Meal Planning Three: Tostadas for Thursday

Meal Planning Made Easy with a Trio of Recipes

Third time's the charm, right?

This time around we'll be making tostadas. If you've never had them before, they're a little like nachos, but instead of several little and likely broken chips covered in good stuff, they're one BIG chip piled high with nacho-like ingredients.

While it's not necessary, we do recommend adding some refried beans, guacamole, shredded lettuce and/or sliced avocado to this round. The additional ingredients really give this meal a flavor and texture boost - but we understand some picky eaters find them... objectionable, to say the least. Two of them are vibrantly green, so your veggie haters will be on guard immediately, and the other two are lumpy. So if you skip these, or just don't want to put in that extra layer of prep, it's absolutely okay. Your tostadas will still be tasty and nutritionally complete, we promise. We also like cilantro as a garnish, but we know some people find it soapy and unappealing.

You'll need your filling (the last portion left in the freezer from your original batch), and also:

Ingredients:

12 corn tortillas
remaining 1/4 lb cheese (brick, shredded)
4 oz salsa
remaining sour cream

Optional:
refried beans, guacamole, lettuce, avocado, fresh cilantro

Baking pan with rack (or an air fryer if you're fancy), microwave safe dish or saucepan with lid, aluminum foil, cooking spray, plate or platter, grater, spoons and butter knife for dividing and spreading ingredients, knife and cutting board if adding lettuce or avocado, and some way to handle hot food (tongs, mitts, etc.)

As we did last time around, start by getting the filling out to thaw. Once you can remove it from the container it was frozen in, put it into a saucepan, drop a lid on it and set it on a burner on low. Alternatively, you can use a microwave safe dish and zap it for a few minutes on low to heat it through. Whichever method you choose, be sure to stir frequently in order to avoid scorched spots and frozen centers.

Separate your tortillas - but this time there's no need to wrap them up. Today, the goal is to crisp them. Lay them out on the platter and give them all a spray with your cooking spray, then flip them all and repeat the process so that both sides of each have a thin coating of oil.

If you have an air fryer, feel free to preheat it to 375 now. In an air fryer, you'll have to work in stages, even if you have a layered rack, so don't expect to be able to do more than two tortillas at a time. Place a single tortilla on each layer of the rack and, ideally, weigh it down with something oven-safe and kind of heavy. Pie weights work well if you have them, or you might use an oven-safe mug, ramekin or dessert plate if you have the vertical space to accommodate them in the fryer. If not, it's no big deal - tostadas are messy to begin with, and the only thing affected by them being a little wobbly and uneven is their presentation value. Run them through the fryer for about five minutes each. When you remove them, do so with grill gloves or tongs - anything that's not your bare hand! Burnt fingers ruin dinner for everyone.

Should you choose the more conventional route of using an oven instead of an air fryer, you should preheat that to 375 and place the tortillas in a single layer on the baking rack. Set them on the top rack of the oven and allow them to bake for ten minutes, flipping them over at the halfway mark. Be sure to take them out before the edges blacken. Every oven is a little different, so you know better than we do if you're at risk for that.

Did you save any of that shredded cheese from the last go-round? If not, grab the grater and shred the last of the brick you started with, or re-enlist that helper from before to take care of it for you.

This is also a good time to wash and chop lettuce if you've chosen to add it.

Once all your tortillas have been crisped and removed from the heat, begin layering toppings. It's best to put something unlikely to soak into the tortilla on the bottom, so we frequently place our thin layer of shredded cheese here, then build up.

Refried beans, if you're using them, are an excellent next layer because of their sticky, gluey nature (unless they're the too-thin kind you sometimes encounter - maybe skip if they're watery). Spread them out a bit with a knife so they're not all clumped up in the center, then add a few spoonfuls of your warm filling.

We'd go with guacamole and lettuce next, and a little dollop of sour cream on top with just a dash of cilantro, and then serve with a little bit of salsa... But this is the time to make it your own. You don't need to top it just with the things we've suggested.

Perhaps top it with another addition of your own design. By now, you're familiar with the flavor profile and have had a chance to think about what you'd like to add - maybe you like goat cheese, or a specific brand or flavor of hot sauce. Maybe you think it could benefit from the addition of some chorizo or queso blanco. What if you have some fresh peppers taking up space in the fridge that could add some texture and color?

