I have two that are favorites. Neither is really a recipe. Once a week or so I put out the fixens for a Mexican, minus the meat and extra fat. I'll put out beans of some kind, tortillas (sometimes flour, sometimes corn) that I'll either nuke or put on a skillet to warm, some shredded lettuce and/or cabbage, chopped tomatoes (sometimes I turn this into a fresh salsa, adding chopped onion, garlic, cilantro, lime juice; sometimes just tomatoes), wedges of lime, favorite salsas (if I didn't make fresh). Occaisionally I'll add shredded cheese or something similarly creamy (a la Rubios), sometimes I'll add flaked fish (again, a la Rubio), or chicken breast sauteed with peppers and onions and lots of cumin. But most of the time it is a vegetarian make-it-yourself Mexican table (there are only two of us) with beans as the main part (our current favorite is La Preferada refried black beans, but we try it all) and no dairy. We put together what we want -- burrito, taco, salad, tostado. Hubby loves it weekly, and when we want REAL Mex, we go out, or I go buy all the good stuff. But this is almost like a salad bar.
Another is to go Asian and make summer rolls or lettuce roll ups.
For summer rolls you need to find rice paper at your local Asian grocery, then you soak them in water and place on a towel. Fill as you would a burrito, but with crisp lettuce or cabbage, chiffonaded, or a softer lettuce, one leaf placed on the rice paper. Chopped or julienned cukes. Any grilled meat is great, just a couple of pieces. Any seafood. Mushrooms, raw or sauteed, but drained dry if cooked. Herbs, especially mint, basil, lemony ones (ok, it would be lemon grass, but lemon verbena, lemon balm, and lemon basil will give you the right effect), chives, scallions, thin slices of red onion, cilantro. Nuts are a must, peanuts or do what you will. I'm lazy and buy any number of Asian sauces and dips you can buy in a store, but there are a million recipes out there for Vietnamese and Thai dipping sauces. By the way, a real tradition is to fill the roll with the vegetable fillings, then as you're doing the burrito roll, you slide in slices of shrimp (sliced vertically so that each retains the entire shrimp shape) so that when you are through, you see the shrimp through the rice paper.
For lettuce roll ups, I take dark meat ground turkey (pork would be more authentic, but is harder to get good stuff. Light meat ground turkey is OK, but it can be dry). I take about half and half that and mushrooms; plain old button will do, and if they're a little long in the tooth, it's a good way to get rid of them. Chop mushrooms fine, along with a half onion, a clove or two of garlic, and a bit of ginger. Sautee all together with some soy or soy-based sauce (there are a lot out there). Buy some lettuce with nice large, loose leaves. You need to roll them. Then put out a bunch of bottled sauces, some thin slice cukes, herbs mentioned above, peanuts). Everyone scoops the meat and vegs of their choice into a lettuce leaf and munches. Very messy, very fun!
As usual, long-winded. These are mostly make it yourselves, which kind of distract folks from the actual eating, and aids in the fun.
