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Hi and welcome back to Knauthentic. This week we’re going to be talking about Quick Meals.

So quick meals is something that I used to do over at my Toi Thomas channel on YouTube. And it was just what it sounds like they were just little shorts that I would post. And so I’m going to continue that tradition with this community. So, by the time this, you know, podcast is airing, the short should be up. But I will be talking about what I’m doing in that short, in today’s podcast, along with some other things.

In the past, I would do, at my Toi Thomas channel, each week was a different version of my, work in progress, blog vlog, and I believe either week three or four was when I would do my food vlog. And so I’ve just moved that over to this platform. And so this is going to be kind of the food blog episode of Knauthentic.

And so I want to talk about quick meals. So, I’m not going to drone along too much about all of my issues, because this isn’t all about me. But I think sometimes explaining why I do the things I do helps other people to, consume them better, if that makes sense. So, I’m at a point in my life where I would say that I do make about 80 to 90%, depending upon the week of all of the food that I consume, from scratch. Now, that’s not to say that I’m, you know, growing all of my food and processing. I am working on, you know, becoming more, sustainable and self-sufficient in that regard of, like, gardening and things like that.

But, what I mean is, like, for instance, if I wanted to, throw together a pizza for lunch so I can’t get a frozen pizza from the store for a number of reasons, I would have to prepare that ahead of time to have it. Depending upon what I have access to in my area, I might be able to buy, like a prepackaged dough for, like, the crust. But, if not, I’d have to get creative and, you know, come up with something for that or make it. And then there’s like the sauce that I would need to put on it and the toppings that I would need to put on it. The recipe that I’m going to be talking about today, I’m actually using, one, I think prepackaged. No, two prepackaged. Hold on. Let me backtrack.

I think I use three prepackaged items in this particular quick meal, but one of them is a just kind of a test. And I’ll explain what that is. So basically, for something to be a quick meal, in my mind, that means that you can put it together from getting the thought in your head of this is what I want to eat, to actually sitting down and eating it in fifteen minutes or less. And so for that to happen, you do kind of have some things that are already kind of like pre-made or just kind of ready-made things, which is for most people, not a challenge. It’s just your limitation is basically your creativity. Like what can you think to put together. But for me it does become a little bit more challenging just because a lot of the things that would make meals quick for most people, I can’t do.

So, if I were, you know, like, again, using that pizza analogy, going to make my own pizza, I either have, you know, of course, pre purchased like a crust or dough or something like that, or I’ve made it myself. I’ve had to make the marinara myself because I can’t use any store-bought brands. I have to probably make the toppings that are on there, you know. And then, you know, put it together.

So, there’s a couple of different, components to, to that, if I want to throw together a salad. Same thing most people are not like it’s not a challenge to make a salad. I think where it becomes a challenge is finding a way to make salads interesting with not having, like, the same thing, like, over and over and over. And some of that comes down to, like the dressing, which again, I have to make my own because I can’t buy most store-bought dressings.

So. Yeah. So, what I want to talk about today is something that kind of looks like a pizza. In the short that I posted, when you see it, I do like, if you go and watch it, you’ll see it clearly labeled. But it’s what I call a Tortilla Spiral. It’s something that I just started whipping together a while back. It is very much inspired by the idea of a pizza, but I actually found that, I didn’t like it when I was trying to make it as a pizza. Once I started making it as a tortilla, it kind of worked better for me.

And the reason why I’m so adamant that it’s a tortilla spiral and not a pizza is because, of two main reasons. Most of the toppings that go on to my tortilla spiral are, like soft or liquids or something like, I don’t put a lot of like, I don’t put, thick items on it. Like I don’t put like, like whole vegetable pieces on there. I might put something on a sprinkle, like, as a topping, but mostly it’s like layering different, sauces that, create this dish for me. And I’ve never cut it like a pizza either. I usually just kind of rip off corners of it. And until I get it’s a very much a, a handheld like finger food, you just kind of rip it and eat it kind of thing. So anyway, all of that to say is. So I’m just going to explain, what I put together for this particular, tortilla spiral. I can’t even think of my own terms and then explain, like, why this is so important for me and why might be beneficial for you if you have, like, food restrictions. So, let’s start with the tortilla itself.

