Apron Free Cooking - Easy Cheesy Burritos

By Noel Lizotte

Peo­ple often don’t take the time to real­ize what they are say­ing. Two friends were hav­ing a cup of cof­fee the other day and one was talk­ing about the kids, the car, the doc­tor, the job, the dogs, the dead­lines, the lawn and etc. The sec­ond friend finally spoke up, “It sounds like you’re complaining.”

The first friend stopped talk­ing, looked sur­prise and then said “No, things are really good right now, this isn’t complaining.”

What one per­son will see as just talk­ing to fill in con­ver­sa­tional gaps, another will see as com­plain­ing. Another might hear brag­ging, yet the next one might hear a chal­lenge and still another will hear a com­pli­ment. This type of com­mu­ni­ca­tion gap hap­pens often enough in dis­cus­sion, and is ampli­fied in typed or texted mes­sages. Some things are tough to translate.

It’s the time of year when many peo­ple reflect on how grate­ful they are for things that have hap­pened in their life. Thanks­giv­ing by def­i­n­i­tion is a hol­i­day of appre­ci­a­tion. Per­haps we would do well to stop and rec­og­nize the daily inci­dents that deserve appre­ci­a­tion instead of wait­ing for Novem­ber. Just think how far a kind word might go, and how far that good feel­ing might spread.

Some days I for­get that bit of advice. Then some­thing hap­pens to remind me that no mat­ter what, I do have things to appre­ci­ate. For exam­ple, the dryer wouldn’t start yes­ter­day. My hus­band spent quite a bit of time try­ing to fix it but was unsuc­cess­ful. Not for lack of try­ing all angles. The pile of laun­dry that keeps grow­ing in the laun­dry room reminds me how thank­ful my fam­ily is that I don’t have to go to the Laundromat.

While we’re on that topic, I’m grate­ful to have a Laun­dro­mat in town. I’m grate­ful that we have run­ning water and elec­tric­ity so I don’t have to drag the clothes to the creek and beat them with rocks. I’m afraid if that were the case I’d be tempted to beat any­body who dirt­ied laun­dry in my house.

I decided that while I was being appre­cia­tive of all the mod­ern day con­ve­niences, I’d make one of the sim­plest sup­pers in my recipe file. While I was “cook­ing”, my hus­band found the name of a dryer repair man and we should be back in busi­ness in a few days.

Easy Cheesy Burritos

1 pack­age frozen burritos

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can nacho cheese sauce

Pre­heat the oven to the bur­rito pack­age instruc­tions. Mine said 350 degrees Fahren­heit. Place bur­ri­tos in glass casse­role dish, lightly sprayed with cook­ing spray. Drain toma­toes and spread over the bur­ri­tos. Pour nacho cheese sauce over toma­toes. Bake until bub­bly and bur­ri­tos are cooked through.

Nutri­tional Info: Serv­ings 8, Calo­ries 374, Total Fat 16g, Cho­les­terol 14mg, Sodium 1097mg, Total Carbs 47g, Dietary Fiber 6g, Pro­tein 11g

Make it a Meal: Serve with nacho corn chips, salsa and sour cream on the side. Addi­tional top­ping sug­ges­tions: jalapeno slices, black beans, corn, or chili.

Life can be a trial, life can be a cel­e­bra­tion. Life as we know it is gen­er­ally good and most cer­tainly con­ve­nient when you cook this way! I’m going to make an effort to be more appre­cia­tive of the good things and hope that I have friends around who will be brave enough to remind me, “It sounds like you’re complaining?”

Noel Lizotte is break­ing free of cor­po­rate stress with con­ve­nience cook­ing! www.apronfreecooking.com

Posted by Noel Lizotte on Nov 25 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.