Saturday, 03 July 2010

• 10 Different Things to Make with Tortillas

  
  
  As I've stated in previous posts, I'm broke.  I therefore must be cheap, which can be very difficult when trying to maintain a (forget "well-balanced!") good-TASTING diet, because the same kinds of things tend to be cheap.  Instant-lunch soup cups are straight-up bad, and how many times can I eat EZ-Mac throughout the day before I feel like throwing up?   (The answer is 4).
  
  I thought to myself: What's one food that is universally quite cheap, but also versatile enough that it can be used over and over in quite varied dishes? I came up with: Tortillas.  And here, true to form, I offer you a list of 10 ways in which this cheap food really can earn its new title as both versatile and delicious.
  
  1. Chinese-Imitation Chicken Dumplings:  Douse chicken (whatever part of the chicken you enjoy - and rotisserie chickens are only about $5, and are another food I plan to write a similar post to this on them!) in soy or teriyaki sauce.  I personally recommend dousing the chicken in soy sauce, then using a thick teriyaki spread on the tortilla itself.  Make sure chicken pieces are small and completely edible (no bones) and place in the middle of a tortilla. 
  
  Pull the shell up around the chicken, then roll down around the edge.  Hold it together with a toothpick.  Cover and bake dumplings at 325 degrees F until the dumplings are tender enough for your liking.  Remember to take the toothpicks out before eating!
  
  These might taste particularly good in some chicken broth - just sayin'!
  
  2.  Apple Dumplings:  (Ideas 2, 3, 4, and 5 found here.)  Core and skin apples that are the right corresponding size relative to whatever the size is of the tortilla shells you are using.  Put the apples at the center of the tortilla shells.  Put two pieces of non-wrapped caramels and some chopped nuts in the cored part of each apple. 
  
  As with the chicken dumplings, pull the shell up around the apples and roll it down.  Secure it with a toothpick.  Pour a special sauce over the dumplings: for 6 dumplings, use 2 cups brown sugar, 1 cup water, and some ground cinnamon.  Cover and bake at 325 degrees Farenheit until apples are soft enough to easily run a knife right through.
  
  
  (Don't expect any of these to look exactly like their pics!)
  
  3. Dessert Pies: Use small tortillas, and whatever type of pie filling you want (the author of the recipe recommends apple).  Put the pie filling in the middle of the tortillas and roll them up like burritos.  Saute in a skillet until the roll-ups are golden-brown. 
  
  To serve, drizzle a some caramel sauce and dab a small blob of cool whip on top.  If you don't have sauce or cool whip, cinnamon and/or powdered sugar does the trick.  Or ice cream....or really, anything sweet.
  
  
  
  4.  Hot Dogs:  Heat hot dogs all the way through, first.  Put whole hot dogs in the middle of large tortillas.  Add chopped onion and cheese, and roll up and fold tortilla until the hot dog itself is completely closed in.  Fry on a skillet until tortilla shell is golden-brown.  Dip in ketchup and mustard!
  
  
  5.  Thin-Crust Pizza:  Spread sauce of choice (recommendations include tomato paste, pasta sauce, and barbeque sauce) over large tortillas.  Top with anything you can find (I personally recommend using some type of cheese in the mix, but the author of the idea doesn't require it); toppings can be anything that taste good, like bacon crumbles, peppers, ham, or turkey. 
  
  Bake the pizzas at 350 degrees F until they are crisp.  It usually takes about 10 minutes for them to be at perfect thin-crust-crisp consistency. 
  
  
  
  6.  Cinnamon Sugar Chips:  (Idea 6 found here.)  Spread tortillas with any kind of (non-hydrogenated) butter or margarine, and sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar.  Cut them into whatever-sized chips you want (make sure to cut BEFORE baking, or you will just have to break 'em!) - the author of the original post recommends cutting them into 8ths, like a pizza.
  
  Bake them for about 3-5 minutes at 300 degrees F.  Once done, storage works best as follows:  let them cool off, them place them in an air-tight sealed bag (I think a zip-lock would be just fine!).  These chips taste great dipped in apple sauce, cream cheese, strawberry salsa, jelly, caramel sauce, (anything sweet!) and even peanut butter.
  
  You can also make regular tortilla chips by following the above directions, just using salt instead of cinnamon and sugar (and presumably dipping the chips in guacamole or salsa instead of sweet sauces!).
  
  
  
  7.  Breakfast Burrito:  (Ideas 7 & 8 found here).  Cook 2 eggs in the microwave.  Once cooked, chunk up the eggs and place in the center of a burrito.  Add cheddar cheese and chopped onions to the eggs (and I would recommend bacon pieces or crumbles, too) and roll up the burrito.  Put the burrito back in the microwave for about 30 seconds.
  
  You can also make this by adding 3 slices of ham and 3 slices of Swiss cheese to the eggs, instead of the cheddar and onions.
  
  
  
  8.  Roll-Ups:
  
  Blackberry Crepe:  Place and spread blackberry reserves and yogurt, sour cream, or cream cheese on one side of a burrito.  Roll it up and microwave for 30 seconds (or fry, for some extra crispiness!).  That's it!
  
  Apple & Peanut Butter Roll:  Liberally place and spread peanut butter and apple sauce on one side of a burrito and roll it up (microwaving optional).  Simple!
  
  Comfort Roll: Roll up leftover turkey/chicken and stuffing in a tortilla.  Serve with warmed gravy to dip in.
  
  9.  Lasagna:  (Ideas 9 & 10 found here.)  Start by warming tortillas in the microwave, so that they soften.  In a casserole dish coated with cooking spray, interchangeably layer tortillas and whatever ingredients you want in your lasagna.  This may be risotto and shaved cheeses, in which case no pre-preparation is necessary.
  
  If it's meat you want, prepare this before warming the tortillas.  Brown a hamburger, and saute onions in butter.  Add them together, and add seasonings and chopped tomatoes. 
  
  When your lasagna is layered to your liking, top with some grated cheese and bake at 350 degrees F for however long it takes for the lasagna to be ready (the recipe online recommends an hour of bake time, but I think that's probably a bit long).
  
  
  
  10.  Tortilla Cups:  Easily molded either 1) over or 2) pressed into a custard bowl, or 3) pressed into a muffin tin.
  
  Start by microwaving tortillas until they have softened a bit (this apparently works to make them more flexible, and less likely to tear).  Place them either into a muffin tin or custard bowl, or on top of a custard bowl, and put into an oven set at 400 degrees F.  Bake for about 7-10 minutes, or until the edges of the tortilla cups get slightly golden.
  
  You can fill these cups with whatever you want!  Some ideas include quiche, egg salad and tomato, chicken salad and diced green pepper, tuna salad and an apple slice, salsa and cheese, or peanut butter and jelly.  Essentially, though - anything is possible with edible cups!
  
  Well, I hope you liked at least some of these ideas.  Let me know how they turn out for you!
  
  Does anyone have any other ideas for how to use tortillas?
  

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