Monday Mish Mash

This last week in the Living To Tell household could be summed up in by the word "shuffle". Take a look:

Note the great effort, the plentious movement. However, notice the spinning in circles. But in spite of all the effort and movement the big question is "Is he getting anywhere?" Hmm. I don't know about him but I sorta felt like I was spinning my wheels. There has got to be a life lesson here somewhere. But nevertheless, the shuffle has characterized my week.

Shuffle #1: Out of town guest arrives the day after we get home from holidays. Out of town guest will be sleeping on the futon in the family room in the basement. Because out of town guest is of the male counterpart, the shuffle begins. Daughter whose room is next to the basement family room is shuffled upstairs to brother's room, who is then shuffled downstairs to daughter's room. Clothing and toiletries follow suit.

Shuffle #2: Because out of town guest is in the family room which is next to the play room, and because out of town guest is of the teenager variety which sleeps until noon, dayhome schedule is shuffled around. Boy, that was a tough one. I knew the kids loved and thrived with routine but shaking that up every day threw them for a bit of a loop. Good thing it was pretty nice everyday as being outside helped out a lot.

Shuffle #3: Dayhome little guy that was coming in shifts where he was coming early for the whole day for 5 days, then a couple afternoon hours for some days, then off for somedays according his mom's rotation is now coming every day all day. Which I'm really, really happy about. No more having one child arrive at 6:45 a.m. That was just waaaay to early for me. It made for an extremely long day. But it still makes for a shuffling of routine at the outset.

Shuffle #4: Laundry. Oh my word. The laundry shuffling from room to room until it finally made it's way to the laundry room. I swear holiday laundry breeds inside the suitcase. What is up with that? Me shuffling up and down the stairs with loads of dirtly laundry going down, clean laundry coming up. I'm finally seeing the end. Except now I have to do all the bedding from the houseguest who went home this morning.

Shuffle #5: I'm still getting the hang of getting the right nutrition for vegetarian eating. And seeing houseguest is also a vegetarian, I wanted to at least serve a couple good meals. There was just something about throwing a can of vegetarian chili at him that didn't sit with my idea of being a good hostess. Shuffling the menu a bit was in order. So I did something I love to do: I made something up. Yes, I know. I'm a crazy risk taker. But after all was said and done it got a double thumbs up from the 2 vegetarians and a happy favorable response from the carnivores. In fact, Tia said the "Eat, Shrink and Be Merry" (a show her and I love) ladies would approve and the houseguest told me I needed to put this on the internet somewhere. Well, guess what? Little did he know you all now get to have the recipe. Just in case, you know, you ever have a vegetarian guest or want a meal without meat. Or you're doing some kind of shuffle. Maybe I should call them Shuffle Tacos. It is really filling and one taco was enough for most of us. It looks like a lot of ingrediants but comes together very easily. And the leftovers are just as yummy!

Vegetarian Tacos

-2 cups cooked rice

-1 cup grated cheese ( I used light marble cheese)
-1 large can mixed beans (in water, NOT vinegar)
-1 large can red kidney or black beans
-1 cup semi-drained diced tomatoes
-1 small can niblest corn
-2 cups fresh chopped spinach
-1/2 tsp. salt
-1/2 tsp cumin
-1 tsp. chili powder
-chopped fresh cilantro to taste ( I used about 1/2 cup)
-1 Tbsp. oil
-1 onion, diced
-2 large cloves garlic, minced

-10 -12 tortilla shells (whole wheat is healthiest, I used original and garlic pesto)
- shredded cheese
-1 - 1 1/2 cups salsa
-optional: sliced black olives, sliced jarred jalepeno peppers

In a small frypan, cook the onion and garlic in the oil until the onion is tender.

Lightly spray or grease a couple 13x9 baking dishes.

In a large mixing bowl mix together with the onion and garlic the first 10 ingrediants. Place a good amount on a tortilla. Fold the side in and roll into a taco. Place in the baking dish. (Because I made them on the BIG side, I was only able to fit 6 tacos in each dish.)

Spread each dish of tacos with equal amount of salsa. Sprinkle with desired amount of shredded cheese. If desired sprinkle with black olives and/or jalapeno's.

Bake in a 350* oven for 30 minutes if the filling was room temperature. 40 - 45 minutes if the filling was made beforehand and stored in the fridge until assemly.

Serve with sour cream, more salsa and guacamole if desired.
Yummy!

So now I'm shuffling off to wake up kids.