Friday, April 25, 2014

Taco Rice Tortilla Pizza {Leftover} Pizza Night!

Taco Rice Tortilla Pizza {Leftover} Pizza Night!

A easy and fast pizza for a family Pizza Night--combining leftover taco meat with vegetables and grains on a tortilla pizza covered with cheese. Simple. Frugal. Tasty.

A easy and fast pizza for a family Pizza Night--combining leftover taco meat with vegetables and grains on a tortilla pizza covered with cheese.

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Let's change the way your family perceives leftovers.

While I am fortunate to have a family who not only eats leftovers but fights over them [perhaps that's just sibling rivalry?] I understand we're not necessarily the norm.

[warning, rant ahead--and not about corporate cranberries this time]

Why should you eat your leftovers? For starters, you paid for that food--why throw your money away? [Unless you like to throw money away, in which case I'll finally install that DONATE button the spam commenters are always telling me to install--not that giving me money via the blog would be throwing it away--in fact it would result in an improved recipe index].

Even if you buy every morsel of your food at a big box store, someone worked--hard--to grow/harvest/process** that food, and throwing it away devalues that work.  If you're throwing away edible animal products then the life of that animal is also devalued.
**Processed food:  to me, most of the food I eat has been processed.  Wheat is ground into flour, milk is cultured into cheese and yogurt, and of course my burgers didn't walk out of the field, into town, and hop up onto my grill [they didn't call the class Meat Processing for nothing].  People worked to alter the food before I chose it.
Not to get even more preachy, but unless you're composting all of your food waste, the decision not to use your leftovers is bad for our planet.  I know the raccoons enjoy anything edible in my trash, but it's not a sustainable long term solution.

To me, if the initial food tasted good then the leftovers of that food should also be good [something like french fries, nachos, Banh Mi or Po' boy sandwiches, or tempura would be among the exceptions to this rule]. By this reasoning, since you're starting with good food you just need to change up the accessories a bit.
Good grief I am not giving fashion advice!  I buy my clothes at the thrift shop where I work. I'm just referencing The Uniform Project where a gal wore the same Little Black Dress every day for a year, changing up the accessories each day, to raise money for kids to go to school. You can find the year-in-video here--check it out, it's pretty awesome.
A easy and fast pizza for a family Pizza Night--combining leftover taco meat with vegetables and grains on a tortilla pizza covered with cheese.


I've had good success with this accessories concept, and here's one way I'd like to share:  taco meat.  When I make a batch of taco meat, my recipe is here, my family of four (two teens) doesn't eat it all.  I'll take that leftover meat and combine it with a grain (such as farro or rice) and additional vegetables, and make a meal out of that (my recipe is here).


A easy and fast pizza for a family Pizza Night--combining leftover taco meat with vegetables and grains on a tortilla pizza covered with cheese.


But we don't eat all of the next meal--there are leftovers of the leftovers.  So for a Friday Night {Leftover} Pizza Night may I present an easy, fast, simple Taco Rice Tortilla Pizza. After the complicated "pick violets, make wild syrup and wild violet sugar, then make muffins" from earlier this week it's time to kick back, enjoy a Cheater Margarita Smoothie, and have a fast easy dinner.


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A easy and fast pizza for a family Pizza Night--combining leftover taco meat with vegetables and grains on a tortilla pizza covered with cheese.
A easy and fast pizza for a family Pizza Night--combining leftover taco meat with vegetables and grains on a tortilla pizza covered with cheese.

Taco Rice Tortilla Pizza (serves 4)

Ingredients

  • 2 cups Taco Rice (the recipe is here)
  • 2 large, burrito-size, tortillas of your choice
  • 1½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
optional accessories: sour cream, salsa, salsa verde, guacamole, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. 
  2. Spread taco rice mixture over tortilla, top with cheese, and bake 5-10 minutes until cheese is melted.



A easy and fast pizza for a family Pizza Night--combining leftover taco meat with vegetables and grains on a tortilla pizza covered with cheese.


That's one pound of ground beef feeding a family of 4 for 3 meals.  How awesome is that? Saving money on food lets you spend your money on things that matter to you.

10 comments:

  1. Those pizzas look amazing, I'd eat those leftovers!! I have to admit I'm not terribly creative with my leftovers - we tend to just reheat whatever meal we had as is. But I'm convinced it saves us lots of money on buying take-out/fast food/salad bar lunches during the workweek. I also try to have dinners that won't yield leftovers, too.

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    Replies
    1. Julie,
      I wish I could be better at having dinners that don't yield leftovers, but then I sure like knowing there's something in the fridge we can heat up and eat on a busy weekend day.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  2. One of my favorite things to do with my leftovers is throw it on a big green salad. Works for so many different leftovers! Nice post!

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    Replies
    1. Andrea,
      That is an excellent idea and one I will use once my CSA farm share starts up--next month--and I've got bags of salad greens coming each week. Thanks!

      Delete
  3. One of my goals this year is to be better about using leftovers and not waste them, and pizza is a great way to do that. I love the tortilla pizzas, though! Fantastic idea. I'm making tacos today, so I may have to try this tomorrow!

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    Replies
    1. Melissa,
      Pizza is an excellent way to use leftovers! One of my popular summer recipe posts is Grilled Veggie Ciabatta Pizza--leftover grilled veggies getting new life.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  4. I love the concept of using leftovers multiple times in a variety of ways. In fact, I'm working on a similar post in my mind for brown rice. Hopefully I'll be able to extract it from the recesses of my mind in time to share it on the blog. I adore the second picture above; the taco salad picture. It's beautiful.

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    Replies
    1. Meghan,
      I will encourage you to finish your brown rice especially since you've been encouraging me to get a handle on all the recipes to be written down!
      Thanks for the comment on the photo--I'm still happy when I find last year's gems taken with my little point and shoot camera.

      Delete
  5. What a great way to use up left over taco rice! Thank you for sharing with us at Simple Supper Tuesday.

    ReplyDelete