Slow Cooker Black Bean and Corn Enchiladas

I'm sort of easing back into this blogging thing slowly.  Very slowly.  But I MUST tell you about this amazing recipe that we had the other night.  I met Erin Chase from $5 Dinners earlier this year, and I was inspired to spend some time at her website.  I've been using it for our meal planning for several weeks now, and there have been some huge hits!

So far, my absolute favorite recipe has been Slow Cooker Black Bean and Corn Enchiladas (Vegetarian).  There was a run on corn tortillas in this one grocery store town, so I made it with corn chips instead and did layers instead of actual enchiladas.  AND, I failed to read the recipe and just threw the whole thing into the crockpot like a crazy woman.  AND, due to our schedule that day, I put it in the fridge and asked the food critics to put it into the slow cooker when they got home, testing my theory that this might be a tactic that we could use in the future.

And the people loved it.  Dinner was properly cooked at the correct time.  Not one of the food critics complained, and it wasn't until about 3/4 of the way through dinner that my husband said, "Is this vegetarian?"  (Um, do you see the vegetarian food critic scarfing it down?)  There weren't even any leftovers for lunch, and that never happens around here.

This dish is going into our regular rotation.  It took about 5 minutes to put into the crock pot, and it probably cooked on medium for about four hours between the time the girls got home from school and the time we ate dinner.

Cheap, easy and fabulous.  What's not to love?

Hello, World

Well, lookee here.  A Year of Beans and Rice carries on, long after I've abandoned it.  I hope that some of you are finding some good recipes here.

Things in the food critic household are still crazy, and we aren't eating nearly enough beans and rice.  (That's what my food budget keeps telling me.)  Though my husband does have a lovely pot of chili bubbling away for dinner this evening.  I should make some rice to go with that.

I am considering whether I have the time and the energy for this project, round 2.  We shall see...

While I mull, please continue to enjoy the site.  Who knows, maybe the Blogger gods will put the images back again :)

Thanks,

Kate

An Update to Say, Well, Nothing

In case anyone has stumbled across my currently defunct blog, thanks for stopping by.  As you can see, my great intentions for 2011 failed to materialize.  I have volunteered myself for too many projects and something had to give.  This was it.

I want to keep this blog active so that I can come back to it when my life resumes a normal form.  Maybe in 2013?

I hope that you still get to try some of the recipes here.  I'm making the Very Vanilla Scones right now, and they are so yummy.

I hope to see you all around the blogosphere.

Kate

One Month In, and Not A Recipe In Sight

Well, it has been one month since the official start of this blog.  I've already learned a ton.  I'm not ready to quit, not by any means, but I am willing to change the rules a bit.

The primary thing is that this every day thing is just not going to work for our family.  We live in Europe, for only a few years, and darn it, we are going to travel.  Also, I have four busy girls.  There are days where we barely have time to eat, much less be experimenting with new recipes.  Last month, I accomplished 24 recipes out of 31 days.  (I actually had a few more recipes that I didn't have time to photograph and publish.)  Several of those recipes, like Nachos, Tacos, and "leftovers," were really stretching the definition of recipe a little far.
What is a reasonable amount to publish?  One friend has suggested I do a weekly "best recipe" and that doesn't quite seem like enough.  I'm going to have to think about this one a little longer.

Please let me know what you like, what you don't like, and where you would like to see this little project go.

Thanks for all your support.

Kate

Macaroni and Cheese

It was high time I tried to sneak some beans into baked macaroni and cheese, and I had these odd little bits of cheese that needed to be used.  I'm noticing a theme in my recipe choices:  using up leftovers.

Super Fast Black Bean and Corn Soup

It is seriously soup weather here, cold and rainy.  (Because my husband is gone.  It is never cold and rainy when he is home.)  Today, I threw together my favorite mindless soup for lunch.The container is vegetable broth from the freezer.  I also forgot to put the tomatoes and spices in this picture.  Just imagine that there is a can of petite diced tomatoes and a variety of spices on the sides of these items. 

Cookie Friday: Very Vanilla Scones

Inspired by a scrumptious looking recipe for Petite Vanilla Bean Scones at The Pioneer Woman, and a stash of vanilla beans hiding in my study, I decided to try to make some very beany, very vanilla scones.  Boy, am I glad that I did!  I took last week's cookie recipe as my basis, and off I went...