Cheesy Black Bean Quesadilla Rolls - Morningstar Farms Chipotle Black Bean Burgers

PREP : Easy / TASTE: Great! / REPEAT : YES!!!

This recipe was on the box of Morningstar Chipotle Black Bean burgers that I bought at Costco. LOVED this!  It was easy to make and great tasting.  One thing I did differently was with regards to rolling it up. They suggested cutting a tortilla into a triangle and wrapping the ends over the middle. I thought that was a waste of tortilla, it increased the cost by utilizing more tortillas than necessary and they wouldn't be all that great to eat that way. So, I rolled the mixture in the tortillas and then sliced in the center diagonally.  I also took some Homemade Gourmet Chipotle seasoning I had and mixed it with Litehouse Homestyle Ranch (love this stuff!). I also only had cheddar cheese so that is what I used. I'm sure it will be even better with a mix of cheeses. The salsa is homemade. 

RECIPE:
2 Morningstar Farms Chipotle Black Bean Burgers, thawed and cut into 1/4" pieces
1/2 c salsa
1/2 c shredded Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
1/4 c shredded Pepper Jack cheese
2 t Southwest or Mexican seasoning (I used chipotle from Homemade Gourmet because it is what I had)
10 (8 inch) flour tortillas
1 T butter, melted
2 1/2 " cups shredded lettuce (optional)
2 T finely chopped red or green bell pepper (optional) (I didn't cut mine enough)

1. In medium bowl toss together burgers, salsa, cheese and seasoning. (NOTE: the burgers do crumble when cut into small pieces but it really doesn't matter)
2. Place 2 TB (appx, maybe more since I changed how I rolled these up) of the mixture in a tortilla. 
3. Roll up and cut diagonally in half.   Place a toothpick diagonally through top fold and bottom to hold in place and place pieces on a baking sheet pan.
4. Melt butter and spread over top roll ups.
5. Bake at 375 degrees 9-12 minutes.

Serves 5 (according to recipe). I did 1 and 1/2 times the recipe for our family and used two half-size baking sheet pans to bake them.

Chicken Curry - The Food of India : Authentic Recipes from the Spicy Subcontinent

PREP : OK
TASTE : Very Good
REPEAT : Probably yes. 
Though I want to try various curry recipes and find out which one we like the best.

This was a great recipe to begin my forray into Indian cooking.  Our family loves Indian food and my husband has particularly requested that I learn to make Indian food.  This is a task that I would love to take on and do well with. Indian food has such a wonderful depth of flavor and there are few, if any, Indian dishes that we have tried and did not care for.  Anything with turmeric is especially of interest to me due to the benefits of using turmeric. For information on this I defer to Shoshonna Perl of Bulk Herb Store, http://www.bulkherbstore.com/TRP?s=turmeric

While working through this recipe I gave my first attempt to document the steps I took in pictures. Please bear with me as this is new to me and it will take me awhile to get the hang of quality pictures while trying to cook or bake at the same time!

So, first step.  I missed it. Sorry!  I should have shown you what the amount of onions looked like in the pot prior to browning them.  The longer onions cook, the more they reduce and carmelize; well, that is if you cook them over the right level of heat.  If you have the heat up too high they will burn and then who cares what size they are! OK - so here is a picture of the onions after the "turned brown", which is what the cookbook stated for the recipe.  I'm not a chef so I don't know if this is technically as far as they should have gone or if I should have browned them further.  I was concerned with the pot getting too dry and starting to burn rather than caramelize the onions so I stopped at this point.

Here I added seeded and chopped tomatoes from my garden. The recipe called for two medium sized tomatoes so I just guessed as to how many of my smaller Juliet tomatoes to use and it seemed fine. You could probably scrape it all out and put it into a blender but since I have an immersion blender I chose to use it. It was a little clumpy and took some patience but I eventually ended up with a nicely pureed product.

The recipe didn't clarify whether or not the chicken was supposed to cook separately or in the mixture. I decided to cut it into chunks and season with salt, pepper and turmeric and saute it prior to adding to the pot.  This worked out fine. The first picture shows the chicken added and the second is after the addition of water and a couple tablespoons of cream. Which, by the way, I tend to use Fat Free Evaporated Milk instead of cream in dishes like this. One reason is the calorie and fat reduction and another is because it is stable and I don't have to worry about it breaking, becoming clumpy, in the dish.

All in all, YUM!  Not too spicy and quite delish!