Two Faced Chef

In honor of the girlfriend’s graduation from college (you go girl!), we decided to share a wonderful bottle of red and a delicious vegetarian dinner.  The lady loves her Mexican food, but I had a skin tight dress to fit into for an event the next day, so true Mexicano flavor was right out.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Mexico.  Love the men, the weather, the swine flu outbreak (We all know how I feel about this one.), but every time I eat Mexican, I either resemble a mini-bus afterwards, or end up violently ill.

So now I faced a double challenge–low-cal Mexican and vegetarian for the girlfriend.  This is when I decided to bring back an old favorite from when we first started living together, veggie soft tacos!  All you meat eaters will be pleasantly surprised by what some zucchs can do with some spicy flavor, and a little bit of red wine .

This recipe serves two, or one really, really hungry ground feeder.  It rounds out to 250 calories for two soft tacos without adding sour cream and salsa.  I suggest fat free sour cream–in this case it tastes the same.  You can add a tablespoon per taco for 30 calories, leading to a 280 cal dinner.

My old roommate, Maggie, and I used to eat sour cream like it was a container of yogurt. Shortly following our sour cream adventures, tiny Maggie took all my old jeans that suddenly became “too small”  for me.

Ingredients:

• 1 zucchini
• 1 yellow squash
• 4 small flour tortillas (The ones I use are 80 cals each.)
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 cup of baby portobello mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon of dry sherry/chicken broth/any liquid of choice
• 1 single serve package of frozen corn–prepared as stated on package (Mine is 80 cals a package.)
• Fat free sour cream
• Salsa
• Olive oil Pam

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Slice up the zucchini and squash and place on greased pan.  Mix together the garlic powder, paprika and cumin and sprinkle over the veggies.  Roast in hot oven for 15 minutes.  While the duo-colored squash is cooking, slice the mushrooms and throw into a hot frying pan that is coated with Pam.  Cook for about five minutes until they start to shrivel, then pour the tablespoon of sherry/chicken broth/liquid of choice over the mushrooms and allow the liquid cook off.  Arrange vegetables (corn, mushrooms, zucchs and squash) on tortilla, salsa and sour cream away and indulge!

Look at that veggie extravaganza–a miracle burst of vitamins in a tortilla.  This is a great alternative to high calorie, restaurant Mexican food.  Don’t be afraid to throw on your sombrero and whip out some high school Spanish skills.  The red wine definitely made me do so.