There are no rules with tostadas, so long as the base is a crispy tortilla. It's perhaps a bit safer to keep any warm or soggy ingredients at the base and build upward with the crumbly and cool ingredients, but that's just a suggestion based on experience. Treat it like a crunchy open-faced sandwich and have fun with it! And don't be scared to make a mess eating yours - that's all part of the fun!

Let us know what you thought of our final meal planning recipe over on Facebook! We’d love to hear from you.

So long as your stove is fine, you’re good to go after this point, but what if it’s your washer that’s on the fritz? If that’s the case, you can give us a call at ((214) 599-0055) or head over to our website. Wherever you live in Carrollton and the surrounding areas, we’ve got you covered. Appliance Rescue Service is here to help and here to keep your home, and your home appliances, running smoothly.

Additional Reading
Meal Planning One: Tacos for Days

Meal Planning Two: Enchiladas for Everyone

9 Kitchen Gadgets You Don’t Need In Your Kitchen

Sometimes, we buy the weirdest kitchen gadgets.

Do you ever look at something on Amazon and question “how did that get made?” Last week we took a look at some of the gadgets and appliances we desperately want to bring into our homes. This week we’re looking some of the kitchen tools we absolutely do not want. 

We rated these based on three rankings. Did they do what they said they could? Does this have a purpose? And, last but not least, just how dangerous is it? (If that last one sounds weird, wait till you get to the end of the list.) 

Table of Contents

Churros Maker

Whisk Wiper

Butter Hub

Golden Egg Maker

Gourmia Electric Tea Brewing

Ember Wave Smart Mug

Bossy Betty Veggie Sheet Slicer

Haier Pocket Washing Machine

Coconut Meat Scraper

Churros Maker

The idea is one that we can all get behind. Trying to make a tasty, delicious treat that little bit healthier. In theory, you don't have to spray the mold or even use any oil for cooking the churros. In practice though, what you really get is straight tubes of dough that are baked and won't stick to the churro coating.  It's the residual oil in the dough from frying that usually makes the sugar and cinnamon stick to the churro. Without that, you don't even get a dusting of it. 

Purpose - 3/10 

Does it make cooked dough? Yes. Does it make churros? No. 

Usefulness- 5/10 

Churros are delicious! Being able to make churros at home without needing huge vats of oil is a great idea! But this one isn't /necessary/ in day to day life for most of us. 

Danger  2/10

Unless you intentionally go putting your fingers in the press, we think you'll be ok with this one. 

Whisk Wiper

We want to like this one. We really do. Having a whisk fall into a bowl of batter/sauce/etc is a pain! Or losing what feels like 1/5 of your batter to the whisk because it's so thick. But.. we can't really justify this. There are other ways to keep a whisk from falling into your bowl, and just as many ways to clean a whisk as this offers.  We're sure the other 20+ uses it claims are served as well by other items in your home as this can. 

Purpose  8/10  It does do its job of wiping a whisk clean or stick to its provided whisk very well. 

Usefulness 1/10  If you don't have anything else in your house. Maybe. And even then we'd say that's pushing it.

Danger 0/10  ... Well. Unless you throw the provided whisk at someone in a fit of frustration. But we hope you won't do that one.

Butter Hub

This one gave us mixed feelings. On one hand, it is meant to keep your butter from getting crumbs in it, butter rings on your table or losing your butter knife on a regular basis. On the other hand, you don't have to use just one knife on the butter, you can just flip the lid over when you use the dish, and if you're not a heathen, you don't get crumbs in the butter. So.. mixed feelings? 

Purpose 10/10 It absolutely does accomplish the goals it sets out to. 

Usefulness 3/10 There are some people that this is going to work fantastically for, and we can appreciate that. It's just not us. 

Danger - 0/10 Again, we advise not throwing things at people and you'll be able to keep this safety rating. 

Golden Egg Maker

This one. You've probably seen a dozen and one different items that claim to do the same thing. The idea is to be able to somehow mix the white and yolk inside the egg so that picky eaters will consume all of the egg, rather than one part or the other. The problem? When tested, this one, and most of them, don't work. No matter how many times you spin an egg around, you aren't going to be getting the yolk and white any more combined. Evolution has you trumped. 

