Chicken, Rice, and Black Bean Salad

I am — ashamedly — a member of the Lean Cuisine lunches club. For some reason, my biggest temptation to overeat is lunchtime, and those darn handy little meals prevent me from doing it!

Every once in awhile, I feel guilty about eating all the nastiness in those meals, and I make myself something at home. It’s always tasty — but unfortunately, the frozen meals continue to provide me with more variety than I can afford to provide myself during the week for lunches!

This salad is delicious and it’s a total meal in one package. I’m labelling it Mexican, but like Liz before me…well..it isn’t really mexican, per se. It’s just darn tasty!

Chicken, Rice, and Black Bean Salad

(Liz’s Cooking Blog)

1 cup brown (or white) rice

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked with olive oil, kosher salt, and Adobo Seasoning, cooled and diced (I used 3 bone-in chicken breasts that I had in the freezer, and just removed the skins)

1 can (15 1/2 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained

2-4 on-the-vine tomatoes, seeded and diced

3-4 scallions, thinly sliced

1 jalapeno chili, seeds and ribs removed, minced

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

– Cook the rice according to package instructions. Cool completely.

– Place cooled rice in a large bowl; add chicken, beans, tomatoes, scallions, jalapeno, vinegar, oil, and cumin.

– Season with salt and pepper; toss to combine

– Serve immediately, or refridgerate, covered, up to 1 day (I kept mine refridgerated for about 3 days..and it was admittedly not holding up so well by that 3rd day!)

Fiesta Rice

This rice dish looked like it was right up my alley — unfortunately, I didn’t particularly care for it.

I found it to be a little too spicy for my tastes (that could probably be remedied with a few ingredient changes, though!)

I may try it again…we’ll see.

I served it as a side to some ground-turkey-taco’s. THOSE were delicious! 🙂

Fiesta Rice

(Misadventures with Tori)

*Warning: This recipe makes A LOT of rice — Tori says 8 cups prepared — so if you don’t want leftovers, or aren’t sure…I highly reccomend making half.

*Warning #2: Tori also says it took her forever to get her rice cooked. As I was short on time, I cooked up some quick-cooking (

2 teaspoons olive oil (I omitted)

1 (10 oz.) package frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed (I omitted because of DH’s aversion to corn as a filler in recipes)

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup chopped green onions

1 1/2 cups uncooked brown rice (I used half white and half brown quick-cooking rice)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 cups fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

dash of salt

1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes with chiles, undrained (I couldn’t find that size, so I used 1.5 10 oz. cans)

1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed (Tori recommends — even if you halve the recipe — keep the entire can of black beans. I agree!)

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Directions

– Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat

– Add corn to the pan, cook 10 minutes, or until corn starts to brown, stirring occassionally

– Remove from pan and set aside

– Melt butter in the pan, add onions and saute for 5 minutes or until tender

– Stir in rice, cumin, and garlic; cook 1 minute

– Add chicken broth, black pepper, salt, and diced tomatoes to pan; bring to a boil

– Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occassionally

– Remove from heat, stir in reserved corn and the black beans

– Cover and let stand 10 minutes

– Stir in cilantro and lime juice

Mom’s Baked Beans (Two Ways)

Baked beans can sometimes be like macaroni and cheese — everyone’s got a different recipe, and everyone likes theirs best!

This is the baked bean recipe I grew up on — my mom, and my grandma, both made these beans and I adore them. I tend to turn my nose up at other varieties — these are the best! (IMO)

We usually served these beans as one of our many sides at 4th of July picnics, Memorial Day get-togethers, and every other excuse we could find to bring family members together to eat during the summer. Since I now live far away from my family, I made these this week to reminisce — it just wasn’t the same without the countryside and family around!

These beans are described as “two ways” because you can cook them two different ways, depending on your preference, time, etc.

Both are explained below.

Mom’s Baked Beans

(Serves approximately 4-6 people — depending on how hungry you are!!)

2 (16-oz) cans of baked beans (We always used Campbells Pork & Beans for this — it’s a nice starter and saves a lot of time. I don’t believe they come in 16 oz. cans anymore — just make sure you’re close to 32 oz.)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp dry mustard (or 1 tsp. regular or brown mustard)

1/2 cup ketchup

4-8 (depending on how much you like) slices of bacon, cut into small pieces (I reccommend frying off the bacon in advance — gives nice flavor when it’s pre-cooked!)

1/2 cup chopped onion

Directions

– Mix all ingredients together, then choose your cooking preference:

Way #1

– Mix all ingredients together in a large pan, heat over medium-low heat for 45 minutes, or until onions are tender

Way #2

– Bake for 1 hour, uncovered, at 350 degrees. Stir the mixture 1/2 hour into baking.