Bean and Cheese Burritos

I've been looking for more reasonably balanced vegetarian recipes, and so I decided to try these Bean and Cheese Burritos from Everyday Food. They sounded pretty easy, and I had a lot of the ingredients on hand. I did end up modifying it slightly- I had some leftover tomato sauce, so I added that to the rice for the filling. If you have extra tomato sauce on hand, it's a nice thing to throw in for more flavor.

Once the rice is cooked, all that's basically left is assembly of the burrito. This is the hard part for me- while I do understand how it's supposed to be folded, I almost always put in too much filling and have it all fall apart on me. I guess that's okay though- it tastes good when eaten with a fork too! In fact, with the leftovers I kind of gave up and just made a burrito bowl. While this recipe took a little longer than I thought, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of food that it made. It's supposed to be 4 servings, but I still had tons of leftover rice that's been thrown in the freezer for another day.

Chicken and Black Bean Nachos

While it's not the healthiest meal, every once in awhile, I love to have nachos for dinner. Of course you need tortilla chips for the base, and for the main topping, my favorite is a smashed together mix of shredded chicken, black beans, and some taco seasoning. Next, nachos aren't nachos without cheese- usually I just use some shredded cheese and throw the nachos in the oven so the cheese will melt, but this time I used some jarred queso. 

The toppings are also an important element in nachos. I like mine with some shredded iceberg lettuce, diced tomatoes, green onion, and, of course, some pickled jalapenos. They definitely give the nachos a bite! Messy, but delicious.