Hi Everyone,
What a beautiful day today. It was sunny and in the mid 60’s. My friend Andrea and I took a walk to the Farmers Market on our lunch. There is something so peaceful about the Farmers Market. There was music playing, free samples of fresh fruit and the vendors seemed like they were all in good moods. I bought fresh tomatoes, basil, oranges, Bok choy, and freshly squeezed, no sugar added apple cider that tasted like I was eating an apple! I just love this time of year, it makes me want to fire up the grill and cook some fresh vegetables.
Today I have a colorful vegetable recipe for you, but not any of the goodies that I bought at the Farmers Market. It was what do I have in my pantry and fend for yourself night. So I grabbed a little of this and a little of that and came up with a wonderful Mexican Black Bean Salad.
I was craving black beans and tacos, but I thought I would take it up a notch and make it into a salad with plenty of left overs for lunch. I made some yummy tasting tacos with it. I used corn tortillas, and let me tell you the best way to have them is to take them and place them directly onto your gas burner. Andrea told me about that and the flavors of the tortillas were the best I ever had. I will forever eat corn tortillas that way. They take about 20 – 30 seconds per side. They get puffy and a little toasted. You simply must try it that way, but stay with them, you don’t want a fire to start. I used my tongs to flip them.
I made the salad using black beans, roasted corn, Edamame/soy beans, bell pepper onions and a jalapeno. The flavors of this bean salad was wonderful. Little spicy, but not too to. I made this since it was fend for yourself night and I know no one in my family would care for this dish, but then Hubby saw it. He wanted some tacos too. I was shocked that he liked the black bean salad. He said it would be good in his chili that he puts on his hot dogs. Now thats amazing! I think he must be coming around to my side. Buahahaha!!
I have to admit, I love fend for yourself night, it’s my favorite dinner night of the week. It’s so fun to create dishes that you love and not have to worry about others. Do you ever have fend for yourself night?
- ½ tsp. olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- ¼ cup onion, diced
- ½ cup bell pepper, sweet
- 2 Tbsp. jalapeno, diced
- ½ cup corn, frozen
- ½ cup Edamame/soy beans, frozen
- 1¾ cup black beans, canned, rinsed and drained
- 1 10oz can RoTel Diced tomatoes & Green Chilies
- ¼ tsp chili powder
- ¼ tsp. cumin
- Optional topping : Cilantro
- In a skillet add olive oil, garlic and onion. Saute for about 2 minutes.
- Add the remaining ingredients, and cook until all warmed and juice from tomatoes is evaporated. About 7 - 10 minutes.
Since this was such a low calorie dinner, I decided dessert would be nice too. Remember the coconut angel food cupcakes I made? I turned them into a little dessert for myself.
Now doesn’t that look tasty? I think I am going to make angel food cake cupcakes every week. There a perfect low calorie, low fat dessert and I just love them!!
Well my friends the sun is shining and I just feel great this week. I decided that I need to try harder on my diet and exercising and so far, well it’s only Tuesday, I have been doing great!! I am working out harder and eating better. I am hoping to see a drop on the scale, but we shall see. Bikini season is coming and that is just plain scary!!! Eck!!!
I hope you have a great day!! I’m so happy, only two more work days to go and I have a long 4 day weekend. Woohoo!! A little advice, if the sun is shining, get out there and enjoy it!!!
Classic Macaroni Salad
Strawberry Chicken Salad
Caramelized Herb Roasted Carrots
Margherita Pizza
This is pretty as a picture! I love all these fresh ingredients and might just whip up a batch of this for lunch today, and I’m definitely trying your tortilla technique – love this!
The tortilla technique is the best! It tastes like a real Mexican restaurant. My Husband even commented on tortillas, funny, it’s the same tortillas I normally buy, amazing what a little flame will do to it. It would also work on a grill too!
I love anything with black beans and this looks completely like my kind of salad. Yum!
Whats funny is, up until a year ago, I wouldn’t even touch beans! I don’t what happened but I love them now!!!
OMG, Jennifer! This looks amazing. In a tortilla and sprinkled with cilantro…would be so yummy. K, its on my menu meal plan. The fam is going to try a new recipe. 😉
You have to let me know what you think!! 🙂 I need to make a big batch of it, so I can freeze it!
I can’t wait for the Farmer’s Market to open up here in Salt Lake. This salad looks delicious and super healthy-love it!
I love fend for yourself nights too! I like eating random combinations of foods that my husband would think is too weird to try!
I love all the colors in this salad! Plus it remind me of summer – which I can’t wait for! I’m an onion-hater though so I’ll leave those out of my version and add LOTS of cilantro! 🙂
Oh, this looks fantastic! 🙂 What a great flavor punch!
This looks amazing! The black bean salad looks amazing and I’m with you – this is the time of year to fire up the grill!
This looks so fresh and inviting!! I love how versatile it can be – like a salsa, as a salad, etc. Yum!
Funny you said versatile like salsa, because I used it as salsa tonight on my chips, added a little hot sauce, it was perfect! 🙂
This looks amazing!
I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend Jennifer. Thank you so much for sharing your great recipe on Allergy-Free Wednesdays! Be sure to check back next week for recipe highlights (including the top 3 reader choice submissions and hostess favorites).
Be Well!
I am eating these as I speak on top of a corn tortilla and I cannot thank you enough for such a deliciously simple and healthy recipe. I love the flavor that the corn tortilla adds to the blend of all the ingredients and the creaminess of the black beans is perfect with the tenderness of the edamame. You are the best!