Brown Rice & Black Bean Casserole

Mike sent me the link to this recipe a few days ago. It looked pretty good so we decided to try it. The original recipe called for way too much time on the rice portion (simmer 1/3 cup of rice and 1 cup of broth for 45 minutes?! Not unless you want to burn the bottom of your pan...not to mention the rice), so I edited it a little bit. The finished product turned out really well!

Brown Rice & Black Bean Casserole

(Adapted from On My Menu's recipe )

1/3 cup brown rice

1 cup vegetable broth

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

1 medium zucchini, chopped or thinly sliced

2 chicken breasts, cooked and diced (canned chicken would work, as well)

3/4 cup sliced mushrooms

1 tsp cumin

Salt, to taste

Cayenne Pepper, to taste

1 (15 oz.) can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 (4 oz.) can green chilies

1/3 cup carrots, chopped small

2 cups shredded swiss cheese (we used TJ's light Mexican cheese blend)

Mix the rice and chicken broth in pot on stovetop, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low,

cover and simmer for 15-ish minutes, or until rice is tender. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a medium-sized casserole dish (we used 9x9) with cooking spray.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and cook the onion until tender. Mix in the zucchini, chicken, and mushrooms. Season with cumin, salt and cayenne pepper. Cook and stir until zucchini is lightly browned and chicken is heated through. In a large bowl, mix the rice, onion, zucchini, chicken, mushrooms, beans, chilies, carrots, and half of the cheese. Transfer to the baking dish and sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Cover casserole dish loosely with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 more minutes, or until bubbly and lightly browned.

Enchilada Manicotti

When Mike sent me this recipe, I was hesitant at first. It sounded so strange! Then I thought about it for a little while, and it started to make sense. Pasta instead of tortilla. Chunky enchilada sauce instead of a red sauce. Ricotta AND shredded Mexican cheeses. RICOTTA. I was sold.

This is a fun, simple dish to make and was a satisfying meal that produced at least two days' worth of leftovers - definitely a win in my book!

Enchilada Manicotti
(via The Food in My Beard)

For filling (slightly different from original recipe):

4 oz Jack Cheese (we used TJ's Lite Mexican Cheese blend)
1 Cup Ricotta
1 11 oz Can Refried Beans (fat free refried beans from TJ's are the jam!)
4 Tablespoons Parsley

For sauce:

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Small Onion
1 28 oz Can Muir Glen fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 4.5 oz Can Muir Glen diced green chiles (we used one can of TJ's fire roasted tomatoes with green chiles for convenience)
1 Tablespoon Cumin
1 Diced Bell Pepper
3 Chopped Chipotles from a Can with Adobo
1 Teaspoon Dried Oregano
5 Clove Diced Garlic

1 Box Manicotti Shells
4 oz Jack Cheese

Mix filling ingredients in a large bowl.

In a medium saucepan, saute onions in a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and stir. Saute for about 1 minute. Add cumin and stir to combine. Add other sauce ingredients and bring to a simmer for 15 minutes.

Boil Manicotti shells according to package and strain.

Pour some of the sauce in the bottom of a casserole pan.

Stuff filling into shells.

Coat filled shells in sauce. Top shells with more sauce and cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Allow to cool 10 minutes and serve.

This was delicious and a fun activity - who doesn't love stuffing shells with a gooey cheese mixture?!

Next time we might add a sausage to the filling (maybe TJ's jalapeno chicken sausage?) for additional flavor and protein. All in all, a successful dinner!

Mexican Baked Eggs

Tonight's recipe comes from one of my favorite blogs: Closet Cooking. This is a fairly standard tex-mex dish in that it resembles nothing authentically Mexican, yet incorporates all the ingredients that are commonly stereotyped as being south of the border. No matter the authenticity, this turned out pretty well and had some fantastic flavors to it. We served it over some roast potatoes I had baked in olive oil, salt, pepper, tons of minced garlic, and smoked paprika. For future meals we would add some more protein with some chicken sausage pieces to help make the dish even more filling.

Mexican Baked Eggs
(originally found on the Closet Cooking blog)

Serves 4

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1-2 tsp cumin
1-2 tsp chipotle chili powder
2 jalapeno peppers, seeds removed and diced
1 (28 oz) can of diced tomatoes
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1-2 tsp oregano
1 handful of cilantro, chopped
4 eggs
Grated cheese (we used a reduced fat Mexican blend)

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Saute the onions in the oil over medium heat until soft. Add in the garlic, cumin, chipotle powder and jalapeno. Saute for a minute and stir in the tomatoes with their liquid and the black beans. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the cilantro and oregano.

Closet Cooking's blog entry actually forgot to include the oregano in the instructions, so I figured this would be the appropriate time/place to add them in. None of the blog comments mention the missing oregano, so I'm not sure what other people did. Oops!

Transfer half of the sauce to a baking dish (I used an 8x8 inch dish) and crack 4 eggs directly on top. Spoon the rest of the sauce around the eggs and bake 8-10 minutes, or until the eggs begin to set. Generously sprinkle cheese on top and broil until the cheese is super melty. The egg whites should be fully cooked at this point.