glutenfreedirtcheap

If you’re from South Texas, you could probably write this post in your sleep.  As such, this isn’t for you.  Go write letters to Rick Perry or something.  For the rest of you though, welcome to the very cheap gluten-free wonderland known as Tex-Mex.  Both recipes take a fair amount of time, so if you’re looking for something to make fast, you might make the rice a day ahead, or (heaven forfend) use more than one burner at a time, and start both recipes together–or dinner will take two hours.  This does imply an actual stove, and something I don’t have, which is more than one decent non-stick pan.

Potato and Egg Tacos

Ingredients:

Mission Corn Tortillas (The ones that say “gluten-free” on the back.)

2 eggs per person

2 small baked potatoes per person

Pam (gluten-free!)

2 tablespoons milk or almond milk per person

Optional:  Pace Picante Sauce (Made in San Antonio, it says “gluten free” on the bottle.)

Kitchen apparati:

large non-stick frying pan

oven, for baking potatoes

cookie sheet, for baking potatoes

tin foil (repeat)

knife

plastic heat-resistant spatula

stove

Directions:

At some point in the days before or up to three hours prior to preparing this dish, bake some potatoes in the oven on a cookie sheet at about 300 degrees for about an hour and a half to two hours.  (Scrub them under cool water, and wrap them in tin foil first, for those of you not used to baking potatoes.)  Put the potatoes in the refrigerator to cool for at least an hour before handling them.  Get out the corn tortillas and the non-stick pan.  Turn the stovetop to about medium and spray the pan with Pam.  Bake the corn tortillas on the heating surface, for two to three minutes a side.  Meanwhile, slice up your potatoes into 1/2 inch by  two inch pieces.  Once the tortillas are cooked, remove them and put the potatoes in the frying pan for about twelve to fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally–just long enough to get a little carmelization and color.  Take two eggs per person out of the refrigerator and crack them into a small bowl;  mix in a tablespoon or two of milk, for every two eggs and beat the whole mess well with a fork.  Turn the burner heat down to about 30 percent.  Pour the eggs into the pan and cook for about eight minutes, until they are no longer runny.  Remove the eggs to a plate and assemble the tacos by placing some potatoes on one side of the corn tortilla, adding eggs, and then folding the whole thing over.

San Antonio Lunch-Lady Rice

If you had school lunches in San Antonio, this is a pretty close approximation to the Spanish rice we got at least one day a week in elementary school.

Ingredients:

1 cup basmati or long grain rice

3 tbsp canola or corn oil

2 cups chicken broth (Pacific is gluten-free)

1 1/3 cups tomato sauce

1 onion

2 teaspoons chili powder (I use McCormick for all of my spices because the company is gluten-free.)

1/8 tsp dry garlic

1/8 teaspoon mexican oregano

Kitchen Apparati:

measuring cup

measuring spoon

heat-resistant soft spatula

non-stick frying pan

lid that fits over the top of said frying pan

stove

Directions:

Pour the oil into the non-stick pan and add the spices and the rice.  Chop the onion into sixths and add it to the pan.  (You can take the chunks of onion out later, if you don’t like to eat onions.)  Turn the stove to about 30% or the 3 1/2 mark.  Saute the rice for fifteen minutes, until it starts to turn golden brown.  Turn the heat up a little bit to about the 4 mark, or slightly below medium and add the liquids.  Cover the pan and let simmer for forty minutes.  Fluff the rice to finish.

Put all of this on a plate and reheat in the microwave on “reheat” where necessary.  Add cold picante sauce on the side.

Cost:  $1.82 a serving