Eat Like a Rabbit

About a week ago, Paul cooked us up a big batch of pinto beans. We froze some, had haystacks/taco salads one night, and quesadillas another night. Then we must have had burritos for lunch all week. Don't get me wrong. We like burritos. And the beans were realy good; so, we didn't mind the lack of variety. However, the whole concept inspired me to be a little more creative with an overabundance of beans. In our brainstorming, I came up with the idea to serve chili baked potatoes when my folks came over during the week. The idea went over well, and it spawned the creation of the recipe below. I tried to keep it simple, and would say although it's very good the way it is, there's still a number of ways to change it up. If you are the simpler, don't-confuse-me, indecisive type, stop reading here. (Can you tell I've been reading parenting books?)

1. Add Morningstar Farms Grillers Starters for a chunky, meatier flavor.

2. Don't drain the pinto beans if you're a fan of a juicier chili--or stew!

3. Use Muir Glen Adobo Seasoned canned tomatoes for a hotter base.

4. Mix your beans or choose black over pinto.

5. Make a chili pie with leftovers by scooping chili over Fritos, topping with cheese, and baking.

Recipe for Chili Baked Potatoes

Serves about 6

• 1 can Muir Glen Fire Raosted Tomatoes, chopped slightly in a food processor if your guests don't like chunky tomatoes
• 1 fresh jalapeno pepper, diced
• 3 medium garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 large onion, diced
• 3 cups cooked pinto beans
• 3/4 t ground cumin
• 1/2 t chili powder
• 1 T olive oil
• 6 medium baking potatoes
• Cheese as desired
• Cilantro for garnish

Saute onions in olive oil on medium heat until translucent. May undercook for a stronger flavor. Add garlic and pepper. Stir and cook until just before garlic browns. Add tomatoes, stir, and simmer (until my frozen beans had defrosted enough in the microwave to remove them from their bowl). Sprinkle in cumin and chili powder. Stir in beans, cover, and turn fire to low. Continue to stir occasionally and monitor for 20 minutes or longer (depending on when the potatoes are done).

Spoon chili over potatoes, allow cheese on top as desired. Garnish with cilantro. Salt and hot sauce should be available at the table.

Our best results for baking potatoes in the oven is wrapping them in aluminum foil to keep them from drying out and setting them on the rack in a 450' oven for about an hour. You can also microwave them (max of about 3 at a time), but Paul claims that's technically steaming, not baking.

Being a working girl, I generally plan my menu for the week on Sundays, early Sunday. However, I've learned that a number of blog readers subscribe to the MenuPlanMonday.org idea. Therefore, to make my schedule fit more appropriately with readers, I have adjusted my posting schedule even though I must have some ideas in my head on Sunday.

Last week, I posted a menu for what I planned to fix for dinners for the week. It went much better than the first menu I planned went. Strange, this is the end of March and I've only fulfilled this New Year's Resolution twice? How sad.

Sunday, I made Mexican Couscous for us as well as for my dad who came over to entertain himself as my mother is out of town. Only, I didn't serve it with cornbread because I only had two slices leftover and didn't want to make a whole other batch. We had nachos instead (horrible trade off, I know), and Paul took the cornbread for lunch.

Although we didn't participate in what looks like a fun job of delivering pizzas in Paris, I am now in a position to need to start planning dinner menus again before we end up ordering out not because we don't have the food, but because I haven't been well organized. This week I only have ideas for meals, but don't have a set schedule on which days I plan on serving them. Perhaps this may be a bad idea, but I don't always know what my next week's schedule is going to look like.