the most powerful language lesson I have ever seen.  I say “seen” because I hardly have to do a thing.  I provided compositions books and pencils.  I explained the type of thing they were to write about.  (You know, current events in their own lives.)  And I use my white board to help them figure out how to spell what they want help with.

Some of the time we start off with a Bible verse.  Sometimes not.

Sometimes they’d like me to believe their lives are too boring to write down on paper.  I tell them to write down what they ate for breakfast.  At that point they come up with more interesting stuff.

They started off thinking they needed a ton of help with spelling.  Confidence was very low.  But day by day, since it matters to them, they are remembering words I previously taught them.  I can’t say that about words from a spelling list.

I’m writing a journal too, setting a good example and all that.  We all sit at the table together and do this at the same time.  I don’t mind them interrupting me to ask how to spell something, I’m a big girl, I’ll remember what I was doing (pretty sure).

The thought that cracks me up, is that someday, far in the distant future, when I’m (sniff) gone, some Cowboy of mine is gonna go through my closet, find a stack of 237 composition books, open one up and say to his brother, “Hey, Dusty, I bet you don’t know what Mama ate for breakfast on October 7th, 2009.”  (snort!)

And just because they’re cute, here’s Slim and Sally Mae.  BTW – do not buy your son one of these unless you are willing to hear him ask, “Hey, where’s my do-rag?”  Gr-r-r-r!

But you can call ‘em Tacquitos if you wanna.  This was very simple and enormously yummy.

You’ll need:

• 3 cups cooked chicken, chopped up kinda small
• 24 corn tortillas
• ¾ cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon taco seasoning mix
• garlic powder, a sprinkle
• onion powder, a sprinkle
• 1 tablespoon parsley flakes (because all food should have little green flecks)
• salt, a few shakes
• olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350° and put foil on a couple of baking sheets.  Pour some oil into a small skillet and turn it on medium.

Chop the chicken and add the sour cream and all the seasonings.  Stir it up.

To soften the tortillas put them, one at a time, into the hot oil.  Be careful.  Just a few seconds on each side, then put them onto the cookie tray.

Put a couple of tablespoons of chicken mixture in each tortilla and roll them up.  If you are doing it right the tortillas will be quite hot but not  so hot they’re causing injury.  Kind of a fine line.

Anyway, leave a space between each tacquito on the tray.  Bake at 350° for 15 – 20 minutes, turn ‘em over halfway through.  They’re done when they look nice and golden.

Serve with salsa and sour cream for dipping.  Yummmmmmmmmmmmm!

Here’s your link back to the Ultimate Recipe Swap.

My kids love quesadillas!  They would eat them for lunch everyday if I let ‘em.  The wonderful part is that they’re easy to make and not very expensive, actually, if you use leftovers they’re down-right frugal.

You’ll need:

• Flour Tortillas – 2 per
• Cheese, grated, it doesn’t matter what kind, pretty much
• leftovers, either meat cut into little pieces or beans or whatever sounds good to ya
• maybe some oil for the skillet if ya like ‘em a little crispy

Just turn the skillet on med/ med-low and let it preheat while you get out the other ingredients and cut the meat up.

Lay the tortilla on the hot skillet and put some meat or beans on and kinda spread ‘em out.

Add some cheese, be careful not to make a mess and get the cheese on the skillet like I did.  Hate that.

Put the other tortilla on top.  Let the bottom one brown just a touch.  Then flip it, remember, watch out for rebelious cheese shreds!   Let the second side brown a bit and remove the delicious stuff to a plate.  Use your pizza cutter to cut ‘em into fourths.  My kids like to dip these in sour cream and the teens like a spoonful of salsa with it.

This recipe is not wholly indulgent, but I must confess that those tortillas are not homemade.  Oddly enough, I have paired the store bought tortillas with some produce from our backyard, organic garden.  The result is fantastic!

When I was in high school they served something vaguely similar to this and called it a burrito.  I’m calling mine Fried Tacos.

I used:

• evil, store-bought tortillas
• cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 small, organic, sweet onion, diced
• 1 small, organic, roma tomato, diced
• 1 small, organic, bell pepper, diced
• fat, saved from some sausage we browned yesterday for the pizza

I sauted the onion and bell pepper in the pork fat.  Once that was done I transfered the veggies to a small bowl and wiped the skillet out with a cloth.  Added about 2 or 3 tablespoons more fat to the pan and set it over medium heat.

While that was getting hot I started rolling up the tacos by putting a couple of tablespoons of grated cheese in the middle of a tortilla and added a spoonful of diced tomato, and two spoonfuls of the bell pepper and onion combo.  Rolled it carefully and laid it in the skillet, seam side down.  Once it browned nicely I turned it over using the awkward “tongs in one hand, spatula in the other hand method.”  I let the second side get browned to a yummy, crispiness and removed it to my plate.

I might like to dip these in sour cream and/or salsa, but here I sit, just eatin’ ‘em as is.  YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!

Here’s your shortcut back to Food on Fridays.

You’ll need:

• 2 cans tuna, drained
• 3 slices of a large onion, diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1 dill pickle, diced
• ½ cup mayo
• 2 cups cheese, shredded, cheddar or colby or m. jack
• Mrs. Dash, couple shakes
• butter, melted
• 24 slices whole wheat bread

Mix the first 7 ingredients together.

Use the basting brush to butter the bread right before you put it into a hot skillet.  Put about ¼ cup of mixture on first slice of bread in skillet.  Spread it out and add another slice of buttered bread on top.  Cook it like a grilled cheese sandwich. 

Serve it with a dill pickle spear and a handful of tortilla chips.

Makes 12 sandwiches.

This is the best sandwich in the world.  Bar none.  And since avocadoes are 3/$1 at my grocery this week, and hopefully for many weeks to come, I am really eating as many of these as I can one for lunch every day.

It’s a simple recipe.  For one sandwich you’ll need:

• ½  avocado, sliced or diced
• ½ tomato, sliced
• ¼-½ cup alfalfa sprouts
• 2 slices whole wheat toast
• some mayo
• sea salt
• Mrs. Dash

Spread the mayo on your toast.  Put the tomato slices on one piece of toast and the avocado on the other. Pile the sprouts on one side and sprinkle with salt and Mrs. Dash.  Close carefully and cut the sandwich in half.

The tomatoes and avocado are both slippery, but the sprouts add some traction.  Even so, it takes a while to learn how to eat this without things sliding every which way, and in the end you are gonna eat it kinda fast ‘cuz it’s just that good!

It’s a nice cool lunch on a hot day!  Did you vote in my a/c poll?  Look in the right sidebar, top.

Here’s your shortcut back to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

Tried a new bread recipe today.  I’ll spare ya the recipe.  Suffice it to say too much yeast is a bad thing.  

So, we had holes in the bread and some seriously cute, yet hungry kids.  pb & honey for the squirts and toasty cheese for the rest of us.  

Very yummy, yet structurally challenged bread.  Super delicious and filling sandwiches.

The recipe for the sandwiches is at Homemade and Wholesome.