made from leftovers - part 1

       Brian and I went out for lunch Friday before totally switching into 'food for middle school's snow camp' mode. I got inspired while reading over the menu, an idea that I hopefully could make out of some of the leftovers. If there were some. With middle school kids, ya just never know. Sometimes they can totally wipe you out, and other times, well you'll get ones that "have decided they no longer eat that stuff". Yeah.
       There were enough of the ingredients I had particularly in mind, to make the recipe I had been inspired with :-D This posting then is that meal. But you'll notice that the title says "part 1". That's because I've since been inspired with additional ideas. {Hey, you don't have to hold on that tight!!! o;-p} Stay tuned, they shall be coming soon.

                       Chicken Burritos made from leftovers :

   
          The desired leftovers - chicken fajita meat*, shredded cheddar cheese, tort. shells, chopped tomatoes, chopped onion (after I took the picture I remembered that there had been some leftover chopped onion, so I went and got the little container of them out), and lettuce (which was a 'at home' leftover).
          * Chicken Fajita meat. We buy it by the case at the GFS (Gordon Food Service) store. It is a Tyson product. For around fifty dollars, you get ten pounds of chicken meat, already boned and skinned; already cooked and seasoned with fajita seasonings; already cut into nice sized small strips; in four sealed bags inside of one box. When your feeding large numbers, that price beats making the fajita chicken meat from scratch hands down!!! At least we think so.

         Next came assembling the Burritos. Lay out the tort. shell. First put down some 'shaved' (chopped thin pieces) of lettuce. Top that with the chick. fajita meat (which I chopped into smaller bits). Then a little bit of the finely chopped onion. Then quite a bit of the shredded cheddar. And then the chopped tomatoes.
       Seeings how I was using 8" tort. shells, I couldn't put much of any one item in them. Twelve inch shells would work ever so much better. But I was using what I had on hand. So I filled them quite a bit, not bothering to tun in the ends, and threaded a wooden toothpick in the tops to help hold them together (did I list that as one of the uses for toothpicks in that posting?).

        Place the filled shells, toothpick side up, close together in sprayed baking pan. Once the pan(s) were filled, it was time to make the sauce for on top.

        
       Very finely chop up some more of the fajita seasoned chicken meat.

       Make a medium thick basic white sauce. Just as it's about to reach your desired consistency, add the extremely finely chopped meat.

        Using a sprayed* ladle, pour the meat gravy mixture over the burritos.
{*Remember, spraying beats scrubbing and helps lots of ways!} (and yes, the chicken broth was a 'at home' leftover too ;->)

     Before covering the finished burritos, I placed a few saved "lifter uppers" on top. Don't you like my technical name for them? ;-p Two of my nieces use to call them 'Barbie Tables' ;-}. They are the little plastic things that some pizza places use to keep the top of your pizzas from hitting the box. There are other ways I use them too ... maybe I'll do a posting on them sometime ....

       Everybody gave the chicken fajita meat burritos a "thumbs up / keep the recipe / make them again" rating :-D The only recommend change came from my husband. He does not care for lettuce baked in things. "Leave the lettuce out and serve a salad on the side". Noted! ;-} This time, I had just served them with chips and salsa - yes they too were leftovers.

I 'plan' on linking this particular posting to:

~ "Tuesday is Food Day", hosted by Byron, at 'A Lord, A Lady, and a cute little Princess' (http://byroncyndi.blogspot.com/) .
~ "Tasty Tuesday('s)", hosted by Jen, at 'Balancing Beauty and Bedlum's' (http://beautyandbedlam.com/).
~ "Tempt My Tummy Tuesday('s)", hosted by Lisa, at 'Blessed with Grace' (http://blessedwithgrace.blogspot.com).
~ "Tuesdays at the Table", are hosted by Cole, at 'All The Small Stuff' (http://allthesmallstuff-cole.blogspot.com/).
~ "Tightwad Tuesdays with Canada Girl", are hosted by Mary, at 'Raising 4 Godly Men' (http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/canadagirl).
~ "2nd Time Around Tuesday('s)", are hosted by Diane, at 'A Picture is Worth 1,000 words' (http://diane1876.blogspot.com/), (now true, they usually aren't featuring food - but this is made from 'leftovers' o;-p)

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