Pure Hunger

There is this story about the creation of play-doh. When coal was the original heat source for homes, it often left black soot on wall paper. Play-doh was originally created to clean wall paper of the soot. When the industrial revolution, occurred, and people began relying on other forms of energy to heat their homes, the creator of play-doh thought his product was obsolete. His sister, a teacher, brought some of the play-doh to school to try with her children, as modeling clay was very firm and somewhat toxic for kids. Turns out, as you know, they loved it. So why the hell am I talking about play-doh on a cooking blog? When we think we may be headed for failure, often we just need a way to get new perspective to find success.

Ingredients

1 medium butternut squash, peeled, cubed, & roasted
1/2 cup cooked quinoa
1 tsp kosher salt, or to taste
2 tsp ground cumin, or to taste
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp smoked paprika or to taste (optional)
One 15-oz can black beans (about 1.5-2 cups cooked), drained and rinsed
3/4 cup cheese
4 tortilla wraps (large or x-large)
Toppings of choice: (avocado, sour cream, spinach/lettuce, cilantro, etc)

This happened the other night, when I was making dinner. I had found the recipe on her blog and was excited about the flavor combinations. It was Halloween, I knew we would be out late so I prepared many of the ingredients ahead of time. My son was dressed as Steve Jobs and we stayed downtown for the afternoon because he is so little and it was fun. We got home right around dinner time and as I began assembling the ingredients I realized, to my dismay, I had completely forgotten to make the rice. Key ingredient in my opinion.

My excitement quickly turned to self abuse and words like “stupid” and “idiot” flew out of my mouth. I was just a click away from dialing for sushi when I told myself to just stop, breathe, and think. Within a few moments, I realized I could make quinoa in just 15 minutes and it would have a much greater health profile than brown rice. As the recipe does not have much in the way of protein, it would also boost that number considerably. Success. Oh and it tasted damn good.

Preheat oven to 425F and line a large glass dish with tinfoil. Drizzle olive oil on squash and give a shake of salt and pepper. Coat with hands. Roast chopped butternut squash for 45 mins. or until tender. You can also buy frozen bags of cubed squash.

Heat burrito shell in microwave for 15 seconds. Top with beans, spices, squash, cheese, quinoa and other additional toppings of your choice. I added avocado and spinach. Wrap. The original recipe has you sauté it all with garlic and onions. I think this would also be a great idea. In the interest of time, I skipped this step.

Just in case you were curious. This is my son, as Steve Jobs.