Purpose 0/10 This doesn't accomplish its purpose in any way, shape or form. 

Point  1/10 it works as a toy to amuse kids for a while making things spin around, but other than that, we don't suggest it. 

Danger 1/10 Some will have a small needle to prick the shell, but other than that, there isn't much danger involved. 

Gourmia Electric Tea Brewing

We wanted to love this one. We really did. And for half of the population, it's a great concept. Being able to set your tea to brew at a specific time is great! Being able to get the best flavor out of your tea is great! But. If you know anything about tea, you'll know this product is not great for tea. You start off by 'refreshing' the leaves, which means that you're throwing away the first flavor of the leaves. While it's true that you can steep loose leaf tea multiple times and extract multiple different flavors out of it, you have to be careful while doing this. Our biggest gripe about this is that there is no way to tell what temperature your water is. Different teas require different temperatures so that you get the best flavor from the leaf. This tool? Doesn't give you that. The best you're going to get is "light, medium or strong" and that can just as easily be achieved by altering the brewing time as anything else. 

Purpose -  8/10 It does in fact serve its purpose of making a cup of tea. (Whether it makes a good cup of tea is besides the point.) 

Usefulness 5/10 Again, it does make a cup of tea. However, since you don't really have much control over how it makes said cup of tea, we can't properly say it's useful. 

Danger 1/10 There are portions of it that are made of glass that are very poorly seated in the design. We wouldn't be surprised if this managed to wiggle its way off a table at some point. 

Ember Wave Smart Mug

This is a mug  that connects to an app on your phone or tablet to set a very specific temperature for your drink of choice. Want your coffee kept at 98* while you're doing the dishes? It can handle it. Want your cocoa to stay warm while you tuck the kids into bed? It can do that too. Our issue with it is not the functionality of the device so much as what's required in order to get it. First off, the price. As of writing this mug is priced at 129.95 USD.  Then you've got to download the app once you get your mug. Which, ok, that makes sense. It needs their proprietary software to work. What doesn't make sense is why you need to hand over your email and create an account. Why do I need to sign in order to heat my coffee? 

Purpose 10/10 It will keep your mug at the temperature you set. For that reason, we love it. 

Usefulness  1/10 This device is only as good as the app its paired to and for us, having to sign in just to keep our coffee hot is asking too much. 

Danger 4/10 Actual possibility of burning yourself on this one if you: 

a) forget how to hold a cup 

b) set the temperature too high 

c) have a moment of weakness and accidentally drop the cup. 

(the last one has happened this week to your faithful writer.) 

Bossy Betty Veggie Sheet Slicer

  We will admit that this one is a lot of fun to say, but not as much fun to use. Although it's relatively easy to use, even with instructions, it's even easier to slice yourself with.  The use for this one is to take different firm vegetables like zucchini, cucumbers, and carrots and turn them into sheets that you could use for different foods like lasagna. You fix the vegetable on the spike and then clamp the blade against it so that it begins to peel in very thin layers as the vegetable rotates.  

Purpose 9/10 We only took a point off because you have to pick very firm vegetables.

Usefulness 4/10 Here we had to take many more points off, because.. why? Why do you need such thin sheets of vegetables? Other than lasagna, we can't see the home chef finding much use for this particular item. 

Danger 8/10  Remember what we said about the blade? Yeah, in tests it was shown to pop repeatedly and suddenly when you're trying to 'set' the vegetable in place and ended up getting several people nicked. With time and practice, we're sure that people would be able to avoid getting injured, but really, we'd rather that you weren't getting injured at all. 

Haier Pocket Washing Machine

You're out at dinner with friends and you accidentally splash some wine on your new skirt. Or a waiter passes by and bumps into you, causing you to get sauce on your silk tie. the Haier Pocket Machine can fit in a pocket, or more likely, in your car's glove box. You pop off to the car, remove the spot using a bit of water, detergent and the machine and it's supposed to remove the stain. Everything from mangoes, to coffee to mustard. 

