Bean and Cheese Burritos

If you have followed many of my blogs, you have probably noticed that there are quite a few recipes with a Mexican flair. I can't help it. My dad was from Texas, and he made sure I grew up on Old El Paso and Tex Mex-style food. Now that I'm older, I'm learning how to make many of those dishes from scratch, and there have been quite a few successes! This recipe here for bean and cheese burritos is one of the successes. I use the base recipe I received from my aunt for bean dip (I just don't add the sour cream). Then I followed this blog for Freezer Burritos for how to package and freeze the burritos I made. This recipe makes 10 burritos, and two are a very filling meal when eaten by themselves.

2 27-ounce cans of chili beans
1 small onion
2-4 cloves of garlic
variety of peppers for the amount of heat you want (you can use more peppers for flavor but reduce their heat some by scraping out many of the seeds)
1 Tbsp cumin

Dice the peppers and garlic.

Place beans in a pot large enough to hold them and allow you room to stir. Add onion, peppers, garlic and cumin.

Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for several hours stirring frequently until mixture thickens and the beans are soft and mushy. Use a spoon or a masher to mash beans together.

Then assemble your ingredients for the burritos - cheese, refried beans, tortillas and aluminum foil.

Warm tortillas for 30 seconds in the microwave. Take a tortilla, place on aluminum foil and scoop one to two spoonfuls of beans. Sprinkle with cheese.

Fold sides in, then begin rolling from the short side, ensuring that the seam ends up on the bottom.

Wrap burrito in aluminum foil, and then place in a freezer-safe bag.

If you want to cook some at this point, bake unwrapped burritos in 400 degree Fahrenheit oven for 7-10 minutes until burrito shell begins to turn golden brown. Ensure the seam side is down. If not, freeze burritos, and when ready to cook, place frozen burritos in 400 degree Fahrenheit oven and bake for 35 minutes. Remove aluminum foil and bake for 7 minutes longer until burrito begins to turn golden brown.

Cheese Dip

I love cheese... hot melted yummy cheese, but not so much cold cheese. I've never liked cubed cold cheese, and there's only one sandwich that I can eat cold cheese on - pastrami with provolone. But I digress... Cheese dip is a gift from god. I love all kinds of cheese dip... yellow, white, with meat, without. So, this is the recipe, sort of, that my dad made when I was growing up. I have altered it just a bit from his recipe, but not much. What makes this dip so amazing is not using can "Rotel" but instead using fresh diced onion, tomato and peppers. The flavor explosion you get with the fresh vegetables is incomparable. In the summer, when a wider variety of peppers are available, I will use several different ones, but in the winter months, I usually use just jalapeños because they are easier to get. When I make this just for me, it is not for the faint of heart. When making it for a large group, I will try to use less peppers and crushed peppers, but it will still have a little heat. So dial it up, or down, as suits your taste.

1 lb Mexican Velveeta

1/2 to 1 lb regular Velveeta

1-2 large tomatoes (0r 3-5 small or Roma tomatoes)

1 medium onion

2-4 peppers (jalapeño, Anaheim, cowhorn, cayenne)

Milk

Season all salt

Crushed pepper

Cube the Velveeta and place in a large pot or crock pot. Dice tomatoes, onion and peppers and place in pot. You can reduce the heat of the peppers a little by knocking out some of the seeds. This will preserve the flavor of the peppers and give you the amount of heat you want. 

Add a little milk to achieve the consistency you prefer - I usually use about 1/2-1 cup because I like my cheese dip a little thinner. Add about 1-2 tsp of season all salt and crushed peppers to taste. Warm slowly, stirring frequently until melted. 

Serve and enjoy!

Unstuffed Bell Peppers

I find it rather funny... growing up my mom used to make this meal, and I would meticulously pick out every piece of bell pepper that was in it. I never, ever thought I would make this myself. About 10 years ago, I was at a vegetable stand getting some fruit and vegetables for me and my daughter and I saw these bell peppers in a basket and they just looked so pretty. I picked one up and squeezed it and then smelled it, and I had never smelled anything so amazing. I bought them, brought them home and made this meal. I make it at least once a month now. And now it's my daughter's turn to meticulously pick out all traces of pepper in the mixture. This is a very easy meal to make, and the leftovers warm up very well, which is great for lunches. It's also very flexible. You can make as much or as little as you want or you can have it more meat heavy or more rice and bell pepper heavy, which is how I make it.

1 lb ground beef

1 medium onion, diced

1-2 small to medium jalapeños

2-3 tsps minced garlic

2-4 cups uncooked instant Minute rice (white or brown works fine, and sometimes I mix them)

1-3 green bell peppers

2-4 cans tomato sauce

season all salt

Brown the ground beef in a skillet large enough to hold the whole meal. I season my ground beef with season all salt. It's lower in sodium than regular salt and I just like the flavor better. While the beef cooks, dice up the bell pepper, onion and jalapenos and set aside. 

With just a very light bit of pink left to the meat, add the jalapeños and onion and continue cooking until the beef is thoroughly cooked. Add the garlic and mix well.

Now here's the hard part... pour in as much rice as you want for the mixture of meat to rice that you desire. Afraid I have never once measured how much rice I use, but I guess it's about 2 or 3 cups. Add the bell pepper, and pour the tomato sauce over it all. 

I usually use one to three 15 oz cans of tomato sauce depending on how much rice I add. This batch I added more rice than usual and ended up using two 15 oz cans and a small one. The most important part is that when it's all mixed together it needs to be soupy. Not swimming in tomato sauce, but it cannot be dry. This is what cooks the rice and bell pepper.

Put a lid on it, reduce the heat to med-low or med, and simmer for about 20 minutes. The rice will be tender when it's done. You need to stir it frequently to ensure it doesn't stick or burn, but that's it. What I love most about the recipe is that the bell pepper cooks some, but still maintains a bit of crunch to it. Lots of flavors in this meal. And as I said, it's super EASY to make, and it reheats very well. Let me know if you try it and alter it any!