Mexican Rice

Vegetarian times had an entire Mexican meal spread in their March magazine (which I just got) and I went ahead and made it. Everything was good but the Mexican Rice was especially good. I thought I'd share it, plus it looked so pretty when it was done.

Ingredients:
1 tbs. olive oil
1 cup instant brown rice
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup frozen peas
8 green onions, chopped (1/2 cup)
3 cloves garlic, minced (1 tbs.)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
2 tbs. tomato paste
12 ounces or a can of black beans (optional but recommended.)

Instructions:
1. Heat oil in saucepan over medium-high heat. Add rice and saute 3 to 4 minutes or until beginning to brown. Add corn, peas, green onions, garlic, cumin and oregano, saute 1 minute.
2. Spoon tomato paste in 2-cup measuring cup. Add enough boiling water to make 2 cups and stir to combine. Pour tomato paste mixture into rice and season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer 15 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat, add black beans if desired and fluff with fork.

The rest of the meal can be found in these links. I recommend the tacos but warn that if the slaw is made...beware. It's beyond spicy. :-D

Chickpea Tacos
Spicy Orange Slaw - If you don't like spicy foods I recommend skipping the cayenne pepper altogether. It's really good but incredibly spicy.
In-a-pinch Profiteroles - fantastically good. Ice-cream with a coating and chocolate sauce.

Microwaved Instant Enchiladas

Original Recipe Here:

This is so good. This is beyond good. I was unable to contact to the 'net when I made it, so this is how I did it:

Ingredients:
- Refried Beans (they said fat-free. We're not wusses. Okay...so I forgot...)
- Cheese if you want
- Black Olives
- Tortillas
- Spinach
- Frozen Corn

Instructions:
- I took a plastic container out of the cupboard
- I ripped a tortilla into pieces and put it on the bottom.
- I spooned a good amount of salsa on it.
- I topped it with frozen corn.
- I sprinkled cheese on it (bad me, but this was also for X's lunch)
- I ripped up another tortilla and put it on top.
- I spooned on refried beans
- I put on three or four LARGE pieces of spinach
- I sprinkled a little bit more cheese
- Put on another layer salsa
- topped it with the tortillas
- X dumped WAAAAY too much cheese on top (that made it even yummier but STILL), then the olives)
- I covered the container with plastic wrap
- As it was a large container I nuked it (microwaved it) for 4 minutes.
- We ate.
- And it was good.

Black-Jack Quesadillas

These are so, so, so good - and pretty good for you.

Ingredients:
- 16 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained (unless you're like me and prefer to use dried. If you use dried beans you must soak them overnight, then cook for 45 minutes. I normally do large batches of different beans and keep them in the fridge through the week)
- Banana peppers (use to taste, about three per quesadilla)
- 8 oz. package shredded cheese
- 1 tsp. dried oregano
- 1/2 cup salsa

Instructions:
- Dump the beans into a bowl and mash to a pulp.
- Stir in the peppers, salsa, and oregano.
- Cover a tortilla with the mixture, add cheese to the top, top with another tortilla and cook until golden in a large skillet with little to no oil.

These are incredibly filling - I was unable to finish mine.

Chilli con Carne

Chilli con Carne is easy, cheap and filling. The best thing about it is, that, as long as you have some mince and a jar of chilli sauce, you can knock a batch out from almost any leftovers you have knocking about the kitchen.

There are many ways to make chilli; this is just one of them, and the one I've personally found to be the most delicious. I customized it after watching a friend make it and then forgetting most of the ingredients, so it may be a little unorthodox (I always get told off for not buying a separate tin of kidney beans or for draining the bean juice from the beans). Most of the ingredients are exchangeable according to taste; in face, probably the only one completely necessary is the chilli sauce, and there are many varieties of that.

One last thing: I am English, and, contrary to popular belief, we don't stoically follow the metric system; the measurement systems used as usually a mixture of metric and imperial. So I'm sorry if the recipes get confusing, but it should be pretty easy to convert measurements.


On with the actual recipe!

Serves: 2

Ingredients

Minced beef, 500g
Chilli sauce, 500g (about 1 jar)
Red onion, 1 half
Baked beans in tomato sauce, 200g (about half a tin) (student tip: I'm usually fussy and only buy brand-name beans like Heinz, but in chilli you can't really taste the beans, so don't worry about using a cheap own-brand)
Sweetcorn, 150g (one small tin)

1. Firstly, prepare the half-onion by cutting it into small chunks about 2cm long.

2. Put the beef in the frying pan and cook until it's nearly all brown

3. Add the chopped onion to the beef and fry them together until the beef is completely brown - you could probably add the onions later with the other ingredients but I just love the smell of frying onions!

4. Once cooked, pour the beef and onions into a large saucepan.

5. Open the tin of baked beans and drain out the tomato juice (I find if that if you don't, it makes the chilli too sloppy).

6. Drain the sweetcorn, if need be (i.e. if they're in water)

7. Pour the sweetcorn, baked beans and chilli sauce in the saucepan and stir all ingredients til they're mixed together.

8. Cook the mixture together over the hob on a medium heat for about ten minutes, stirring regularly to avoid it getting stuck to the bottom.

9. Finally, pour the chilli onto two plates and serve!

You can eat chilli on it's own or with rice or bread (my personal favourite is naan bread).

I'm going to make this again tomorrow so I'll try and remember to take some pictures to whet your appetites! :)

-- Natla

[ETA] I've added more exact measurements and edited the recipe a little for clarity. Picture coming soon!