Black Bean Chicken Burritos

I made these this afternoon to freeze for lunches - I'm always looking for something new for lunch! - and they were easy and I think they'll freeze well which means I can make a batch and not have to have the same thing all week but enjoy them at my leisure. I used my panini grill but if you don't have one you can cook these in a skillet and place a cast iron skillet on top of the burritos for 3 minutes on each side.

One more thought, this calls for 2 cups of shredded chicken so naturally I only used 1 cup but that left too much of the watery juice so if you only use 1 cup of chicken reduce by half the water, lime juice and seasonings. (You don't want your burritos to be watery.) Also if you use 1 cup of chicken you can use your whole can of black beans.

Black Bean Chicken Burritos

1/4 C water

2 Tbsp lime juice

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp ground red pepper (or to taste - naturally I used way less and found it plenty spicy...)

2 C shredded chicken breast

3/4 C black beans, rinsed & drained

1/2 C salsa

4 flour tortillas

1/2 C finely shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Cooking spray

Sour cream, if desired

Bring the first 6 ingredients to a boil in a small saucepan. Stir in chicken.

Combine beans and salsa in a bowl. Add chicken mixture and stir to combine. Divide evenly between 4 tortillas. Top each with 2 tablespoons of cheese. Tuck ends in and roll up the tortillas.

Cook in panini grill for 3-5 minutes or until warmed through and nicely browned. Serve warm with sour cream.

Altered from a recipe in Cooking Light.

Baked Spaghetti

Jeremy and I both don't really care for chunks in our spaghetti so we really liked this recipe. It originally called for 1 lb ground beef, but I didn't think that sounded very good so I left that out. It's really quick to throw together too!

Baked Spaghetti

1 (16 oz) pkg spaghetti

1 jar (24 oz) spaghetti sauce (garlic and onion works well)

½ tsp seasoned salt

2 eggs

1/3 c grated Parmesan cheese

5 Tbsp butter, melted

2 cups (16 oz) cottage cheese

4 cups (16 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions. Meanwhile, mix seasoned salt, eggs, Parmesan cheese and butter. Rinse cooked noodles in cold water to cool. Toss with egg mixture. Place half spaghetti in greased 9x13 pan. Top with ½ of the cottage cheese and then ½ of the spaghetti sauce. Top with 2 cups mozzarella. Repeat the layers. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake 15-20 minutes longer, or until cheese is melted and slightly crispy.

Slightly altered from Simple and Delicious

Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup

I made this for dinner tonight and it was easy and tasty. It calls for snow peas but the store only had sugar snap peas and they worked just beautifully. I only put in 1 tsp of the hot sauce (which was perfect for me) and then put the bottle out for anyone (Dad) who wanted more in their soup.

Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup

2 cans (14.5oz) chicken broth

1 1/2 C water

1 C shredded chicken (dark or light meat)

1 C shredded carrot (about 1 large carrot)

1 C snow peas, thinly sliced

1/4 tsp ginger

2 green onions, thinly sliced

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp lime juice

1-2 tsp Asian hot sauce (such as Sriracha)

4 oz rice noodles

Cilantro leaves

In a large pot, bring chicken broth and water to a boil. Add chicken and simmer 3 minutes. Add carrots, snow peas and ginger; simmer 3 minutes. Stir in green onion, soy sauce, lime juice, and hot sauce.

Meanwhile, bring another pot of water to boil. Place rice noodles in hot water and remove from heat; allow to sit for 10 minutes or until softened. (Check the package first to see if they have different instructions for the type of noodle you found.)

Drain noodles and divide evenly between 4 soup bowls. Ladle soup into the bowls on top of the noodles. Scatter cilantro on top, if desired.

Altered slightly from a recipe found in Family Circle magazine.

Bacon!

Since it's Valentine's Day and so many people seem to be having a love affair with bacon lately, I thought I'd post a new way to cook bacon. Well, it's new to me anyway. I tried it for the first time this morning and I liked the results. The bacon wasn't all curled up, leaving you with chewy gross fatty parts. Instead, it all cooked up nice and crisp. Seriously, the whole piece! I even snapped a picture before it was all gobbled up!

Be warned, though, your house will get all smoky. (Mine always does when I cook bacon though...). I haven't tried it yet with turkey bacon for Chad, but I'll give that a try sometime I'm sure!

