Not Your Basic Black Beans

Black beans most certainly have never been on my list of favorite foods.  It's not that I don't like them, but I'm pretty sure I've never come home, opened the pantry and thought "mmm, black beans!  Those will hit the spot!".  I've had them in my Joey Junior burrito at Moes but that's about it.

However, the other night when I needed a relevant side dish for my mango salsa topped pork chops it was the black beans that kept coming to mind.  I had been set on rice, but alas there was none in our pantry and quite frankly I was tired of having 5 cans of black beans staring me in face every time I opened the pantry door. 

But I didn't want just any black beans.  I needed something with a little bit of a kick.  Something with a bit of flair. 

After searching out several recipes online I came up with the below combo.  I know lime juice sounds like an odd ingredient to add to beans, but paired with the cilantro it does the trick.  And the cayenne pepper and chili powder really do add a kick that I liked despite the fact that I'm normally not crazy about spicy foods. 

These beans definitely have a Cuban or Mexican taste to them and would be perfect to add to those types of meals. 

Chicken Enchiladas

Holy moly.  I'm a little embarrassed that it's been ten whole days since I've logged a post here on CCK. Yikes!  Things were a little scattered last week and I think I just needed a bit of a breather.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love blogging and always enjoy both the cooking and writing aspect of it, but it takes so much time.  It takes around an hour to get a post looking the way I want it to (minus the time I spend actually trying out a recipe in the kitchen) and some days I simply don't have those extra 60 minutes to spare.  But I'm back on track and can promise a post every day this week.  Swear.

Anyhoo, I figured I would feature one of my new go-to recipes in this comeback post.  These chicken enchiladas were oh so good and have definitely made their way onto my list of must-have recipes.  Not gonna lie, they took a while to make but they were absolutely worth the extra time.  It's not that the recipe is hard, but rather there are a lot of ingredients and several steps to getting them made.

But the good news is that this recipe makes 12 enchiladas, meaning that you can freeze half the batch for a later meal.  You can also make these ahead of time and store them in the fridge so that they're good to go straight in the oven when you come home each evening.

*If you're going to freeze them you have two options: 1) go ahead and assemble the entire meal, including the sauce and cheese, or 2) freeze the enchiladas, sauce and cheese separately.  If you're taking the meal to someone else you can go ahead with option one to cut down on the steps they'll have to go through the get the meal table ready.  Just make sure to freeze them right after adding the sauce/cheese so that the enchiladas don't get soggy.  If you're just freezing it for yourself you can go with option two so that you can crisp up the enchiladas before adding the sauce/cheese.