Surprise though, it doesn't. It just spreads the stain around and dilutes it some. It's a pity, but if things like this worked, we wouldn't have as much fun repairing your washing machine. ;) 

Purpose 2/10 It will dilute the stain some, if you immediately attack it with the detergent, but we really aren't sure if that's the detergent or the machine. 

Usefulness - 0/10 It doesn't remove the stain, using it would mean that you have to carry it, water and detergent with you all the time, and who has the time/space for that? 

Danger 8/10 Danger to your clothes. 

Coconut Meat Scraper 

Our final one on the list!  Fresh shaved coconut. Useable in all sorts of recipes and no need to wait! That is a dream for many of us that love coconut. This tool though? Is not the way to go about it. We'd rather you use a serrated spoon than to try this thing. It would be less dangerous.  In tests the machine spins so fast that it's difficult even with gloves on to keep the coconut on the shaving head. The company is kind enough to provide gloves but we can reliably say that they aren't enough to protect your hands from this.  For the sake of your hands, don't purchase this machine, and keep trying other ways to get your fill of delicious coconut. 

Purpose 7/10 It's possible to make this work. But it's hard and as stated, we don't advise it. 

Usefulness 0/10 Really. Unless you need industrial amounts of coconut, this thing has no use for the average person. 

Danger 10/10 It is highly likely in our opinion that you would end up injured attempting to use this tool. 

There you have it! Earlier this month we looked at gadgets we wanted and here are ones that we want nothing to do with.  Let us know over on our Facebook what gadgets are in your kitchen that you regret buying! 

Our everyday gadgets though, like your refrigerator, washer and oven are mandatory and not just because we work hard to keep them working. Every one of the major appliances has been tried and tested over and over to serve the purpose it was designed for. If yours isn't functioning for some reason, say the refrigerator isn't keeping things cold or your oven isn't getting hot enough, we're here for you. Appliance Rescue Service will come to wherever you are in our service area to keep your home running smoothly. 

Reach out to us via phone or our contact page to set up your appointment today. 

Appliance Rescue Service, we're here for you. 

Meal Planning Round Two : Easy Enchiladas At Home

Because who doesn’t love enchiladas?

Welcome back!

We're going to assume your crowd was not hungry enough to eat up all that filling from our last recipe, and that you still have two thirds of that batch in the freezer. Before you get started reading this, if you plan on cooking today, you might want to go grab a third of it and set it out to defrost. It'll take quite a while in the fridge, but if you set it on the counter, it should be thawed enough to squeeze out of that ziploc bag by the time you're done assembling your necessary items and reading through this post.

In the event they were, in fact, starving, and you're out of filling entirely, we'll just send you back over to the first part of this series to begin again.

This week, you'll need (obviously in addition to your filling)

Ingredients:

12 corn tortillas (you'll most likely have some left over from the first round)
1/4 lb cheese (brick; shredded)
6 ounces salsa
sour cream, to taste

Tools:
deep baking pan, sauce pan or microwave safe dish for reheating, cheese grater, aluminum foil, paper towels or clean dish towel, cooking spray, plate or platter on which to work, spatula, spoon, sandwich bag, gloves (optional - but this can get messy)

First things first, get that filling heated up - it will be much easier to work with once it's warm. While you're welcome to toss it in the microwave in a covered dish, we feel like it loses some of its texture that way. We recommend putting it into a saucepan (or a caldera if you have one) and simmering it, covered, on low heat until all the frozen spots have thawed out and the whole pan is warmed through. For reasons we'll cover shortly, please put the pan on a front burner if possible.

While your filling is reheating, preheat your oven to 375.

Dampen your clean dish towel or two or three paper towels and wring out the excess water. We're going for slightly damp, not dripping wet. Wrap your corn tortillas in the paper towels or dish towel, making sure not to leave the edges of the tortillas exposed. Place your wrapped tortillas in front of the oven vent. On most ovens, it's just under the display for time and temperature. Assuming you're not using the microwave for reheating, please be sure that none of your little bundle is too close to the burner warming the filling! Place it completely on the opposite side of the stove if you can. The goal here is to let the tortillas gently warm while your filling reheats and you take care of all your other prep tasks. Warm tortillas are much easier to work with and less likely to break.

