But really, we *LOVE* tex-mex. We eat enchiladas, nachos, tacos, etc all the time at home and I’m always looking for side dishes to serve with mexican food. It tooks months but I finally figured out a good recipe for pinto beans! We love these. Hubby requests them all the time now. These are great served as a side dish or even as a dip with tortilla chips (my personal favorite way to eat them). You can even add 1/4 – 1/2 cup of cheese to make the cheesy gooey which is even better with chips! Or a little sour cream as previously mentioned

p.s. – I hate photographing beans! its so hard! its kinda like pot roast… i’ve been trying to photography my pot roast for two years now. it never looks all that appetizing! but they’re tasty so give them a try! Enjoys!

Non-fat “Refried” Pinto Beans

2 (15 0z) cans pinto beans, drained & rinsed
2 (4 oz) cans Hatch green chiles, diced
1 cup non-fat vegetable or chicken broth
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp white pepper
salt & pepper, to taste

In a skillet over medium heat, add drained beans, green chiles, broth, cumin & white pepper . Heat for 10 minutes until broth has mostly cooked off (you still want a little for good mashed consistency!). Using a masher, mash beans until desired consistency is achieved. Season with salt & pepper as desired. Simmer for 5-10 more minutes. Serve hot.

Spaghetti with meat sauce is probably one of my favorite dishes. Unfortunately, I have a hubby who doesn’t like tomatoes so spaghetti with tomato sauce is rarely on the menu. I typically make spaghetti to package for lunches to take to work for myself. I wanted to cut back on the calories in meat sauce and was reminded of one of my favorite dishes at Carino’s Italian Restaurant. So off to the kitchen I went to recreate one of my favorite dishes on their menu.

I love this dish! Its really quick to make (especially if you follow the shortcut method) and delicious. You can also easily add chicken or italian sausage as desired if you want to get a little more out of the dish. I love it just with veggies though! Enjoy!

Spicy Spaghetti Skilletini

8 oz dry spaghetti, uncooked
1 Tbsp olive oil
4 clove garlic, minced
2 cups bell peppers, chopped*
2 cups onions, chopped*
3 – 4 cups marinara sauce as desired
1 tsp crushed red pepper

Add dry spaghetti to a pot of boiling salted water. Once the spaghetti has been cooked according to package directions, drain and set aside (rinse under cool water to prevent pasta from sticking together). Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat olive oil. Add bell peppers & onions. Once bell peppers are softened and onions translucent, add minced garlic and saute until fragrant. Add marinara sauce, crushed red pepper and cooked pasta. Simmer over low-medium heat for 10 minutes. Serve hot.

* Shortcut method: Buy frozen pepper & onion stir fry mix.

Serves: 4

One of our all time favorite meals is fried rice. Its frequently on our menu because its easy to make, inexpensive and a great one pot dinner using leftovers. When we first got married, I always made chicken or pork fried rice without any veggies cause hubby didn’t like veggies (seriousl,y scallions were the only “veggie” in the mix). Well over the years I’ve managed to incorporate more and more veggies and even start leaving out the meat Tricky tricky!

This is the perfect week night meal, it utilizes leftovers and can be made in a breeze. I most commonly use diced carrots, red bell peppers & edamame (frozen). But you can use whatever veggies you’ve got on hand! You can even use whatever type of rice you’ve got handy. In the last six months or so, I’ve started using more and more brown rice and it comes out great using leftover brown rice as well. Fried rice is so versatile which is why its perfect for weeknight dinners!

Vegetable Fried Rice

4 cups cold prepared rice (white or brown), loosened/crumbled
4 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium white onion, diced
2 c veggies of choice, chopped/diced
1 tsp Sriracha sauce
3-4 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
3/4 tsp garlic powder
2-3 large eggs, beaten
3 scallions, white and light green parts, trimmed and chopped

In a hot non-stick wok*, heat 1 Tbsp oil. Over medium-high heat, add onions and veggies and saute until softened. Add Siracha sauce to season veggies. Add crumbled rice and drizzle with remaining oil and soy sauce. Add garlic powder. Stir rice until even in color and all rice has soy sauce on it. Stir occasionally, while allowing rice to warm up. Make a well in the middle of your wok and pour in beaten eggs, scrambling the eggs while incorporating more and more rice. Add chopped green onions. Continue to heat rice until egg is fully cooked. Season with salt & pepper as desired.

* if using a stainless steel wok or pan, you may need additional oil

its time to announce a winner for our blogoversary giveaway. I’m giving away a copy of the Williams-Sonoma Holiday Entertaining cookbook. Its perfect for thanksgiving and Christmas party planning. It has ideas for centerpieces, menus, and its filled with beautiful photos! I used the Random Number generator to pick one of my lucky readers:

So… our lucky winner is Clara of iheartcuppycakes! Clara you should have an email from me, so get me your information and I’ll get your cookbook in the mail! Thanks to all my readers for participating and making my first giveaway a success!

That was a lot of fun but its time to talk food! I am getting SO excited about Thanksgiving! This is our first time to host and I just can’t wait. I’ve been working on a menu and I’ll be trying a few recipes out next week. I absolutely can’t wait! The weather here in Texas hasn’t exactly been that cool lately. Its definitely not summer but its not as cool as you’d hope for November! I hope we get another cold front soon! Despite that, I’ve been fixing lots of great fall favorites like soup!

