I like to change up my food so I don’t get bored.  My kids don’t appreciate that so much, neither does Aaron.  What I have been doing lately is when I make them a “traditional” dish, I will often make small changes to my meal to create some variety.  I have also been eating a lot less meat lately.  No, I am not becoming a “vegetarian”, I like my chicken & steak (filet) too much.  However, on a day-to-day basis, my stomach & body tend to feel much better the less meat I eat.  My non-meat sources of  protein come from nut butters, eggs (mostly egg whites with an occasional yolk thrown in), tuna, salmon, beans (black, garbanzo, kidney, northern, black-eyed peas), nuts & cheese.  I do some soy, but not a lot.  I mainly do edamame if I do any soy.  I drink almond milk, not cow’s milk (due to lactose intolerance, but cheese is okay with Lactaid).  Anyway, I digress.  Tonight I made Mexican pizzas with refried beans, ground turkey taco meat & cheese for the family and did mine up a little different.

My Mexican pizza consisted of the following:

• black beans (drained & rinsed) mixed with a touch of sriracha
• crumbled goat cheese
• avocado
• chopped tomatoes
• plain Greek Fage
• Frank’s Red Hot

They were amazing!!  YUM!!  Also, instead of using store made tostada shells, I took 2 soft corn tortillas & placed them on an oven sheet @ 350 for about 10 minutes on one side & 3-4 minutes on the other side.  The I topped with the bean mixture & goat cheese and popped back in the oven to get all melty.  YUM!  Oh, another exciting find?  Trader Joe’s frozen avocado halves!  Genius!  I am the only one in my house that will eat avocado and they turn brown after I cut them open no matter what I do!  Very frustrating & expensive!!  These halves are perfect!  I used a half and split it between my pizzas.  Perfect!!  No waste!