Bean "Meat" Balls

I love meatballs. Spaghetti and sauce doesn't have enough protein for me but meatballs can be a lot of work. I try not to buy frozen, pre-made stuff so I don't make them very often.

I found these beanballs! They are totally worth making but they might be even more work than meat ones. I will definitely make them again though!

I made a few changes (nothing major) so I will list what I did here.

Ingredients:
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2-3/4 cup oats
onion powder
Italian seasoning
1 egg
garlic powder

Blend the two cans of beans together, adding just a little water to make a paste. (I think it took just a couple tablespoons). Transfer beans to a bowl and add the other ingredients, saving the oats for last. Use as many oats as you need to make the balls form. Form balls and bake on a greased baking sheet at 450 for 20 minutes. (I followed the recipe for the temp but I think it was too high. Next time, I'll bake at 400 and maybe add a few more minutes on the end. They were a little too dry at 450).

I served them with the tomato sauce (previous post) and pasta but I used the leftover ones to make burritos (tortilla, couple beanballs, cheese, and salsa). They weren't quite enough flavored for me and the dryness made them need a sauce but I think by reducing the oven temp and either serving with pasta sauce or salsa, they're great!

My kids ate these too. My daughter loves meatballs probably more than I do and she never even suspected they weren't meat. With her, I follow a "don't ask, don't tell" policy or she would never try it. 

Enchilada Pie

The other day I had decided we were going to have enchiladas for dinner. I spent longer than I'd like to admit looking for just the perfect recipe. Dinner time rolls around and I start cooking up the filling. I open the fridge to discover I only have 4 tortilla shells. This is not going to cut it. I know you can make your own shells but I was not in the mood to do that. I just wanted to get dinner on the table. So I did what I do best: I improvised.

Ingredients
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can rotel (I didn't drain this but I should've)
dash of cumin, garlic powder, and onion powder
half a can of corn
onion
bell pepper
enchilada sauce
tortilla shells
cheese

First, cook up your onion and bell pepper in a large skillet. Add in black beans and rotel. Cook until heated through and add seasonings and corn.

In a greased 8x8 pan, spoon out a little enchilada sauce (just enough to cover the bottom). Add a tortilla shell (flat). Add a third of the bean mixture and top with a drizzle of enchilada sauce and a sprinkling of cheese. Add the next tortilla shell and repeat the process. End with a tortilla shell with lots of enchilada sauce and cheese. (You will probably have extra enchilada sauce left). Bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes.

This turned out really good. It was a tad bit spicy for my family (the combination of the rotel and the enchilada sauce proved to be too much for my kids) but we all agreed that the top layer of tortilla shell with all the extra cheese was the best. I would definitely make it again and the kids will just have to put up with it.

Enchilada Stuffed Pasta Shells

I apologize for all the recipes lately but with baby taking up a lot of my time, cooking has been my only other "hobby".

As usual, I had some things to use up so that is where this recipe came from. I needed to use up some black beans (I only used half of my container in the salmon tacos) and about 1/2 cup of sour cream.

I found a recipe for enchilada stuffed shells but I had to modify it to what we had on hand so it's really become mine now. It's also DELICIOUS! Both David and I rate this 8.5-9/10 stars! This is what I used and had on hand but you're welcome to modify it (as always).

• 1 cup of beans
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 1/2 can corn (I would've used frozen but I wasn't sure about thawing it before baking with it or not)
• 3 ish tablespoons of sour cream
• 1/2 box (6 oz) of jumbo pasta shells
• 1 cup cheese
• 1/2 can enchilada sauce

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Make the shells according to the box. Rinse thoroughly with cold water, so you can handle them.  Mix the beans, salsa, corn, sour cream, and half of the cheese in a bowl. Stuff shells with bean mixture. Pour a few tablespoons of enchilada sauce in a 9x13 pan and spread it with the back of a spoon. Add the stuffed shells (in rows). Add remaining sauce and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Salmon Tacos

Over the weekend, I made salmon tacos. It sounds a little strange but was actually pretty good.