This is an excellent time to shred the brick of cheese if you haven't already. Using store-bought shredded cheese is fine, but the anti-caking agent companies package it with can change the way the cheese melts. It still tastes good, but it doesn't look as pretty - which is why we usually suggest shredding your own. It only takes a minute, and it's also a good way to get a helper involved.

Set aside your shredded cheese (or let your helper work on it) and pick up the aluminum foil. Use a large sheet of it to line your baking pan and make sure the corners are pushed down. Give it a quick spritz with cooking spray so you don't get enchilada pieces later.

Lay out your plate or platter close to your filling, and glove up (or scrub up and be ready to scrub again later) - it's time to fill some tortillas.

Take your first tortilla from the warm bundle, and leave the rest wrapped. Turn off the heat under the filling to avoid scorching either the food or your hands while you work.

Spray one side of the tortilla with cooking spray, then flip it over on the plate and spray again. A little extra oil is another trick to stop the tortillas from tearing (corn tortillas are a lot more brittle than flour ones, we're sure you've noticed).

Spoon some of the filling from your pan (or microwave dish) into the center of the tortilla and roll it up, leaving the ends open. Feel free to adjust the amount of filling per enchilada to your own preference. We like to start with two heaping tablespoons and go from there.

Place the enchilada seam side down in your baking pan, right up against one edge.

Repeat the oil, filling, rolling and placing steps until you're out of tortillas.

As you place your enchiladas in the pan, make sure each touches the side of the one placed before it. This helps prevent them unrolling and dumping their filling all over the place.

At the end of your stack of tortillas, you may still have filling left - this is okay; extras tend to happen with batch cooking. You can add it to the pan and bake it up with the enchiladas and then treat it as spilled filling when you serve, or you can set it aside and make some more enchiladas or a burrito with it for lunch tomorrow.

Now that you have all your enchiladas in the pan, take that salsa and dump it across the top. Spread it around with a spoon so that there's a layer of salsa over all of the exposed tops of the tortillas. It's fine if it's a thin layer. We want crispy ends and tops, but we're trying to avoid reaching the burnt stage.

After you've spread the salsa around, sprinkle that shredded cheese over it all (be sure to thank your helper if you had one) and pop the pan into the oven for about 20 minutes. Since all the ingredients are pre-cooked, there's no worry about reaching proper internal temperature so long as it's nice and warm when it hits the dinner table.

Optional: scoop a little sour cream - about two tablespoons should do - into that sandwich bag, seal it up, snip off a corner and drizzle it over the top after you take them out of the oven.

Divide up with the spatula, serve and enjoy.

Thanks for coming back! Join us in two weeks so that you can see how we’re going to make a final meal out of that original batch of meat. If you’ve got other tips on how to make this work or tricks you find for meal planning, let us know on Facebook! We love to hear from you.

If the worst happens though an your oven stops working midway through, we can help you. Give us a call at ((214) 599-0055), or you can get an appointment set up over on our website.

Appliances of the Future

Concept and Cutting Edge Appliances We Want

Have you ever looked around your kitchen or your laundry room and thought 'I need to solve this problem.' Many of us do that and we fill our homes with gadgets and tools that solve a very specific problem. This week we're looking at five very specific tools to solve problems around the home. Some of them already exist. Some of them might exist in the future. Either way, we know we want them. 

For the ones that don't exist, we feel the need to place a disclaimer. These are tools and appliances that have been dreamed up by engineers. They aren't fully reproducible just yet. These are concept designs. We'll make sure to note which ones you can get right now and which ones you can't.

Table of Contents

iRobot Scuba

LED Shower Head

B-Iron 725 

Orbital Washer 

Electrolux Gel Refrigerator 

iRobot scuba

iRobot Braava robotic mop for keeping your kitchen and home clean! We love the idea of making the mopping easier!

The rounds of cleaning never end, especially when faced with a pandemic. Many of us have found the iRobot company to be very helpful and this design is no different. Although officially called the iRobot Braava, the idea stays the same. A robotic mop for your home instead of a vacuum. Now not only can you leave your vacuuming to your faithful robot, but you can also have one to deal with mopping as well. We love this idea, especially for making the weekly scrubbing easier. There are quirks to using it as is true of any piece of technology but it makes up for it in terms of time saved. Just don't go and buy this one as a gift for your significant other. (Although this one does exist, we're still dreaming of a day when we can have our own Rosie from the Jetsons.)

