Loaf of Meat

With two kids under the age of four (and still recovering from a day spent walking great lengths for tantalizing city bites and drinks only to come home to the two kids needing to be washed up and put to bed), I wasn’t in the right mind set the following night to tackle a meal that would require chopped ingredients or thought. I happily decided on scrambled eggs and took a rest on the bed calling out orders to the monkey and the moppet.

After half an hour, I got up, changed a diaper and remembered I had one egg. Could it work? No, so out came the cookbooks for inspiration. And there it was "Enchiladas." The actual recipe was of no concern, I just needed direction. Could I make the leftover meatloaf work a third time? First try, I served the meatloaf with brown rice: monkey loved, moppet spat out, but ate the brown rice; second try, included it in a layered polenta lasagne with spiced-up store bought marinara: monkey picked out meatloaf, moppet picked out polenta.

My fridge offered the enchilada staples: corn tortillas, Casa Lidia’s Enchilada Sauce and shredded cheese. Add crumbled meatloaf, corn, and rice and we were in business. If you’ve never used corn tortillas and are interested in trying, wrap the necessary quantity (I’ve done up to 20) in slightly damp paper towels and nuke for 25-60 seconds for hot, steamy and pliable corn tortillas. Twenty minutes after assembling the enchiladas and popping them into the oven, we had dinner. For those keeping score: the monkey and the moppet ate the whole enchilada and a side of edamame.