Latin Black Beans and Brown Rice Confetti

I was looking for a side dish to have one night with a my Latin Grilled Chicken recipe.  I looked in the fridge and the pantry to see what I had and the below was the result.  My thought is cumin is the most fabulous spice EVER made!  I love it in everything Latin flavored that I make.  If you start with Cumin, Olive Oil and Garlic – you can't go wrong.

This is so good you can use it as a side, as a main dish with some cheese on it, as a filling for a burrito – LOVE this stuff and I hope you will too.

Black Bean and Brown Rice Confetti

2C cooked brown rice

1 can of fire roasted diced tomatoes (with onions and peppers) – drained

1 can of black beans – drained and rinsed

½ T cumin

1/4t garlic powder

1/4t onion powder

salt & pepper

Combine all ingredients in a casserole dish and toss together until well mixed.  Then put under the broiler in the oven for about 5 minutes.  Then stir and fluff and put back under the broiler for another 5minutes.  Keep doing this for until a lot of the moisture is dried up.  Serve next to chicken or any other latin dish.

I LOVE THIS STUFF!  It is way better than the frozen entree versions and way healthier.  Another Clean Eating recipe, just be sure to read your labels to make sure it's "Clean Eating friendly" if that's what you're doing, that can be a side or a great lunch.

What's in-store for foodies in 2012?

To my 2012 foodies like me, who LOVE American Italian food, are in for a treat!  Apparently, according to experts from the Today Show, it will be one of  the “in” foods this new year.  Which means it will probably show up more often at restaurants and on tables in America....  Since I was raised on it – it's been “in” for me since birth, and particular every Sunday as long as my grandparents were alive.

Sundays now are reserved for me to “make the gravy”.  In an American Italian family, “gravy” is tomato or marinara sauce.  Since I moved to the south nearly 15yrs ago, I have found “gravy” has a definition which I will call #2 here in the South – it's brown and I am not quite sure made from what. That said, we will stick with Italian gravy....tomato.

I make my gravy once a month on Sundays in extraordinarily large batches and then freeze it.  I generally use Darren as an alarm to let me know when reserves are low.  My boyfriend of English, Norwegian & Cherokee decent has become Italian by default and will inspect the freezer and exclaim, “WE ARE DOWN TO ONE THING OF SAUCE!!!”  Then I know .... it's time.

It's not as hard as one would think – since my great-grandmother's time things have changed.  She grew  tons of tomatoes in her back yard and then boiled, crushed and made them into paste and from there made the gravy.  Now – I still grow tomatos, I mean what self respecting Italian gal who has a patch of dirt doesn't?  However, I buy good crushed tomatoes and paste in the can and cut out about 5 labor intensive steps. 

A little garlic, onion, tomatoes and spices and you have something WAY better than anything you can buy in a jar in the grocery store.

I hope to share a ton of, what now I guess is trendy, family Italian American recipes that I have grown up with as well as some other things I might find in 2012.  Maybe I will even make my own pasta for the first time since I got the attachment for my kitchen aid mixer for Christmas...3yrs ago.  :)  I got a new camera this year so my food pictures will be WAY better!  And I got a new microphone, so I may let you hear some singing too!

Other foodie trends for 2012? Layer cakes over cupcakes – which is great for me because I now live in the South, the birthplace of the layer cake.  

Also, meatloaf of all varieties, homemade pickles, which I have yet to master but my cousin-in-law is FABU at,  carbon steel knives over Japanese ceramic ones, which is great b/c they are CHEAPER!  And for your wine glass – I guess our love affair with California is over...I was never really interested but that's me....  I understand from my reading that other US areas with vineyards are on the up and coming  like my home town on Long Island.  Long Island wines have been a well kept secret and if you can get your hands on a bottle please partake because you will not be disappointed.

Happy New Year to all my foodies  & friends and may everything you eat be worthy of the calories and taste FABU YUMMY!

FABU FOOD FIND! - Meals To Live frozen Entrees

FABU FOOD FIND! - Meals To Live Frozen Entrees! (Should be called Meals to LOVE!)

One of the things I also would like to use my blog for is sharing great food finds whether it be something at the grocery or a restaurant.  

As a busy working gal who wants to save money - $10-$12 a day for lunch is WAY outside my budget . So I try to find things in the frozen food section that I can take to work with me.  They may not be $2.5 but $5 is still half the price of lunch out and probably better for me.

A lot of frozen entrees are very processed, high in sodium, and I can't read half the ingredients.  Even the diet meals have these issues.  They may have less fat – but they are high in sodium and other things to compensate for taste (which I think we all can agree they are eatable but we don't rave about the diet meal we just ate) that can cause other problems, like still being hungry, in the end.  So I have been on a quest to find a healthy meal, whose ingredients I can read, that will keep me full for more than 10mins!

In that search, I recommend, unless you have been put on a specific diet by your doctor for health issues, look for things with reasonable/normal amounts of fat, low carbs, high protein and fiber and that you can read, understand ALL the ingredients on the list – and the shorter the list the better, and will in the end keep you full and satisfied longer!

Here is what the box looks like so you can find them at the grocery freezer section.

Today – I am happy to share that I have found a FABU FOOD FIND!  A new brand (I am guessing b/c I have never seen it before) “Meals to Live”.  I tried the White Chicken Burrito and it was super good!  No preservatives, Quinoa is used in place of rice to keep the carbs low (a whole grain that is the only one recognized as having a protein value.), whole wheat tortilla, black beans, chicken cheese and peppers.  It was spicy but not too spicy and it tastes like what you would get at the Mexican restaurant without the temptation of basket upon basket of chips!  I wasn't left hungry for a while after and it didn't taste like a “diet food”!  The taste is super yummy!  

As for how I cooked it, I think I would rather have used a conventional oven but microwave is fine in a pinch.  

With it's 5g Fat, 58 carbs, 15 fiber, and 17 protein it is a great balance for your body to keep you satisfied for quite some time.  Also there is not one thing on the ingredient list I can't read or understand.  Also, I used my WW points calculator and it only added up to 8pts+ so a great reasonable point value lunch!

Truly a FABU Food Find!  Find these in the frozen food section at the grocery!