1 can salmon (we eat a lot of canned fish around here because it still has the nutrition but it's much cheaper than buying the fresh fish)

1 can black beans (we actually finally got around to cooking our bag of beans the other day so I just pulled a 2 cup container out of the freezer)

1 cup salsa (I didn't measure. I just used enough so it didn't look dry)

1/2 cup cheese (I also didn't measure this. You may want more or less due to your liking. We used colby jack.)

Combine everything in a bowl and serve in shells or with tortillas. We ate it cold/ room temperature the first night but the leftovers got warmed up and that made it a little better. I also added sour cream to mine since they suggest adding regular taco toppings.

It was pretty good and really easy and extremely quick. I think I'd make it again but it wasn't fantastic. Maybe only 7/10 stars.

Pot Pie

Last night I made pot pie. It had lots of vegetables in it (some that the recipe didn't even call for. I was glad it still fit in a pie tin.) It wasn't completely from scratch because I did use a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup (reduced sodium. That's got to earn me some points) and better than bouillon vegetable broth mix. Next time, I would actually leave out the broth mix but I'm not sure a good substitute for the mushroom soup. I did make the crust from scratch though. That was kind of hard without a rolling pin but I made it work. The thing was SO delicious but I'm glad it was because it took me about 3 hours to make (including prep. A normal person could probably do it in about 2 or 2 and a half.) Good thing David was home late yesterday because normally we eat around 5 and this wasn't done until after 7 (yeah, we eat kind of early. I blame our parents. They always ate early so we're just used to it.) I've never made anything like this before and actually, neither of us have ever had a homemade pot pie before so it was an entirely new experience. I really liked it, especially kneading the dough for the crust so maybe, despite my breadmaker, I'll have to try my hand at making breads from scratch. Or I could just make pies now that I know how to do the crust! I think this has inspired me to try to cook more elaborate things in the future (although David has already requested that I start making this recipe 3 times a week----it was THAT good). I'll be sure to keep you all posted if I make something else really cool. As per my April resolutions, I've been trying to cook things from scratch more but I don't always have the patience for it. I did buy a bag of dried beans instead of a can of beans though to help with this so...we'll just have to see how it goes.

Black Bean Dip

Today I was really craving something to dip tortilla chips into but I didn't want anything too heavy because I'm having a late lunch at my sister's house. I don't have much in my house in terms of condiments so anything with sour cream or avocado or anything like that was out. However, I browsed the internet looking for a black bean dip recipe and I sort of combined them all into what I had and my personally tastes.

1 can of black beans, rinsed (to help eliminate more sodium)
1/2 cup chunky salsa (the hotness is up to you. I used mild)
2 tablespoons of lime juice (I don't actually measure so just a couple squirts)
1 tablespoon of cumin (again, just guess)

Blend it all up in a blender or food processor. I ate some at room temp but I don't think I'd heat it up (now that the leftovers are in the fridge). It's really good! I'm not sure about the consistency. It sticks to the chip just fine but I expected it to be thicker. Maybe I added too much of my salsa "juice" when I added the salsa or something. I don't think I'd try to change it for next time though. It tastes so good!!

Black Beans

Black beans are delicious by themselves but this weekend, I was looking for a good side dish for cheese quesadillas. I had a general idea of how to season them and cook them so they will taste good and I had a few suggestions from different websites. I looked in my pantry and decided to add a can of tomatoes with garlic and onions. I was going to use broth or water for the beans to boil in but the juice from the tomatoes worked really well. Then I added a couple dashes of cumin. I cooked the whole thing over medium-high heat, stirring frequently and mashing a little bit with the back of my spoon to let out some of the starches for the beans to absorb the liquid. Once they  got to a consistency I liked (about 20-25 minutes), I took them off the heat and added a little bit of lime juice. These were AMAZING! I wasn't sure I would even like the lime juice but I had brought it a couple weeks ago because a lot of recipes I have been wanting to try include it so I figured since it's inexpensive, I'd give it a try. It makes a world of difference with these beans. If you make these, definitely don't leave it out! Let me know what you think of them in the comments if you do decide to make them.