The tortilla is the first of the three prepackaged or pre-made items that I used to throw this quick meal together. And so, I am using a Hero brand tortilla, not sponsored in any way whatsoever. I like the tortilla, the Hero brand just because it’s a very, low carb, high fiber, high protein, product. Good quality doesn’t have like a lot of additives and things like that. And they’re made with olive oil. So, it’s just, for me, a healthier option. Now I will buy, store bought, like tortillas from time to time and use those as needed. Because the the because the Hero brand tortillas are a little bit more costly. But for me it’s a really good investment. I don’t eat them every single day. So, I typically when I buy them, I freeze them and just kind of thaw them as I need them. So that’s the base of this is the tortilla.

And now comes the layering of the dish that makes it, a tortilla spiral. So, I typically start with a layer of a sauce, not a marinara. My sauce of choice is usually some type of homemade hummus, something that I’ve made myself, in this version that, that I’m talking about today, I have a, fennel and olive hummus that I make that actually has, like, chunks of olives in it, and it’s quite tasty. And so I basically spread the tortilla with the base of that, fennel and olive hummus. And so that’s the base. Other bases that I use for this would be other flavors of hummus have like a curry hummus that I make. A also can use, my black bean. The black bean hummus is okay. I actually just prefer to cook black beans in, like, just mash them. Like, to me, that’s even, like, better. But you could go either way with that. But it’s usually some kind of legume base basically for these spirals.

And I know not everybody can, you know, eat legumes. So I do try other things as well. I’ve done bases that were made out of like cashews or almonds. Definitely have used some tahini based, you know, sesame seed, sauces to put as the base. So it’s really kind of versatile to what you are willing to work with. So and you could also do other types of, you know, vegetable parade parades if you’re not into the legumes or the the lentils or the nuts or the seeds. But that’s usually what I do for the spiral is I just start with like a base. So if this were a pizza, that would be the marinara. But for this, tortilla spiral, I usually have some kind of legume as the base.

And then after that I continue to like layer the flavors. And so for this particular version I had made, recently made a green curry, Knauthentic green curry because, if you, you know, follow the show, you know, that a lot of things that I do are not culturally authentic, not because I, I’m not I’m not willing to take the effort to put it in. It’s just that if I make things that are culturally authentic, I can’t eat them. But with that said, it is a really good curry sauce that, my husband and I both enjoy because, you know, before I had all of my health issues, Indian food was one of our favorite cuisines. Indian American food, I should say so. So for the curry, I usually just kind of put it in in dollops. I don’t spread it. I don’t know why. It’s like. It’s like I like the variation of, you know, sometimes you get a little bit of this and sometimes you get a little bit of that, so I just dollop it on kind of like where I want it to be.

And then the next item that I added, now this is the second pre-packaged item that I used for it, and this is the item that was the experiment. So I have started making my own non-dairy cheeses. It’s been, a very frustrating and also satisfying adventure whenever it turns out really well. I’ve learned how to make several spreadable cheeses. I’ve learned how to make sliceable cheeses that you can slice and grade. So I’m really good at, you know, I’ve got that on lock, but I know that sometimes it’s good to like, have options or alternatives. And so I’ve been testing out some, plant based or vegan cheese products from like the store. And there was one that I used to consume quite frequently, maybe a year ago. then I realized that there was ingredient in it that weren’t really ideal for my dietary restrictions.

So, I’ve been trying other brands with like different, product, ingredients in them. So far, I mean, I just, I think I may just have to stick to making my own non-dairy cheese because the taste is great. Like, the taste is not the issue. It’s just that, each time I find something that I somewhat kind of like and I pay attention to the ingredients, I realize there’s something else in it that I can’t, consume. So, I did put that on there today. I just kind of sprinkled it on. But normally when I make this, using my own non-dairy cheese, I use one of my cheese sources and I will swirl the cheese sauce on it, which is where I came up with the original name of the tortilla swirl. So that would be another layer. But for for for this one, I was trying. I believe the Follow Your Heart again, totally not sponsored, but I was trying to Follow Your Heart, mozzarella, pre-packaged. And again, it tasted fine. The taste isn’t the issue, but I do know that I won’t be able to continue, buying this brand just because it contains potato starch. And I am sensitive to potatoes.

