Saturday, August 14, 2004

Turns out that my black beans and rice was a hit. I had several mothers come to me to get the recipe because their picky eaters liked it A LOT. It’s interesting, I’m a good cook, but I’ll be the first to admit that I’ll eat my own mediocre cooking experiments without ever knowing if it’s really good or just passably edible.

Anyway, I thought I’d pass on the recipe here too, now that I have confirmation that it is, indeed, tasty.

Jen’s Black Beans & Rice

2-3 cups freshly cooked white rice
1 16oz can of any brand black beans (not drained)*
1 envelope of any brand taco seasoning
Add chicken or chorizo sausage, if desired (cooked thoroughly)

* I started out using Goya brand black bean soup and added herbs/spices to get the flavor I was looking for. The soup is still a good choice, but the regular black beans is cheaper.

Cook the rice separately from the beans. While the rice is cooking in one pot, have the beans and taco seasoning heating in another pot. When the rice is ready, add it to the beans and mix well. Add meat, if desired.

Serve as is with shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, and salsa. Add small flour tortillas to make soft tacos.

Leftovers are good for quesadillas: heat a skillet, add a few drops of oil to the pan. Place a large flour tortilla in the pan, top with shredded cheddar cheese and then a layer of reheated black beans and rice. Sprinkle beans/rice with more cheddar cheese and top with a second tortilla. When the bottom layer of cheese is melted, flip the quesadilla and heat until the now bottom layer of cheese is melted as well. Cut into 6-8 wedges and serve with sour cream and salsa.

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

Lunch yesterday and today was the highly nutritious black beans and rice. I cooked up a pot of ride yesterday. Heated a can of black bean soup. Blended the two to make a nice meal. Leftovers were brought in for today’s lunch.

Tonight I’ll take the leftover rice and make chicken fried rice with some leftover chicken I had in the freezer and frozen peas-carrots. That will be lunch for tomorrow.

I’m trying to cut back on the money spent at lunch. And to eat healthier. We’ll see how long this lasts.