Recipe Review from 10/12/2015

A busy, busy week for me that had me leading seven yoga classes (four is my usual) and dashing to a handful of appointments at odd times.  By the time Friday rolled around and I had wrapped up my final yoga class at 630p, I was a bit brain fried which accounts for the pasty and pizza at the end of the week. I just wanted hot food on the table with minimal fuss. 

Which led into a mostly uneventful weekend - we had the Parents out to officially celebrate a completed remodel by having dinner in our new space (worked wonderfully!).  We went for a walk down to Grand Lake, had a small bonefire, and dinner was a slow-cooked bone-in pork roast with roasted butternut squash, potatoes and pearl onions and warm cornbread.  Dessert was a slow cooked Apple Crisp.  Perfect for a chilly fall dinner!

The Meal Plan:
Sun - leftovers both meals
Mon (yoga)  leftovers
Tues (yoga/appt) leftovers
Wed (appt)  pasty with mushroom gravy
Thurs (yoga)  take n bake pizza!
Fri (yoga) pasty with mushroom gravy
Sat - (L) leftover burritos  (S) slow-cooked bone-in pork roast with roasted butternut squash, potatoes and pearl onions and warm cornbread.

Lunches - Black Bean Burritos, yogurt, luna bars, carrots and apples. 


Slow Cooker Black Bean Burritos (Vegan in the Freezer via Pinterest)  vegetarian, gluten free
The Husband requested bean burritos for lunches and I wanted a change from our usual barley, black bean and corn mixture.  This one came up on Pinterest and I had most of the ingredients on hand.

I will note, right off the bat, that you need to cook this on high otherwise your brown rice will take forever to cook through. Alternative - use minute rice.  Works like a charm every time.

These were tasty and filling.  I just topped with cheddar cheese for ease of re-heating, but you could do whatever tastes best to you.  Made enough for lunches for 6 days, keeping in mind that I had larger and more beans than called for.

photo from Vegan in the Freezer blog

2 cans (14.5 oz. each) of Diced Tomatoes or about 5 fresh tomatoes to measure about 28 ounces

2 Tablespoons Taco Seasoning  (I used Penzey's)

2 cans (14.5 to 15 ounces each) Black Beans, drained and rinsed**

(**I used dried red lima beans from the Tohono Chul Indians in Arizona, pre-soaked accordingly)

1 cup uncooked Brown Rice

1/2 cup canned whole kernel corn (drained and rinsed, or 1 ear of fresh corn or frozen corn

2 cups vegetable broth

10 whole wheat tortillas

1/4 cup of your Favorite Salsa (I omitted and just used to top the finished burrito)

In your slow cooker add the tomatoes, salsa, beans, rice, corn, taco seasoning and broth.

Stir and cover.

Cook on low 6-8 hours or on high 3-4 hours. 

The rice will [should be] be tender and most of the liquid will be absorbed.   If rice isn't cooking, crank up the heat on the slow cooker OR, substitute minute rice for regular before starting recipe.

Lay out your tortillas and place about 1/3 to 1/2 (very large burrito) cup on each tortilla.

Spread down through the center, then roll up the tortilla along the long edge.

Stack up and serve with more salsa, avocado or guacamole and black olives.