So, yeah, I was, being a little adventurous today, trying something and just seeing like, how I react to it. So no major reaction. But when you get so used to not eating certain things and you eat them, you notice right away, yeah, I’m not going to be able to do this long term. So, beyond that, for this one, there’s one more, layer to this, but I am going to be putting it in the oven at this point.

So, I preheat it for 350 degrees. Just kind of, you know, center middle rack. I put it on a baking sheet. Now, I did put a very small amount of avocado oil because I wanted my tortilla to get really good and crispy. But if you are, like whole food plant based, oil free, all that kind of things. You don’t have to put the oil on there. You could just put down, you know, your parchment paper so that the tortilla doesn’t stick or use a nonstick surface and just bake it as is. Because I made most of the ingredients that went on to the topping of this tortilla, I was confident that I wasn’t going to be consuming too much fat by using the avocado oil to just help the tortilla crisp. I think, the majority of the fat from this will came from the plant-based cheese. And then, one of the toppings that I put on.

So, after it baked for ten minutes. Ten minutes is like the perfect amount of time to get just the amount of crisp that I want and the browning that I want without anything burning. So I took it out, and I put the last two toppings on it before I was ready to, like, dive into it. And so this is where the third pre-packaged item comes into play. I put, some sea salted roasted, pepitas pumpkin seeds. Just kind of sprinkle that on top for a little bit of crunch. Texture is really important for me with food. Sometimes I’m trying to avoid a particular texture. Sometimes I’m trying to recreate a particular texture. And for this one, I really wanted the crunch of the pumpkin seeds to complement the crispiness of the tortilla. And then, I also dolloped a couple of, drops of my, Knauthentic Chutney Verde. And I think I’ve done previous videos about that, but I’ll talk about that more later. So that was just kind of like the layering that happened with this dish. So let me wrap this up and bring it all home.

The reason why I created this type of dish was so that I could, you know, throw together meals sometimes without necessarily having to, precook an entire meal and like thawed out which I most of the time that’s what I have to do. If I have meals that I’ve planned out for the week. And, I’m fortunate to be in a position where sometimes I get to be at home, and so when I’m home, I can throw something like this together, and I save those meals for the office that have to be fully, like, pre-made and just, like, reheated. And I really appreciate having the convenience of doing that. And so that’s one of my quick meals.

And so I’ll be sharing another one, you know, next week or at some point, I don’t have a set schedule of how frequently I’ll be doing this, but I just wanted to kind of share that. So, this meal is really flavorful because of the different like, layers of things that are going on it and all of the different textures. But most of all, it’s healthy and it’s safe for me to eat. And if you know you have any type of restrictions that can That can really be a challenge sometime to eat something that’s safe for you to eat, something that’s healthy for you to eat, but is also actually delicious. I find that most of the foods that are safe and healthy for me to eat are a little bit lacking in flavor. So when I can come together and, you know, put something like this together, that I’m like shoving it in my mouth, trying not to spill it all over myself because it tastes so good that that that puts a smile on my face. And so that is a quick meal. And so I’ll be sharing more quick meals with you guys.

I would love to know kind of what are some of your go to’s? How do you throw a quick meal together? This whole meal, I guess from start to finish, probably did take fifteen minutes because it was ten minutes of, baking time and then, you know, two to three minutes before and after, kind of, you know, putting on those final touches before I dove into it. So that was my fifteen minute quick meal. And, I am going to be starting to reach out to the community and seeing if people want to share their stories with me. I’d love to hear what kind of, you know, meals that they’ve come up with to help them on their journey. And, I believe that’s all I really have for this week, guys. So, if you are really interested in seeing what my tortilla swirl looks like, make sure you check out the shorts that are posted on social media. All right, guys, stay safe and be blessed.

Credits:

Knauthentic number three, starring Toi Thomas, featuring no one else at this time.

Topics discussed. Quick meals, tortilla spirals, planning ahead.

Produced by Toi Thomas in association with The ToiBox of Words and Lit Carnivale

Directed by Toinette “Toi” Thomas.

Thanks again to the Knauthentic community on Substack and YouTube. This is all for you!