Beans, Beans A Wonderful Fruit

Did you miss us?  Last week was a doozy, so in the end we decided to just have dinner on Thursday night.  No coming up with new recipes, just tried and true (and comforting) pasta and meat sauce.  It was yum, we ate a lot, and didn't take a single photo! :)

This week we are back with our noses to the grindstone and 2 new recipes - black bean and chicken burritos (Suz: I'm scared!) and raspberry pecan pinwheels.  Alden really likes black beans and convinced April to buy a can at the grocery store, which set the plan in motion for this week's main dish.  Suzanne doesn't like any kind of beans (except green), but she is putting on her brave face tonight and trying them again.

Chicken and Black Bean-Stuffed Burritos

Cooking Light December 2010

1/4 cup water

2 tbsp fresh lime juice

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp ground red pepper

2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken breast (which we just used chicken that Suz had in the freezer and sliced it... not shredded)

1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

3/4 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup refrigerated fresh salsa

4 (8in) flour tortillas

1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Cooking spray



See - Brave Face!

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

2. Combine beans and salsa . Spoon 1/4 cup bean mixture and 1/2 cup chicken mix down center of tortillas; sprinkle with 2 tbs of cheese. Roll up.

3. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add 2 burritos. Place a cast-iron or other heavy skillet on top of burritos, and cook for 3 minutes on each side. Remove from pan, and repeat procedure with the remaining 2 burritos.

Yields: 4 servings of 1 burrito.

April: I really enjoyed the simplicity of this recipe. We did serve it with sour cream. It was easy, tasty and easy clean up too. A quick one for sure on busy nights. It had a lot of flavor, texture, and best of all both of my kids ate it! This will be used in my house again.

Suz: Guess what?  I liked the burrito!  Maybe black beans are the way to go... There was so much flavor that I didn't notice (too much) the texture of the beans, and I really enjoyed the burrito.  I think some yellow rice and/or guacamole would have put it over the top, but it was pretty tasty with just a little sour cream! Thanks April for forcing me to try them!! :)

Raspberry Pecan Pinwheels

Woman’s Day April 2011

2 T granulated sugar

½ t ground cinnamon

2 refrigerated rolled pie crusts

½ cup raspberry jam

½ pecans, finely chopped

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Sprinkle a clean work surface with 1 T of the sugar and ¼ t of the cinnamon. Unroll one pie crust, place it on the cinnamon-sugar mixture and press gently to help the mixture adhere to the crust.

Spread half the jam evenly over the crust and sprinkle half of the pecans over the top. Starting at one end, tightly roll the dough into a log. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.

Trim the ends of each log, then cut into 1-inch thick slices and stand them on edge (sugared dough side up and down) on the prepared baking sheet, spacing them 2 inches apart. Bake until golden brown, 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a baking rack and cool completely.

Makes 20 cookies.

Suz: We only got about 15 cookies out of this recipe, but I cut the first batch way too big, so 20 would definitely be feasible if you're careful. This basic recipe can be changed to suit your tastes with any kind of jam and nuts.  We also tried cream cheese (with some raspberry jam) and mini morsels - those were Alden's favorite.  Next time, we'll try blackberry jam with walnuts and cream cheese w/ orange zest and almonds... They were so easy and look beautiful when you take them out of the oven! I know my Mom will LOVE them!

April: These were sweet and tasty. Maggie enjoyed the fun of making them with Suzanne but was so tired by the end of dinner she never did get to try one. Alden thought they were going to be nasty, but in the end begged for more of them.