No Recipes For Tacos Day
Remember 2010's spaghetti tacos? That brief phase where every pre-teen in America insisted on stuffing noodles into hard taco shells and calling it dinner? I think it originated with a TV show, but I encountered the madness first-hand one night while babysitting. My charge's parents had refused to recreate this meal of pure, glorious starch, so she begged me instead. And what did I do? I broke out the fancy jarred arrabiata and taco shells. You're welcome, Audrey.
Now, to my point. One can basically only buy corn tortillas by the 2 dozen or so. They're super-inexpensive, and last a lot longer than bread. Therefore, I'm frequently inclined to make my sandwich or repurpose my leftovers in taco format. First things first: reheating/reconstituting. If you've ever tried to wrap anything in a cold, dried-out tortilla, you've witnessed how easy it is to create two useless halves of tortilla.
To avoid this preventable tragedy, heat a nonstick pan over medium heat, wet your hands, rub them over 4 tortillas, stack them on top of each other and deposit in the pan. The water creates steam which rises through the stack and makes them pliable again. Flip after 15 seconds, then repeat until warmed through.
Once your tortillas are nice and soft, rummage through your fridge for not-too-old leftovers of any of our favorite dishes of late, add an appropriate condiment along with some shredded vegetable and cheese, and you've just made leftover tacos.
- Crunchy Coconut Shrimp
- Bark's Baked Beans
- Slow-Cooker Chili
- Sweet Potato and Sausage Hash
- Braised Lamb Shank
- Fennel Gratin (these leftovers make seriously delicious vegetarian tacos)
- Korean Fried Chicken
And if all you've got in the fridge are spuds (hey, it's happened to me too), potato tacos are not only an actual thing, they're supremely delicious. Starch-on-starch city, where kids eat spaghetti tacos and mac and cheese grows on trees, grows more populous each day. It must be a happy place.