"Bill"rritos

(Apology first: so sorry if this post works your gag reflex.)

So I announced to the kids a few days ago that this summer I wanted them to pick one night of the week to plan and make dinner and I would take them shopping for the ingredients. For Zach, I knew he would love the entire process of list making, shopping, bagging up the food, chopping, cooking and serving. When I asked him what he would like to make for his first meal he immediately told me about a "special"  burrito his friend's dad, our friend Bill, had made one evening when Zach was over at their place. Of course my eye brows raised with anticipation at what "special" meant. Zach explained the ingredients: tortillas, refried beans, cheddar cheese, hotdogs, and hot sauce. 

Huh. Sounds...ummmmm...interesting.

But Zach was very eager and thus I made one special call to good 'ol Bill and with a chuckle he walked me through the recipe, confirming, yes, the hotdog ingredient, and the specific hot sauce: Crystal. He also detailed how to use the hotsauce (best squirted on each bite) and shared that Zach had totally loved the meal. Yes, I got that.

So this afternoon Zach and I entered Safeway. A place I rarely enter being the Trader Joes (and Whole Foods when I can get there) girl that I am. I am now reminded why I rarely take my kids into that store--the rows of high fructose corn syrup laden foods and the pre-packaged, processed, dyed, modified, food galore. Don't get me wrong, I actually would eat most of that food and love it (mini chocolate donuts, Cocoa Crispies, Doritos...) but being the self-taught geeky nutritionist that I am, I am aware of the bad bad, but oh so good, evils of such food and do my best to limit them to "special" times.  

And tonight was "special"--Zach was cooking. Plus I couldn't buy Crystal hot sauce at Traders.

We came home and Zach threw himself into the process of cooking up dinner and getting everything ready. He made a salad and also set out some peaches (at the encouragement of his mother who was also trying to teach some nutritional squareness in regards to a meal). And then he demonstrated how to make the special burrito---no, the Billritto. We assembled ours and rolled them up and...and...they weren't that bad. Really. I would eat another one. As I break out in familiar verse...

"Say! I do like green eggs and ham! Sam I am! I would eat them on a boat and I would eat them with a goat. I would eat them in a box and I would eat them with a fox!"

The wheels of my mind are working on how I can spin a healthy version of this new fave of Zach's but somehow I think it wouldn't fly. And I do agree, it's the hotdogs and the hot sauce that make it work. (I can't believe I just said that.) Gonna send a call off to Bill and tell him about how he will forever be a legend in our house, how he will always be remembered every time we sit down to Billrittos.

p.s. I'll have to pass on  to him Scott's favorite childhood recipe that his dad would make for him: hotdogs sliced down the middle, piled with fake mashed potatoes, and topped with a slice of american cheese--all baked to a fattening, sodium-laced perfection. (I'm noticing a hotdog theme here.)