With all my ingredients from last night’s fiesta de cumpleanos on hand, tonight was the perfect opportunity to try out Caitlin’s baked taco trick that has been floating around everywhere! In an oven-safe bowl, I placed the other homemade whole wheat tortilla, black beans, guacamole, salsa, one of last night’s egg yolks (yes, just the yolk, but yolks are full of nutrition, too!), grated homemade cheddar, and regular store cheddar:

While the taco shell was crisping in the oven, I sliced another 1/3 of the plantain. This time, I cut the plantain in thin vertical slices the way Aurora, my homestay “mother” from when I was in Peru this summer, used to do it:

On the side, I had a few corn chips I made the other day. I was out of cornmeal, so instant grits had to do the job! I used equal parts grits and boiliing water (3 Tbsp of each in this case), simmered the mixture until thickened a bit more, and spread it on an oiled pizza stone:

I baked this at low heat for a long time while I did other things (maybe 250-300 for an hour?) and used a spatula to gently loosen it from the stone once it dried out enough. I let it cook on the other side for a while longer until it was completely crispy and then broke it into little pieces.

Tonight’s plate:

I’m so excited that the taco shell held its form! Here it is a bit closer:

And the plantains!

Any meal that includes avocado and plantains is bound to be a winner!

And for dessert, I had a toasty fig VitaTop with 1/4 cup cinnamon sauce (cinnamon + yogurt + part-skim ricotta):

Honorable Mentions

Today at lunch, my coworker Belkis offered me 1/4 of her big, juicy blood orange. I said no.

Just kidding! Here it is:

I was so excited about the orange that Belkis couldn’t stop feeding me (it’s not enough that I eat at about five candies from her candy bowl every single day) and had me taste some of her “Dominican-style” oatmeal. She said she used a packet of Quaker, but I didn’t really see any oats in there — only some warm cinnamon-y vanilla pudding-y goodness:

Tomorrow is going to be a wild card food day at work. I’m sitting in on the parents’ relaxation group in the morning where there will be breakfast, and then we’re having the potluck lunch (the reason for last night’s blondie-baking) at noon. I may not get around to posting everything until late tomorrow night, but anticipate some food excitement when I finally do!