Veg Taco Pie

Now I tried to come up with cutesy names for this dish, as I like to do on pinterest and instagram, but really, it's not necessary anymore these days. I've had a writer's block with cooking of late, and while I get by making dinner and not going out to eat anymore, *cue scary music,* as we have decided to call this "The Year of No." Year 3 in graduate school and my debts are accruing quickly and becoming frightening. So - no more going out to eat, no more spending ANY money except on necessities. It hasn't been too bad but I have spent a lot of time wasted watching tv and movies on Netflix streaming. I just read a research article that said for every hour you spend sitting (in front of a tv, on the computer, etc.) you lost 22 minutes of your life. Thanks, research.

Okay, now to the real news. I got inspired this week to create a new dish out of the ingredients in our fridge and called in Taco Pie. I felt the urge to blog about it because it really was one of my highlight dishes and I want to keep the recipe here so I can a) pinterest post it and b) actually replicate it. The 2 of us just finished eating the leftovers and ate this entire pie within 18 hours.

Vegetarian Taco Pie Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pre-made pie crust in foil dish (freezer section)
1/2 a sweet onion
1 large tomato
1 package of ground beef crumbles (preferably the kind from the produce aisle that are refrigerated not frozen, they are more moist in my opinion) or you could use a half package of ground beef too
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. oil
1/4 cup pimiento cheese (I had some leftover) or sub with sour cream/cream cheese/plain yogurt
1 tbsp. taco seasoning
2 tbsp. jar salsa
1/2 cup freshly grated cheese blend

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. While warming up, start cutting up the onion into small diced pieces. Heat the oil and butter in a skillet. Add onion and soften, sauté on medium for about 15-20 minutes. Once oven is heated, prick pie shell with fork to breath and prevent bubbles. Bake pie shell alone for 10 minutes. Both the onion and pie crust should be ready about the same time if timed properly.

Slice the tomato and let pie crust cool a bit. While cooling, add the veg/ground beef to the onion butter mix, once onions are translucent and lightly golden. Then add the taco seasoning and pimiento cheese (or substitute listed above). Lay down the tomato slices on bottom of pie crust. Stir up the ground beef onion mix, heat on medium for about 5 more minutes. Layer over the tomatoes in pie shell. Top with 2 tbsp. of your favorite salsa. I had leftover some that had beans and corn in it, which really complemented the flavors.

Sprinkle with shredded cheese. I grated fresh smoked gouda and semi-soft swiss and it was a great choice. But anything will probably do. Place in oven for 30 minutes until bubbly. Serve a slice with a side of blue chips or your favorite tortilla chips.

And unfortunately, I couldn't take a picture before trying it. Side note tip: Always place the frozen foil pie crust pan into a sturdy pie pan. I learned the hard way to do this after a hot crawfish pie folded in half while taking it out of the oven and splattered all over the floor. Live and learn.

Enjoy!

Dissertation Drama

I am taking a cue from my dear cousin Caroline who just started her freshman year at college and is blogging throughout her adventures. I suppose it may be cathartic or useful for someone in the universe (or possibly my future self) to jot down my dissertation journey.

I am currently reading: Dissertation and Theses from Start-to-Finish by John D. Cone & Sharon L. Foster. It's meant for Psychology and the Related Fields. I'm on chapter 3 and so far, it's pretty common sense stuff. It just helps motivate me to actually get started. Like I should be working on it right now instead of doing this. That's the thing, once you get serious about doing it, you always should be doing it. Every spare second feels like it needs to be devoted to dissertating that I feel guilty even watching tv. But somehow these days I am watching more tv than ever in my life: procrastination at its finest. Can we just stop and talk about Orange is the New Black? Holy cow, I love that show and am in complete and utter withdrawal that there were only 13 episodes to marathon watch.

Okay, so dissertation -- see how my mind wanders? I started back in March just shooting ideas once I had picked a person I wanted to chair it. I picked someone brilliant, stats-knowledgeable, in an area of interest to me (trauma), and I could work well with. By the summer, we had the plan of action drawn out and ready to go. All I had to do was... write 30 or so pages of an introduction reviewing all the literature.

Yeah, that didn't happen. Instead I had a summer course requiring 90 pages of papers and projects and presentations. Then my 3 week break including 3 weeks of visitors minus 2 days of pool time and cleaning. So here I am, first week into the quarter and on page 3. Then I get a bombshell that she is going to start with or without me... which poses some problems for me, very big ones. What if when I propose the idea to the faculty, they tell me the study has already been started? Or that I need to add something more and start over? (*cue scary music*) that is probably my worst nightmare and why I've nearly panicked myself to sleep each night this week.

Thirty pages is literally nothing, I've done that before with my theses. But there is some huge mysterious omen on the idea of a dissertation that scares the bejeezus out of most people. I need to de-mystify it and get to it. That way I can propose by next month, and start data collection with my adviser. Way to put the pressure even more.

In addition to this, I have a large to-do list of schoolwork and readings to do for my other classes and life stuff going on too. And phone calls and friends to chat with. I wish I could just put life on hold to make this dissertation thing go away. I keep telling myself, once I propose that gives me another year free to procrastinate on other things. Just have to do it....

I am also applying to this award which sucks too because I hate writing good qualities about myself, it sounds so conceited and I prefer modesty actually. I also have to ask 2 professors for letters of recommendations, which I hate doing. But I suppose I'll get through it all.

21 more months of this madness.