Turkey Taco Lasagmelette

Not a Famous French Food Critic

If you're like me, you frequently find yourself with assorted leftovers in the refrigerator.

A few days ago, I made ground turkey burritos for dinner.  Just as for Chicken Enchiladas, I used beef taco seasoning mix (in this case, Ortega, which tends to cook a little wetter and works better for turkey). I'm sure you can follow the instructions on the packet, although note that while ground turkey generally comes in 20 ounce packages, a package of taco seasoning that calls for a pound of ground beef works out fine. In fact, most taco seasonings seem to have a little too much seasoning for a pound of meat anyway. 

 The Biggest Loser endorses extra lean ground turkey, but for the usual price difference, 93% fat-free ground turkey is a much better value. It tends to cost less than 93% lean ground beef, and the taco seasoning makes the taste difference negligible. Ground turkey also seems to clean easier than beef.

Anyway, if you have some tortillas and grated cheese, you can figure out how to make burritos, adding refried beans if you want a more festive if flatulant fiesta, so I didn't bother to tell you how to fix that meal. 



4 Girls who are not Alexis: Paige, Sephanie, Amy and Rachel

In the frig, I also had a partial jar of Old World Style Ragu as well as sliced mushrooms, a half tomato, eggs and grated cheese, so I decided to make a variation of my world famous Lasgmelette, which world renowned food critic Alexis Alfano called "genius." Actually, I don't know if she used that exact word, and she's not a world famous food critic (in fact, I believe she was 13 years old at the time), but she did think the concept made sense as a low carb alternative to lasagna. The fact that she's an Italian whose mother presumably makes great Italian dishes validates her stamp of approval as well as any Michelin Star. 

As always, you can substitute other ingredients, like different veggies, bacon or ham, or you can leave it with just eggs, cheese and Ragu.  In fact, you can leave out the Ragu to magically transform this into a French dish, le omelette du fromage, but here's how you can re-create what I did a couple of times this week (yes, it was so good that I repeated the exact same recipe):



Laszlo, Gina and Elmo, but no Alfano.

Put two tablespoons of grated cheese and two eggs in a Teflon-coated frying pan, scrambling them together with a spatula as the pan heats over the burner set on medium. Quickly wash the spatula to use later to fold the lasagmelette.

After the eggs get a little firm, artfully add some turkey taco meat, mushrooms and sliced tomatoes.  You want a little in each bite.  You can cut the tomatoes over the top of the eggs rather than in a separate dish, but be careful not to cut yourself.

By the time you've finished adding the tomatoes, the eggs should be pretty firm.  Put Ragu on one half, and then put some grated cheese on the other half.

Jered and Jay simulating Michelin Star selection process.

Cook it about a half minute to a minute.  You should see the cheese starting to melt, and the outer edge of the Ragu may be bubbling.  Carefully fold the side with the cheese over the Ragu half. 

If the outside of the omelette is a nice golden brown, it's good to plate.  In fact, no matter what it looks like, most likely it is good to plate, as long as it folds.  If it is a little burned, it's not going to get any less cooked in the frying pan, but it is probably still edible.  Just make a mental note to either set the burner lower or not cook it as long the next time.

If it wasn't cooked long enough and fell apart as you tried to fold it over, then you may instead be making a form of the Greek dish moussaka by default.  Just scramble it all together until it looks done and plate it. 

One way or another, you will soon be enjoying some kind of French/Mexican/Italian and potentially Greek deliciousness for breakfast.