Beans, Beans good for the heart....

I love black beans. I never had them until our Cuban friend cooked us black beans and rice one night when I was in my early 20s. I loved his black beans and rice and would always beg him to make them when we had potluck dinners. Sadly, he has moved north and is not around for me to get my fix. So I've learned to make a version pretty close to his through trial and error and we either eat them on just plain brown rice or we turn them into black bean and rice burritos. We had planned to cook this meal on Friday night but some friends called and wanted to go out so we postponed this until tonight. We love to do this meal not only because it is very tasty, but also because it is quick. I can easily have dinner on the table in 30 minutes and it is pretty healthy. If I'm doing burritos, I season the brown rice with some Old El Paso Cheesy taco seasoning. The amount I use depends on the amount of rice I'm cooking...about a half package works well for the amount that results from 2 cups of uncooked rice. Mix it in after the rice is done.

Black Beans

1 can La Costena whole black beans (these are a personal preference...you can use any brand)

1 can Bush's Seasoned recipe black beans (again, personal preference)

1/4 medium green pepper, diced

1/4 medium onion, diced

1 teaspoon of cumin (I just eyeball it so this is a guess)

2-4 cloves fresh garlic, chopped or pressed (depends on how much garlic you like...I always press it using one of my favorite kitchen gadgets, my Pampered Chef Garlic Press)

1-2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Sautee onion and pepper in olive oil until soft, generally 5-8 minutes or so. You can just do this in your saucepan. Dump your two cans of black beans into the pot, partially draining them first (you don't want to completely drain or your black beans will be dry). Press your garlic into the pot, toss in your cumin and stir (you could sautee the garlic with the pepper and onion if you prefer the chopping route). Add a little extra olive oil if you feel it needs to be saucier. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the flavors have melded, it is heated through, and the sauciness has reduced down a bit.

If doing burritos, we always put slices of Cabot's 50% light pepperjack down the middle of either a wheat or a spinach tortilla and microwave this for 30 seconds to melt the cheese and heat the tortilla. Then we put some rice and beans on the tortilla and dress it up with some low fat or fat free sour cream and some lettuce. So yummy!

After dinner, my husband reminded me that I needed to make a loaf of banana bread for his coworker. We had done loaves for his team and a few others at his office for Christmas, but one coworker isn't in the office much due to the nature of his job, so we couldn't do his bread when we did the others. He will be back in the office tomorrow, so late Christmas baking ensued. I love this recipe because it is quick to put together but always turns out perfectly.

Janet's Rich Banana Bread

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream (I use light)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
2 medium bananas, sliced (I mash mine instead)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, stir together the melted butter and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the butter mixture until smooth. Finally, fold in the sour cream, walnuts and bananas. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool loaf in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Source: Allrecipes.com