What's Cookin' Wednesday

Black Bean Tacos

Don't mind the huge camera shadow.

Well, good afternoon! Can I tell you all that my week, thus far, has been sooo busy? I started my new job at the state, and it's just.... The building is a maze straight out of J.K. Rowling's brain. It might just be that everything looks the exact same, but still. With a new job came new hours! I now start at 7:45am! Woo! So that means I can either get my ass up at 5am to go work out, or I can work out after work and not get home until like, 7pm. Yeah, no thanks. Boyfriend can't fend for himself, and there's no way I'd want to cook. Remember when I said I'd rather get up early to workout? I got my wish.

Anyway, I think in every food post, I talk about how I love Mexican food. Whatever, it's delicious. A lot of people don't like the meat crumble substitute. That's fine, I get it. The texture is a bit different than ground beef. Boyfriend and I personally don't mind it, but sometimes I wanna switch it up! As mentioned several times, boyfriend loves black beans. I love refried beans. So, I made a healthy combination of the two! I used this in place of my taco meat, and it was soooo good! It makes a pretty good amount, which I'm ok with. I like using the leftovers in my egg wraps in the morning. Protein on protein.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can rotel (diced tomatoes and green chilis)

2 cans black beans

2 1/2 tsp. cumin

1 1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Sprinkle of cayenne (optional)

Salt & pepper to taste

How to:

In a large skillet, heat up the olive oil and toss the onion and garlic in. Sauté until fragrant and slightly brown. Pour in the rotel and simmer for about 5-6 minutes. Mix in the black beans and allow them to heat up for about 3 minutes. Using a potato masher, begin to smash the mixture up. As the mixture heats through, it will become easier to mash. Mash until the bean mixture is at a consistency you like. I like to leave it a little chunky. Add in the seasonings and stir to combine. Let that simmer to reduce the amount of liquids.

Done! Now pile the bean mixture on some tortillas (I used soft, whole wheat), add some corn, lettuce, cheese, and greek yogurt! Or, ya know, whatever you like on your tacos. (:

Om nom nom nom.

How do you switch up your Mexican dishes!? I'd love to know in the comments below!