LED Shower Head 

LED Showerhead to show you how hot your shower is before you hop in.

 Taking a shower is something we hope, all of us do. Why shouldn't your time there be as relaxing or refreshing as possible? Or both! That's where an LED shower head comes in. Studies have shown that different lights can have different effects on how we think. Not only in terms of how bright the lights are but also what color the lights are. With an LED shower head you can control what your shower looks like. Some of them, like the one we have linked to, will even change colors based on the temperature rather than just a pre-selected color. If you're looking to update your bathroom and make it a relaxing place we think this should be in consideration.

B-Iron 725 

The transparent B-Iron 725 concept iron is one we wish we could use in our day to day lives.

This see-through iron was developed by Dong-Seok Lee and Ji-Hyung Jung. The idea is a simple one, what if you could see the garment you're working on through the iron? It's especially useful for working with pants and skirts that need a crisp pleat in them. Although this idea isn't in production yet we hope that it will be in the near future.

Orbital Washer 

The Orbital washer with its removeable baskets is one concept that we would love to have in our hoomes.

Sticking with the idea of laundry, we're looking at the orbital washer. This is also another concept design but it goes well with people who are working in a smaller living area. 

The machine comes with two baskets. You use these day-to-day for sorting your clothing same as you do already. Except now when the basket is full take it directly to the washer and pop it in no need to transfer from basket to machine. Then when the load is done, remove the basket, pop in the other one, and you can load the clean set either into your dryer or onto the clothesline. Anything that removes steps from something that is already an annoying task, is an appliance we want. So, thank you to Tiffany Roddis for coming up with this design. 

Electrolux Gel Refrigerator 

Electrolux Gel Biopolymer Refrigerator. Think about how many different things you could store in this?

I've been on the internet for any length of time you have probably seen this image. What most of us don't realize is that this is an actual concept design. It was created for an Electrolux competition by Yuriy Dimitrev. The idea is a radical change in how refrigerators function. Instead of having a large enclosed box, you have a gel inside of a frame. When you place an item into that gel, it would create a pocket of air around the food. The hope is that not only would this prevent your garlic from affecting your carrots and your bananas from affecting your apples, but that you would have foods last longer. It's also suggested that this gel would take less electricity to maintain its temperature. This design was first released to the internet in 2010. It's been 11 years and we have not seen any forward momentum on its development, but that doesn't mean we aren't hoping for it still.

Those are the five appliances we wish we owned. What about you? Have you seen any concept designs that you're dreaming about? Let us know over on our Facebook page or in the comments down below.

If on the other hand you're dreaming about new appliances because your current ones are busted, we can still help you out. If you head to our contact page, you can set up an appointment today or you can call us at ((214) 599-0055). At Appliance Rescue Service we are here for you. 

Meal Planning One : Tacos for Days

The weather is starting to turn... Which, if you're like us, means you're looking forward to all your cooler weather comforts. Fuzzy sweaters, a mug of coffee or tea or cocoa, and maybe in the not too distant future, even some snow.

When the weather starts to show signs of getting ready for fall, we like to start planning ahead. However, planning for later means figuring up and readying all the little things now - that way, you still have a couple of brain cells left for dealing with whatever other things sneak up on you.

Today's recipe is just as much an introductory meal plan as it is a recipe. We're going to figure out how to feed your crowd tacos on the cheap. Freeze the leftover filling, because next time around, we'll show you how to use exactly the same ingredients to do enchiladas. And as a bonus, for the recipe after that, we'll use the same ingredients to make tostadas. That's three meals in a row designed to use the same things - but without breaking the bank or running back to the store.

It's easy to fall down the rabbit hole of needing every single specialty item for a specific dinner. The real magic of meal planning is that it allows some of the things on the grocery list to do double or triple duty. Once you get this down, you'll be able to make three nights of dinner in one day. That doesn't sound like much... But just wait until you learn to apply it to a holiday dinner.

