Frito Casserole

I’ve always felt that most of the Frito casserole recipes lacked something. Not enough seasonings or ingredients or just too much pre-processed off the counter stuff. Yeah, I know the main ingredient is Fritos, but still, you could cook your own beans, make your own salsa, season your own ground beef taco filling. You get my drift.

Here’s a rough outline to modify as you like.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped

1 1/2 tsp minced garlic

1 envelope of taco seasoning

1 small can Ortega green chilis

1 small can sliced black olives

1 small can Green Giant MexiCorn, drained

1 can of beans drained -pinto, kidney or whatever you like, you can mix them

1 cup from jar of mild salsa

1 bag of shredded Mexican blend cheese

1 bag of regular Fritos

Shredded lettuce (optional)

1 cup sour cream (optional)

Brown beef in skillet, drain if necessary, add taco seasoning and follow directions on package. If you don’t have taco seasoning, you can add oregano, cumin and chili powder to taste.

Add a little olive oil to a skillet, brown onions and add garlic, then add ground beef and stir to mix, then green chilis and olives and stir to mix.

Combine drained corn, drained beans and salsa

Layer fritos, meat mixture, bean/corn mixture, cheese and continue layering topping with fritos and cheese.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake uncovered for 35-45 minutes or until hot and bubbling and top layer of cheese is melted.

Serve on a bed of shredded lettuce and top with sour cream if desired. Sides can include refried beans and rice and a green salad or you can just eat the casserole.

There is no such thing as a salmon filet

Just so you know.

They may call it a filet, but I have yet to eat any piece of salmon that doesn’t have at least one bone in it.

This is what I hate about salmon.

But meatless Monday progresses.

Today I had orange juice and Cream of Wheat for breakfast, tuna salad on home made whole wheat bread for lunch, with some mandarin oranges and for dinner baked salmon, peas and basmati rice.

Tomorrow I may have the left over salmon for lunch. Or I may make myself a tuna sandwich. Or I may have a Cornish Pastie. Or pesto deviled eggs.

I went to the store and spent $28.70. (I have $5.00 and change still in my wallet.) Nothing pre-processed (except the orange juice). I had to tell the cashier that is a turnip, that is a leek.

I bought a leek, a turnip, celery, a white rose potato, some beef and pork to go with the lamb I thawed out, a dozen eggs, orange juice and Gladware for storage.

I’m taking the Huffington Post Week of Eating In Challenge.

Don’t eat out for a week. It actually starts next week, but since I’ve been avoiding fast food and pre-processed food, cooking is now what I do pretty much.

I’ll be making soup later this week. The broccoli is still good and I have split peas and lentils in the cupboard.

Time to cut back more.

Time to eliminate even more corn from your diet. Soy too.

Those are the two main crops that Monsanto engineers to tolerate Round-up. Virtually all of the corn and soy grown in the U.S. is a genetically modified seed. And it looks like it’s really, really bad.

Monsanto only spent 90 days testing it. Ya think that’s why no liver or kidney disease or cancer showed up? 90 days? Frickin’ bastards.

No wonder the farmers in India are committing suicide.

In the mean time it isn’t enough to just avoid the high fructose corn syrup. Time to avoid all corn and soy too. Ears of corn. Corn meal. Tortillas. Green Giant nibblets. And products with regular corn syrup. Corn starch. And there are a lot.

Then there are the farm animals that eat the cheap genetically modified corn. No more pork. Chickens will be difficult to identify since whether they are cage free or free range, there’s no way of telling what they’re eating. Grass fed cows aren’t even immune, since there is a difference between corn raised and grass finished and grass fed. And so far no way to label the difference. Even the terms “organic” aren’t any use since the terms aren’t tightly regulated by the government. About the only way you can avoid a corn fed animal is to eat fish or New Zealand lamb.

Once again, you can buy imports from Europe. They have resisted GMS, but if they cave, even imports will be tainted by Monsanto’s poison. The EU, Japan, China, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand have labeling laws for GMO foods. There is no way you can grow enough produce to feed yourself on a normal city lot. And sorry, but I’ve tried the vegetarian route and I can’t eat exclusively fruits, vegetables and fish. I love chicken and I need some meat occasionally. I don’t eat a lot. Sometimes just once a week at my parent’s house.

