Lunchtime!

Well, it's not lunchtime right now. I just finished dinner, actually. But I did throw together a black bean salad to take to work tomorrow. When your only viable option three days a week is Subway, packing lunch sounds really good after three weeks.

It's a great summer lunch or side dish, and it takes all of five minutes. It's also really cheap and easy to make for a barbecue.

Ingredients

• 1 can of black beans, rinsed
• 1/3 cup frozen corn, rinsed under cold water until thawed
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1/4 cup cilantro
• freshly ground salt
• juice of 1 lime, minus a little bit (just cut it into quarters, juice 3, and put the last quarter in a Corona or something...)
• 2T smooth salsa or a 1t hot sauce (to taste)
  

Directions

1. Toss everything together in a bowl.
2. Let sit overnight.
3. Take to work and eat instead of junk food.
   

Feel that burn!

Well, I had too much week left at the end of the money Thursday night and had to make dinner out of whatever was hanging around in the kitchen.

In the toss-up between black bean fajita burritos and Asian noodles made with ramen as a base, the fajitas won.

I didn't measure how much cumin and cayenne I used. Nor did I measure the tears that were running down my face from the heat. I'd guess that I used at least half a teaspoon of cayenne and probably a bit less cumin. If cayenne is too much for you, just add freshly ground black pepper at step 2.

Ingredients

• 1 can of black beans
• 1/2 green bell pepper, cut into strips (go ahead and use the last, sad, shrively one, just chop off the wrinkled parts). If you're really masochistic, use jalapeños.
  
• 1 small red onion, halved and thickly sliced (is the core turning green? Pull it out of the slices!)
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• cumin
• cayenne
• juice of 1 lime
• 2 flour tortillas
• shredded cheese (cheddar, Jack, whatever's in the fridge)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons hopped cilantro
  

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan. Saute the garlic for 1 minute, then add the onions and peppers. Sprinkle with cumin and cayenne to taste. Saute until soft.
   
2. Add the black beans, lime juice, and cilantro. Cook until heated through.
3. Spoon the mixture onto two flour tortillas. Top with the shredded cheese and fold burrito-style.
   
4. Heat a skillet. Place the burritos, folded side down, on the skillet and cook until browned. Repeat with the other side. Remove from heat and slice in half.
   

Black beans & corn for lunch

I got to come home for lunch today because class was canceled. When I make myself lunch, I often make black beans, because they're filling without being fattening.

So I threw together this delicious mixture of black beans and corn. It makes enough for two people, or you can just put half of it in the fridge, because it really gets better with time. Oh yeah, and it's also ridiculously cheap.

Ingredients

• 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
  
• 1 can of corn, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
• 3 green onions, sliced
• juice of 1 lime
• 1-2 tablespoons of spicy salsa (I used deli salsa because I'm a salsa snob)
  
• salt
  
• freshly ground black pepper
  
• garlic powder

Directions

1. Combine beans, corn, cilantro, onions, salsa, and lime juice in a saucepan. Season to taste with the salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
2. Cook over medium heat until heated through, about 5 minutes.

Soup!

This soup is fantastic!

Black Bean Soup

(makes enough for 4)

Ingredients

• 2-15 oz. cans of reduced sodium black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 1/2 cups reduced sodium vegetable broth
• 1 cup chunky salsa
• 3 teaspoons ground cumin
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1 small red onion, roughly chopped
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
  
• sour cream
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
  

Directions

1. In a food processor, combine the beans, onion, cilantro, garlic, lime juice, broth, salsa and cumin until they're more or less smooth.
2. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until bubbly and heated through. Taste it and see if you need to add pepper.
   
3. Serve with a sprinkling of green onions and a tablespoon or so of sour cream on top. A large slice of baguette on the side is great for dipping.
4. NOTE: I know a lot of people balk at low-sodium ingredients, but in this case reduced sodium ingredients are important. Many jarred salsas are loaded with sodium to begin with. When you combine full-sodium broth, beans and salsa the taste is far too salty (and bad for you).
   

I already posted the quesadilla recipe in January, and the wine is Espiral Vinho Verde from Trader Joe's.

Enjoy!

(Side note: What is up with this camera time-stamping everything?! I made these last night, not three days before Christmas!)

Quick and easy burritos!

Ready for a satisfying lunch, but not for spending half an hour in the kitchen? It's burrito time!

Ingredients

• 1 can of black beans, drained
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
  
• 3 scallions, chopped
  
• 2oz chicken broth
• 2 flour tortillas
  
• Shredded Monterey Jack cheese to taste

Process

• Heat the olive oil in a saucepan. Add the garlic and saute until just golden. Careful not to brown it; it will become bitter.
• Add the black beans and the chicken broth.
  
• Cook, stirring and lightly mashing the beans against the saucepan until thickened.
• Warm the tortillas in the microwave.
• Spoon half the beans on to each of the tortillas. Top with the cheese and scallions, then fold and enjoy!

The Only Quesadillas You Will Ever Need. Seriously.

To start off, here's a how-to guide for the quesadillas that earned me about a billion Cool Girlfriend Points from The Mr. and his friend. All "measurements" are approximate, because I know how much I like, but I don't know how much you like. Love cilantro? Add a whole ton. Or leave it out if you hate it. That's the fun of cooking: it's all intuitive.

You're Gonna Need:
- 1 can of black beans
- 8 0z or so of pepper jack cheese
- 1 smallish red onion (buy the big mesh bags to get a wide variety of sizes for all your oniony needs) or 4 or 5 scallions, diced
- several jalapeños, to make about 1/2 cup when diced and seeded
- 2 serrano chiles, seeded and diced (leave 'em out if you don't want the heat)
- 4-5 large flour tortillas
- about 2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
- juice from 1 lime
- 2 garlic cloves, minced or run through a press

Putting it All Together
Drain the black beans and put them in a largish bowl. Use a fork to mash them against the side of the bowl, so that they're chunky but spreadable. Add the onions, jalapeños, chiles, cilantro, garlic, and lime juice and mix it all up.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Lay one of the tortillas in the skillet and spread a small amount of filling over half of the tortilla, making sure to leave about 3/4 inch between the filling and the edge. Careful not to use too much, or the quesadillas will gush all over later when you slice them. Sprinkle some cheese on top of the filling and fold the empty half over. Let it cook until the bottom is browned and crispy, then cook the other side. Make more quesadillas until you've used up all the filling.

When the quesadillas have cooled a bit, slice them up with a pizza cutter. Serve them alone or with salsa or sour cream for dipping, if you want. Enjoy the gratuitous praise and pretend it was a lot of hard work to make them.