I’ve been trying to figure out a veggie soup for awhile that hubby and I would both like that was hearty enough to be a meal. Its hard to do since hubby is very muchly a meat and potatoes man and he isn’t really a fan of green veggies so I have some limitations. And I’m not gonna lie, he didn’t love the spinach in this recipe so when I fix it again for just the two of us, I’ll scale it back for him but I quite loved the spinach in this soup! Although I do think zucchini would be a great substitute. Anyway, I plan on making this many more times this winter. Hope you enjoy!

Vegetable Minestrone

2 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
2-3 ribs of celery, chopped
3 medium sized carrots, sliced
1 cup corn
4 c vegetable broth
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 cup baby spinach, chopped
1 medium russet potatoes, diced
1 tsp dried oregano
2 Tbsp dried basil
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
salt and pepper to taste

In a large stock pot, over medium-low heat, heat olive oil and add onions and garlic. Saute until onions are translucent. Add celery and carrots (add corn at this step if using frozen), saute for 2-3 minutes to soften veggies. Add broth, diced tomatoes with juice, drained kidney beans, corn, spinach, potatoes, oregano, basil and crushed red pepper. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 30-40 minutes. Season with kosher salt and pepper as desired.

I’ve been slacking. Work has been nuts – I’ve been working like 11 hour days on top of continuing to check my email once I get home; the result of having half our team half way across the globe. So I guess I’m not really slacking per se, but I’ve been too busy to dedicate time to my beloved food blog! So this recipe I made quite awhile ago but have just now gotten around to writing it up.

My husband was shocked the first time I made these noodles without meat (no meat??! how can it be?!). I normally prepare them with some chicken or pork and no veggies cause hubby doesn’t really eat them. But lately I’ve been making a strong effort to wean hubby off of thinking he has to have meat at every meal, and attempting to force him to eat veggies or at least pick around them! I’ve grown quite fond of this veggie variety. I has a slightly different flavor than my regular chicken lo mein, and its a great meal!

The key element of these noodles are fresh noodles. I love being able to buy fresh noodles from the oriental market. For starters, the cook very quickly which is great for a weeknight meal. Prepping this meal only takes about 20 minutes. But secondly, fresh noodles are absolutely delicious. Its amazing how different they taste than the dried noodle varieties. I usually have a box of dried noodles on hand but whenever I can, I use the fresh.

I didn’t specify a quantity of veggies below because it really varies just depending upon what you’d like to use. In this specific mix, I used julienned carrots (~ 1 1/2 cups), and some diced Chinese cabbage (~ 5 cups loose). I also frequently use shitake mushrooms as well (which hubby will eat), but we were out in the fridge. If I had a husband who ate more veggies, I’d probably use more veggies but since he picks around them anyway this is a good quantity for us! Its really easy to add more to your liking, especially something like cabbage which cooks quickly. You can just toss more into the wok until the ratio fits your liking.

Veggie Lo Mein

1 pound fresh noodles
Veggies of choice
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp olive oil, plus some for drizzling
1 1/4 – 1/2 tsp Sriracha sauce
5 tsp low sodium soy sauce

Prepare noodles as directed on package. After straining noodles, run noodles under cold water to cool them and prevent them from sticking.

In a medium sized wok over medium heat, add 1/2 tsp olive oil, minced garlic and vegetables (adding the veggies first that require more time, such as carrots). Season with a pinch of salt & 1/4 – 1/2 tsp Sriracha sauce. Saute vegetables for a few minutes until cooked. Remove vegetables from heat and set aside.

Return empty wok to stove and add sesame oil to wok along with 1/2 tsp olive oil. Allow sesame oil to become fragrant. Add all the prepared noodles and drizzle with more olive oil. Turn heat to medium-high. Toss noodles repeatedly to allow them to coat with the oils. Add soy sauce and 1 tsp Sriracha sauce. Continue tossing for approximately 10 minutes and noodles are thoroughly reheated and flavors have had a chance to mingle. Stir in prepared vegetables. Serve warm.

I do a decent job of eating my veggies, but hubby doesn’t. In an attempt to get him eating a little better (and myself really), I’m working on incorporating vegetarian dinners into our meal rotation. We certainly don’t need meat every meal! Tonight it was black bean enchiladas. Hubby did comment that he thought they’d be better with chicken, haha! But really they were quite good and he commented on the fact several times. Looks like it might take a little bit of effort to get hubby over the mental hurdle of not eating meat all the time but we’ll get there, especially if I can pull off meals as tasty as this one!

Black Bean Enchiladas

2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 tsp oil
1 c chopped onion
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 c corn kernels
½ c green bell pepper, diced
1 can (4.5 oz) chopped green chiles, drained
2 tsp ground cumin
1 c shredded Monterey Jack cheese
8-10 tortillas
1 1/2 c green chile enchilada sauce
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350° and lightly grease a 9×13″ baking dish. In a medium sized skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Stir in onion and garlic and sauté until aromatic and onions are softened. Add green peppers (and corn if using frozen), sautéing until softened. Stir in beans, cumin, green chiles & corn (if using fresh). Cook for ~5 minutes until warm; partially mash beans. Remove the pan from the heat, mix in 1/2 cup cheese. Season with salt & pepper as desired.

Spoon some of the black bean mixture down the center of a tortilla. Roll up and place seam side down in baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Pour green chile sauce over the tops of the enchiladas. Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil, sprinkle with remaining shredded cheese and bake for 10 more minutes until cheese is melted.