How do you avoid ingesting Monsanto toxins?

Buy organic and make sure it specifically says 100% organic. Otherwise it may have a GMO (genetically modified organism) in it.

Avoid soy, cotton, canola and corn. Personally, I have no problem with cotton clothes. But I’ll be avoiding soy, canola and corn. I’ve been using olive oil (imported from Italy and cold pressed extra virgin) for everything, including baking. No, you cannot taste it in the brownies or cupcakes.

Avoid packaged or pre-processed foods. Duh. Michael Pollan’s food rules. If you want to eat junk food, make it yourself.

And there is a new site. The non-GMO shopping guide.

It can be done. But it will take more diligence than just avoiding high fructose corn syrup. And a lot more cooking from scratch.

Onward toward healthier eating.

Goat butter. Organic goat butter.

I came across this in the dairy section of Windmill Farms when I was looking at milks, yogurts and what else they had to offer.

Butter is butter. It’s made from the milk fat and I know goats have more fat in their milk than cows. I also know that for those that are lactose intolerant (which I am not) raw cows milk is better than pasturized/homogenized cows milk but goats milk is better than both.

So I bought some.

It’s white, like butter should be. Yes, butter should be white, not yellow. I think no matter what cows butter you buy in the U.S. unless you’re making your own from cream, they do something to it to make it yellow.

I decided to make marshmallow treats. I haven’t had them in maybe two years.

I bought puffed brown rice. I had the goats butter. And they had marshmallows that did NOT have high fructose corn syrup. Yes, they had sugar, but you can’t really avoid that. As unhealthy as marshmallows are, these are as healthy as they’re going to get.

They went really well.

1/4 cup butter, 4 cups marshmallows, 6 cups puffed rice.

Put butter and marshmallows in a large bowl and microwave for 2 min. Stir. Add puffed rice and mix really well. Put into a well greased pan and put in refrigerator.

I licked the spoon and what was left stuck to the bowl. Tasted great to me.

I’ll be taking some over to my parents today to see how they like them.

But so far the goats butter is a great success. Yes, it is a lot more expensive than cow butter and you can’t buy it at the regular grocery store.

But I’m not using butter than much anymore. So for the times I do, I might just switch.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Buy the best quality ingredients you can and cook your own. I think I’ll be using more goat butter.

I’m cooking tonight.

I almost feel like Julie Powell trudging through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. But it’s nothing like that. Only I’ll be eating at 8:30 tonight. Bad for my acid reflux. But I won’t be going to bed for 4-6 hours so I guess it’s OK. And I’m not cooking from scratch. Although I did make a salad. Greens from a bag and my Mom’s cherry tomatoes. I have fresh cucumbers too but I don’t have the energy to peel and slice them, then bag up the leftovers.

I shopped at Windmill Farms today. Bought organic stone ground lots, gluten free pasta, quinoa (red was on sale), some raw milk (going to give it a try) and found some whole wheat crackers that don’t have corn syrup in them. Plus various other fresh produce. And some herbal supplements.

Total? $130.00. Well, the herbal stuff was $30.00 by itself. I’ll go over the receipt later to make sure no mistakes were made but I’m sure it’s correct. I bought a lot of high priced organic stuff.

And….I bought a seafood stuffed salmon. I didn’t ask what it was stuffed with but I’m sure for what I paid there is no lobster in it. I’m allergic to lobster. If I throw up 30 min. after my dinner, then I’ll know there was lobster in it. But I suspect shrimp and crab and or pollock and perhaps even a scallop. It’s all ground up so hard to tell. It will be my first salmon dinner. Never had it before. The guy said 15 min. at 450 degrees so it should be done now.

Salmon and a salad. That’s it. I don’t have enough energy to make garlic bread. And a white nectarine for desert. I squeezed some lemon juice on the salmon patty and dotted it with butter. Thank you Julie and Julia.

My goal this week? To clean the kitchen enough to really cook. I want to make a spinach feta quiche.