TACO PIE

Thank God it's Friday.

Seriously, what an annoyingly long week!  Every freakin' day felt like forever.  But now it's THE WEEKEND!  (Insert chorus of triumphant screams)

It was kind of busy week.  For the first few days I was helping my Dad with some computer issues until really late each night - and by "helping my Dad" I really mean that I called my best friend John, who happens to be an I.T. Guru and put him on the phone with my Dad while I kind of hung out because I know nothing about computers.

Each night I threw dinner together fairly quickly because I was getting home earlier than Gina - but the quickest and most satisfying of all was TACO PIE.

I have accepted that there isn't a chance in hell that I invented this.  I haven't looked, but I'll bet if you Google "recipe for Taco Pie" about a billion hits will come up.

Cut me some slack, though!  I threw it together in like 5 minutes and just kind of went on instinct (hungry, tired, annoyed instinct)

So you too can make a very quick (albeit, likely not super healthy) dinner, below is a run down of what I did.

TACO PIE

What you'll need:

- 2 tubes of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (which, incidentally, are vegan ((who knew?)) as long as you buy the original, not the weird pre-buttered ones)
- 1 package of Yves veggie crumbles. (or whatever veggie crumbles you have.  I like the Yves brand better than Morning Star and Boca)
- 1 15 oz can of black beans
- Non Stick cooking spray.
- 1 package of taco seasoning
- 1 half of a small jar of salsa - I guess it'd be like a cup of salsa?  That sounds about right.
- 1/4 cup of water

How you do this thing:

1.  Preheat your oven to about 350
2.  "Brown" your veggie crumbles in a pan with the black beans.  "Brown them?" You ask. Yes. That's what it says to do to the ground beef on the taco seasoning package.  Secretly your veggie crumbles will remain exactly the same color.  Sorry.
3.  Add your package of taco seasoning and stir it in well.
4.  Add 1/4 cup of water.
5.  Add your salsa, mix well, cook stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
6.  Spray a 21x21.5  inch casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray
7.  Pop open one of those Pillsbury Crescent Roll tubes (don't even try to deny how fun it is to do that.  Who even thought of that!  So satisfying.)  Stretch the whole dough sheet so it covers the bottom and the sides of the casserole dish.
8.  Pour your taco "meat"  into the casserole dish on top of the spread crescent roll dough and spread it out evenly.
9.  Pop open the 2nd crescent roll package and divide the triangles placing them strategically across the top of the taco meat until they cover it all the way.
10. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until the crescent roll begins to get - you know - golden brown.

The final product looked like this:

I was so sure that this would miserably fail while it was baking that I was super shocked when it turned out so well!

Here's a cut slice:

Other nights we ate things like Tofurky brauts, hastily made soup (not even a real soup recipe), and one ambitious night I made that same chickpea picatta that we posted about on our Anniversary.  I've been making that picatta about once or twice a week for the last month - it's become kind of an obsession.

We also discovered our favorite no cheese pizza by far, ANYWHERE.

It's from Doughboy's Pizza in McKees Rocks and they have magically perfected the no cheese pizza in such a way that any other pizza place around here that tries it should hang their heads in shame.

We get it with spinach, tomatoes and mushrooms.  Their spinach is fresh, though.  And the tomatoes - I swear to God - taste and look like bruschetta topping.

It looks like this:

Yes, that is a gigantic jug of Carlo Rossi in the background.  I'm drinking some of that jug while I write this.  (Please ignore the zip lock bags resting atop the oranges...  Better yet, please ignore everything else in the picture except that amazing pizza pie.)

That's it for now!