Various people will attest to it- for many years, I was a Taco Bell addict. It all started innocently enough, a bean burrito here, a bean burrito there. My mom would sometimes bring me one when I worked evenings at the thrift bakery and I'd open a package of Frito chips to eat with it. I'd squeeze out the middle and then use all but the thin layer of beans, cheese, and red sauce left in the tortilla as a dip for my chips. It was lovely. In college, one of my meals every day was one of these, with a Dr. Pepper, maybe two burritos (and sometimes, maybe two of my day's meals.) Maybe this seems a bit excessive, but it was a cheap meal (usually under 2 dollars), I found it tasty, and as time has gone on, I have even discovered I may be genetically pre-disposed to Taco Bell addiction. My uncle and grandfather are both big addicts as well, my grandfather even is known by name at his regular store. Needless to say, my family weren't going to give me an intervention.
After moving to a house and starting a graduate school many miles from the nearest Taco Bell, my Bell meals went down to 3-4 a week, sometimes less. I had just gotten married, and along with it received all the attendant kitchen gadgets, some new cook books, and even a bit of Suzy Homemaker leaning that made me feel that I should cook more. It didn't hurt that my new kitchen was bright, beautiful, and three times the size of that in my apartment, a kitchen that was so small I couldn't open the fridge door from some angles. Of course, there was the 7-week frozen fried chicken addiction which also distracted me from the Bell, but that is another story.
As time went on, I kept to a 3-4 Taco Bell meals a week regular schedule, phasing in and out of other food addictions. Bread Company vegetable soup. Trader Giotto's cheese pizza. Trader Ming's mandarin chicken. English muffin pizzas. Homemade Red Lobster cheddar biscuits. But change was in sight, no matter how unexpected. I started (after a divorce, of course) to date a man who could cook, and did. He knew a little something about cooking, and used quality ingredients.
At first this inspired dissatisfaction in me; my old stand by foods no longer tasted very good to me, and as of yet, we did not live together, so I didn't have an in-house cook to replace those foods with something better full time. This meant that I started cooking new recipes for myself more often, inspired by the boyfriend, now Husband, to use these quality ingredients and more healthful options. When we finally married and moved in to our new house with our lovely kitchen, this helped inspire me even further. Since we married, I believe I've only gone to Taco Bell a handful of times, and those times were when I didn't pack a lunch for work. They weren't very satisfying. Since we bought our house over a year ago, I don't think I've been to Taco Bell at all.
The happiest part of the story, is that I've found my replacement for my Taco Bell fix, and a much more satisfying and healthy one. In Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero, the Drunken Beans are an excellent filling for a home-made bean burrito. Toss it on a tortilla with a little sour cream and a veggie side dish, and this is a quick meal I can stand behind. The recipe takes all day to make (mostly sitting back and letting the beans cook time), and involves pre-making some seitan chorizo, but the quantity yielded is enough for me to make about 30 burritos, something that was very helpful when I was heading into tech week with the show I am currently in. It's a five minute dinner; reheat beans in mic, heat tortillas, and then eat. It's also a good alternative for when I've eaten soup for lunch or the last couple nights in a row since soup is usually what I eat for dinner if I'm busy.