There are a couple different pan preparation choices. You could line a cookie sheet with foil. You can put a cooling rack on the cookie sheet and the bacon on top of that so the fat drips off. Or you can use the broiler pan that has the slits in it so the bacon fat drips through those. I opted for the broiler pan method because I really don't care how that pan looks.

So, here's the method.

1. Get your pan of choice ready. 
2. Put the bacon on. 
3. Put it in the oven. 
4. NOW turn the oven on to 400 degrees. (So the oven has not been preheated). 
5. Cook the bacon for 12 minutes or until it's as crisp as you like. (Mine took more like 17 minutes). 
6. Drain on a paper towel-lined tray. Voila!

Recipe from Old School - Self Reliance 101.

Lemon Scones

These scones are very moist and very delicious! The original recipe calls for Meyer lemons, which is probably even better, but they're also more expensive so I just used regular-joe lemons and it tasted great. It also mixed in a cup of diced strawberries, but Jeremy doesn't like fruit chunks so I just served sliced strawberries on the side. Yum!


Lemon Scones

from Goodlifeeats.com

For the scones:
4 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
Zest of 2 medium-large lemons
1 cup cold butter
2 large eggs
1/3 cup lemon juice - about 3 lemons
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Zest the lemons and combine with the sugar in a small bowl. Using your fingers, rub the sugar and zest together to combine. This will help release the oils and aroma of the lemons.

Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar (combined with zest), and salt. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse sand. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, lemon juice, buttermilk, and vanilla together.

Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture until the dough is moist, but do not over mix. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead a couple of times until the texture is more uniform and the dry bits have been incorporated.

Divide dough into two equal balls. Pat each ball into an 8 inch circle. Place each ball onto a greased cookie sheet. Score each circle with a knife into 6 wedges.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 15-20 (for small individual circle scones) or 30-40 minutes (for the 8 inch circles), or until done and very lightly golden. Allow the scones to cool completely.

Meanwhile, stir powdered sugar, milk, and lemon juice together. Drizzle over cooled scones.

Serve with sliced strawberries!

Seven Layer Tortilla Pie

Not beautiful to photograph but quite tasty!

2 (15 ounce) cans pinto beans, drained
1 cup salsa, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
7 flour tortillas
2 cups shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese
1 cup salsa
1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, mash pinto beans. Stir in 3/4 cup salsa and garlic.

In a separate bowl, mix together 1/4 cup salsa, cilantro, black beans and tomatoes.

Place 1 tortilla in a 9 inch round cake pan. Spread 3/4 cup pinto bean mixture over tortilla to within 1/2 inch of edge. Top with 1/4 cup cheese, and cover with another tortilla. Spread with 2/3 cup black bean mixture, and top with 1/4 cup cheese. Repeat layering twice. Cover with remaining tortilla, and spread with remaining pinto bean mixture and cheese.

Cover with foil, and bake in a preheated oven for about 40 minutes. Cut into wedges, and serve with salsa and sour cream.

Serves 6

Note: Carrie and I thought this would be a great way to use left over "Refrieds Without the Refry" beans and skip using the 2 cans of pinto beans.
Another note: Don't leave the cilantro out! It really adds wonderful flavor!

From allrecipes.com

Avocado Quesadillas with Black Beans and Cheddar

I've finally been trying some of the recipes from Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious cookbook. One of them is the Avocado Spread in this recipe. She mentioned that her daughter has it in her quesadillas and that gave me the idea for these. You could add tomatoes, sour cream (Ava liked to eat these dipped in sour cream) or whatever else you wanted. We all loved them though!

Avocado Quesadillas with Black Beans and Cheddar

6 inch tortillas
avocado spread
refried black beans
shredded cheddar cheese

Avocado Spread:
1 cup pureed avocado
½ cup plain yogurt
1 Tbsp lowfat mayo
1 Tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder

Combine all ingredients for avocado spread until well mixed.

To assemble quesadillas, sprinkle cheddar on one half of the quesadilla (the half already down in the skillet). On the other half, spread about 3 Tbsp refried black beans, followed by about the same amount of avocado spread. Place face down on top of the cheese layer and cook over medium heat until cheese is melted and tortilla is golden brown.