cuz we like to eat

I scrapbook with some buddies.

We’re quite a crew.

There’s the vegetarian.

And the one that doesn’t eat mayo.

The one that’s allergic to cinnamon.

And the one that can’t do milk products.

And believe it or not, we still find things we can all eat and enjoy.

But it’s hard.

I was so excited the other day when I found a recipe tucked into the back of my recipe folder.

Black Bean and Rice Enchiladas

I’d never tried them, so I made them for our weekly get together.

They were so good.

And since I’m just full of love and the spirit of giving today.. I thought I’d share the recipe. It’s so easy and we didn’t miss the meat at all. Really.

Black Bean and Rice Enchiladas

• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (I just put in a bunch of garlic powder)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 14 ounce can “tomatoes with green chilies”, undrained..who are we kidding here people, it’s called ROTEL and I used the regular
• 1/4 cup picante sauce
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (I left those out and it had enough ‘heat’ to go around)
• 2 cups cooked brown rice (I didn’t have all day so I used ‘instant’ brown rice and it worked fine)
• 8 flour tortillas (7 inch size) warmed
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 cup reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese (I brought it in a bag separately and the girls put in on their enchiladas if they wanted it and zapped it a little bit in the microwave to melt it. Worked fine.)
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (Now there is a hot topic..people either love it or hate it. I am not that fond of it, so I omitted it and it tasted fine.)

In a large non stick skillet, saute the green pepper, onion and garlic in oil until tender. Add the beans, tomatoes, picante sauce, chili powder, cumin and red pepper flakes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, until heated through and mixture thickens.

Add rice; cook 5 minutes longer or until heated through. Spoon a rounded half cup down the center of each tortilla. Fold sides over filling and roll up. Place in a 13 by 9 inch baking dish coated with non stick spray. Spoon salsa over each tortilla. Cover and bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with cheese and cilantro. Bakes 2-3 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Yield: 8 servings.

It sounds harder than it is. I used Pace products for the salsa/picante sauce. One of them is thicker than the other, but for the life of me I can’t remember which. I just bought both and made it according to the recipe. But you could probably wing it. Pace isn’t really my favorite flavor, but I couldn’t think of anything better, so I just went with it. I used mild sauces also and there was enough kick in there for me. I ate a spoon full of filling as I was filling the enchiladas (I got a clean spoon!) and I thought for a minute it was going to be too hot, but it was just right. And if you do the cheese, that helps with the heat too. 

We liked it so well we froze the leftovers. I can’t tell you how well that goes, because we haven’t defrosted it yet.

That’s next week. : )