Taco Salad Night!

I would love to tell you that Taco Salad is this beautifully revamped take on the high-cal, junk food variety but I'd be lying to you. The only revamp going on with this baby is the vegetarian refried beans replacing the dead cow that usually comes with it. It's been a sort of family tradition since my son, M, was a tot and it has followed us around like nobodies business.

Wednesday nights have somehow become semi-junk food/TV nights at my house. Don't ask me how it happened, they sort of snuck it past me and BAM! It became a tradition. ( I'm a sucker for tradition. )

I usually abhor television except for two minor, ok three minor, weaknesses.

1) Pushing Daisies. LOVE that show. LOVE the whimsical colors, mood, & premise. LOVE the costumes...and the Piemaker & Chuck are just darn cute ( I hate that word but darn it, they are. ). OK...and I like the whole dead people thing. Sue me.

2) Football. Don't know how this could have ever happened. I am the girliest of the girly girls. Or at least I was until I had M. Then Mr. Right came along and taught M all about that crazy Any Given Sunday sort of a sport. I tried to avoid it. I tried walking by, rolling my eyes at the Neandrathal like violence. I tried hiding in my room. But, wait a minute, who are those funny people with big hunks of cheese on their heads wearing my favorite color? And, hey, do they really have a whole category of food designated for this sport? And with that, my friends, fastforward to the office watercooler of today where I have evolved ( regressed? depends on your point of view) into the Office Football Queen, Weekly Pick Master Extraordinaire, She Whom Males Ask...Whadya Think? Colts or Pats?

With this out of character obsession comes the Wednesday night pinnacle of football facts, highlights, off the cuff ( well, kinda ) commentary, and commercial free football extravaganza outside of Sunday - INSIDE THE NFL on HBO. ( Trust me. At my house this is a MAJOR event.)

3) American Idol. Gets me every time.

Seeing that two of the three guilty pleasures occur on Wednesday nights, wouldn't it make sense to throw in a few more food related ones with it? Need I even ask?

So, along with my vegetarian take on football type fare Mr. Right also managed to trick me by saying..."But, Wednesday nights are the only nights I can have dessert!" Poor guy. That's pretty darn sad. One day a week is all that he's allowed a yummy-yummer? Who am I to take that away from him? Pudding pie? Chocolate cake? What would you like, love? HEY. Wait a minute. I NEVER make dessert in the first place. He's not scaling back...HE'S TRICKED ME INTO A TRADITION!

So there you have it. Wednesday = Thunder Thighs.

(guiltily) Oh. And yeah, um, you know. The rest of the week I'm doing all those vegetarian-type involved sort of things.

Without further ado...

Fresh organic veggies all chopped and ready to go...

Chocolate cake ready to go in oven...

TACO SALAD! ( yes, those are actually Fritos...)

Hot fudge chocolate cake fresh from the oven...

MMMMMMM...good