Just How Were Those Chalupas

Monday evening my beans were as hard as if they'd only been soaked. There were no acids in the mix so I couldn't understand why they hadn't softened. I wound up removing all the beans and running them through the food processor as I wanted them to be more of a paste than a whole bean. Hours later and even this didn't help. I ended up serving a Knorr frozen dinner and some leftovers for dinner. I decided to leave the chalupa mixture cook all night in hopes of saving five quarts of food from the compost bin!

Cooking all night did the trick. I did add more spices Tuesday morning as the aroma was spicy, but the flavour was not. My husband and daughter really enjoyed the chalupas. They were served on tortillas with some shredded cheese, lettuce, salsa and sour cream. They were messy, too! While I liked this recipe, I do believe I'll use chicken to make it in the future. The pork was just too fatty. Tuesday morning I scooped most of the broth and about 1/4 of the mixture into a big bowl which I placed on an icepack in the fridge so that I could easily skim the fat from the top. It didn't seem to be that much, but as I continue to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, my mouth's fat tolerance decreases.

Using just the chalupa mixture and a bit of cheese in each wrap, I froze 30 wraps for future use -- half of them the 12" size. They'll be good for lunches or a quick heat and eat meal when I don't feel like cooking (or have a dinner catastrophe like hard beans!) This is quite hardy and filling, too!

I recommend this recipe especially if you'll have a large gathering of folks who like the spicy stuff! It makes quite a lot, so if you had 15 people to feed you could easily do it with this recipe.

Thank goodness it's chicken breasts tonight! After the heavy denseness of last night's meal I'm looking forward to something light and unfatty!