Ingredients

3 pounds ground beef (we like 80/20)

1 pound dried brown lentils

1 pound carrots

1 yellow onion, diced

1 24-count package corn tortillas

1 15-oz can black beans (or pinto, if you prefer)

3 10-oz cans diced tomatoes and green chilies (use chili-ready tomatoes for less heat)

2 packets taco seasoning*

1 large jar salsa (mild or hot, whatever you like)

4 oz (1/4 pound) cheddar or Monterey jack cheese (reserve the other 3/4 for next recipes)

1/2 head lettuce, chopped

8 oz sour cream

*feel free to sub in any other store-bought or homemade seasoning blend you prefer - or just toss in chili powder, salt, pepper and garlic, if you'd rather keep it simple!

Tools

large pot with lid, slotted spoon, large colander, cheese grater, cutting board, knife, mixing bowls, measuring cup, cooking spray

Pour your dried lentils into the colander, and give them a shake and a rinse. Weed out anything that either isn't actually a lentil (sometimes random debris gets swept up with them) and also anything that looks sad and shriveled. Dump all the good ones into the pot and add enough water to cover them twice over, plop the lid on top and crank up the heat to medium-high. Let them simmer away for at least 20 minutes - we like them to be soft but to still hold their shape. If you cook them much longer than about half an hour, though, they become easier to hide in the final product because they partially dissolve. (Feel free to consider that a picky eater tip, but also a word of caution.)

While your lentils are simmering, rinse out your colander and begin to crack open your canned goods. Pour your beans into the colander and rinse them - this removes the excess dark bean liqueur and prevents it from dyeing the rest of the food icky colors. As they drain, feel free to dump the tomatoes on top of them.

While you're still waiting on your slow-poke lentils (it feels like forever, we know), you can get started with your lettuce. Give it a quick wash and shake off the excess water, then plop it on the cutting board and chop it down to desired size. Set it to the side, since you won't need it for a while yet.

If your onion isn't already diced, this is a good opportunity to take care of that, too. To be honest, we've come to hate onion tears, and now tend to buy the boxes of diced onion in the grocery store cooler case. /lazy

Pick up the cheese grater and grate... the carrots. No, we really aren't kidding. Use the finest grate to shred the whole pound of carrots into a mixing bowl. Then give the grater a quick scrub and shred the cheese into another bowl.

Your lentils should be about done now - test a couple to make sure they're at your chosen level of doneness, and assuming they are, dump them into the colander. Allow them to drain out over the beans and tomatoes but don't rinse.

Preheat your oven to 375. Give your cooking spray a shake and lightly spritz both sides of eight of the corn tortillas. Drape them over the center rack in the oven so that they form a flat surface in the center and both sides are even. (If you're concerned about a mess, there's no reason you couldn't put a sheet of foil on the rack beneath them.) Allow them to heat up along with the oven. Once the oven signals you're at 375, set a timer for ten minutes. At the ten-minute mark, you'll likely be distracted by browning the beef - so it's fine to just turn the oven off and let your taco shells stay warm in there while you finish other tasks.

Put the pot back on the burner and brown up your ground beef in it. Once it's no longer pink, add the carrots and the diced onion and cook a little bit longer. As the onion starts to become translucent, get ready to drain the fat off. Same colander. Yes, for real. And yes, we know the colander is looking pretty full here; there's a reason we specified a large one. Remember you're batch cooking for three meals, so it's bound to look like a lot. It is a lot.

Pour everything from the colander back into the pot. Add eight to ten ounces of water to it, then pour in your packets of taco seasoning (or homemade seasoning) and stir thoroughly to make sure all your powdery ingredients dissolve. Allow it to simmer on medium-low, uncovered, for eight to ten minutes, stirring occasionally.

Pull your taco shells and stand them up on a plate - one of the big benefits of making your own is that they come out flat-bottomed and can stand up on their own! - to fill. Use a slotted spoon to transfer filling from the pot to the shells. Top with salsa, cheese, lettuce and a dollop of sour cream, and serve. Remember to refrigerate your remaining toppings

Once you're done enjoying your meal, the filling should have had some time to cool. Divide the remaining filling into two-gallon size ziploc bags, label them and drop them in the freezer. Come back next week to learn how to make it into something else!

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If you’re here because your freezer isn’t keeping things on ice, you can call us at ((214) 599-0055) or schedule an appointment via our contact page. We’re always here to help.