Black Bean and Rice Enchiladas

I have been reading Melanie's archived posts over at Big Mama. If you don't read her, you should because she is hilarious and I think she could write an entire book with just the things her daughter says. She could call it Caroline says the darndest things! Through reading her blog I've learned things about her such as the fact that she's an introvert, she loves Diet Coke with lime, she's fashion-forward, she loves Jesus (in fact, that one should probably go first), her best friend is Gulley, she shops at the HEB and Target, she loves to cook... those are just a few things, but the one thing I have learned that is actually relevant to this blog is that the girl loves Mexican food.

Then again, she does live in San Antonio, Texas. How could you live in South Texas and not love Mexican food?

So I woke up yesterday morning and picked up where I had left off reading her archived posts. Seriously, she's so funny and entertaining its like a good book that you can't put down. I think in that particular post she was talking about eating a breakfast taco and so it was no wonder that I was craving Mexican food by 10 AM.

Then again, I always crave Mexican food.

Since it was at least 10 AM I decided that it would be okay to eat non-breakfast food and started looking through the pantry to come up with some ingredients for enchiladas. I knew that we didn't have any good cheese for enchiladas and I didn't want to make them with Griller Crumbles. I often go to the pantry for inspiration and find one ingredient and try to build around that.

Black beans. That was definitely my ingredient. I grabbed a can of chilies and the corn tortillas. I opened up the refrigerator and pulled out an onion, a bell pepper, some leftover rice. Grabbed a couple of roma tomatoes and jalapenos from the garden and a few spices out of the spice cabinet.

See, this is how my brain works when I'm cooking. Choose one key ingredient and build on that. Anyway, here's the recipe.

Black Bean and Rice Enchiladas

3 roma tomatoes, chopped

1 green bellpepper, chopped

1/2 large onion, chopped

2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1-8oz can green chilies, drained

1 packet George Washington seasoning

cumin to taste

garlic powder to taste

salt to taste

 2 cups cooked rice

vegetable oil

corn tortillas

1 can of enchilada sauce

3/4 block of cheddar cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350. Saute all the bell pepper, onion, and jalapeno in a little vegetable oil until soft. Add tomatoes and cook until they soften. Add black beans and green chilies and spices and George Washington seasoning and mix. Cook until this all thickens a little. Add your rice and mix. Mine was cold so I cooked until it was heated through. Remove from heat. Soften corn tortillas according to your preferred method (options are on package) and put bean and rice mixture in the center of each tortilla. Roll and place them in a greased 11x13 casserole dish. Cover with enchilada sauce and grated cheese. Bake until cheese is melted.

Now for my commentary. I don't measure usually, so when I say "to taste" that just means sprinkle... and taste... and then sprinkle. You can use the seeds from the jalapenos if you want it hotter. I should have. I made my own enchilada sauce, but it was just okay and since I don't measure anything I wouldn't even begin to know how to tell you to make it.

That recipe goes like this: Tomato sauce and some water... some more if its too thick. If its too thin, oh well. Some chili powder. Maybe a little more. And some garlic powder and oregano and dried onion and cayenne powder.... I think it needs a little more garlic. So, if you can figure out how to make it from that, go for it.

Also, some cilantro would be really great in the filling. I used cheddar because its what we had, but this would be even better with monterrey jack. I used left over rice. Some was flavored and some was just plain brown rice. The flavored rice was cooked with the George Washington seasoning so I've tried to include that flavor because I think that gave the enchiladas a depth of flavor that they wouldn't have had otherwise.

Sometimes I make dishes specifically for the blog and so I measure things so that I can give you precise amounts. I take pictures and write down all of the exact details. I wasn't planning to share this recipe, but the enchiladas turned out to be so delicious I couldn't NOT share it.

Hope you enjoy them as much as we did!!

Tomatillo Salsa (Salsa Verde)

My family loves Mexican food. That might actually be an understatement. In fact, there have been months that have gone by where we've eaten at our favorite Mexican restaurant at least 2-3 times a week. We know the servers, the managers, the chip boys, and the hostesses by name and they know us.

The first time we had tomatillo salsa was at El Mesón in Chattanooga. They always served their chips with a jar of tomato salsa and a jar of tomatillo salsa. I never liked the "green salsa" then, but I love it now! Our current favorite Mexican restaurant's tomatillo salsa is very spicy. I like spicy foods, but not so spicy it burns my taste buds off! Our favorite Mexican restaurant in Spartanburg had perfect tomatillo salsa and when we walked in the door, someone would immediately head to our table with a fresh bowl of it as we were being seated. Like I said, we ate there a lot.

Since we haven’t found a restaurant around here with good tomatillo salsa, I decided to make my own.

Tomatillo Salsa (Salsa Verde)

Makes 4-5 cups

1 ½ - 2 lbs tomatillos

2 medium sized jalapenos

2 cloves garlic

1 large onion

1 ½ tsp sea salt

Handful of cilantro

Juice of ½ a lime

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel husks off of tomatillos and rinse tomatillos under water to remove sticky residue. Peel onion and cut into quarters. Peel garlic. Cut stems off of jalapenos and slice in half. Put first 4 ingredients on baking sheet and roast for 15-20 minutes, turning halfway through roasting.

Remove from oven and put everything except the tomatillos in food processor and process until all pieces are very small. Core the tomatillos with a small paring knife (this should be easy since they will be soft) and place in food processor. Process all ingredients until they reach desired consistency (I like mine smooth).

Es muy sabrosa!

Quinoa with Black Beans

Forgive my absence. Life happened. I've cooked lots of yummy things, but not much of anything that was more than two ingredients and I definitely did not take any pictures. I've experimented with grilled tofu recently. In short here is my recipe: Tofu with water pressed out sliced into 6 pieces + marinade of your choice. Marinate for a couple of hours. Throw it on a clean grill (also... you might want to spray the grill with Pam or brush it with oil or something before lighting it)... turn it at some point. Take it off when the tofu has shrunk some and looks dryish on the edges... or whatever you think looks "done". Maybe 20 minutes?

So I've been thinking about black beans and cilantro for a few days. Black bean tacos. Black beans and rice. Black bean soup. Pico de gallo. Fresh salsa. You get the idea.

We had a box of quinoa in the pantry and some cilantro in the refrigerator and black beans are a staple in my house. If we run out its time to go to the grocery store. Well actually, it IS time to go to the grocery store, but we still had black beans.

Quinoa with Black Beans (and cilantro!)

2 cans of black beans, rinsed and drained (um, minus the handful that I ate)
1 can of mild Rotel
3/4 cup of uncooked quinoa
1 cup vegetable broth
1/2 tsp cumin
2 gloves garlic minced
1/2 medium onion
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 handful of cilantro, stems removed, chopped

Garnish:
cilantro
lime wedges

Saute the garlic and onion in the olive oil, add everything else. Stir it around, bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat. Simmer for 20 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and a twist of lime. To make this a one pot meal, add some frozen corn and chopped multicolored bell peppers.


And the lazy girl's version of the nutritional analysis is as follows:

Calories: on the low side
Fat: on the low side
Protein: high
Sodium: maybe

Summary: good for your heart and butt and tastes delicious too!