Spencer's Dominican Mexican Black Beans

• Heat Olive Oil in a pan
• Smash and sautee 3-4 garlic cloves
• Saute about 1/3 of large onion, chopped
• Saute fresh oregano, about 2 tablespoons
• Less than 1 half of a small jalepeno diced, no seeds
• Dash of salt
• 1 can of black beans, not drained
• About 1 teaspoon of hot sauce
• Cook on medium to medium high heat for a few minutes
• Reduce heat to low until the beans are a good texture.  
• Sprinkle chopped cilantro over the top, about 3 large sprigs

Serve over rice.

Quinoa-2 Variations

I love quinoa so much, I'm not sure how I lived life before I knew it existed 2 years ago.  My mom makes these two fantastic salads with quinoa and even though similar recipes exist on Pinterest, these predate Pinterest.  The Tabbouleh like quinoa is fantastic when served with hummus and bread.  I like to eat both with grilled chicken.

"Tabbouleh" Mediterranean Quinoa
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups quinoa, uncooked
• 3 cups liquid to cook quinoa (I like to use low sodium chicken broth or half water)
• Juice of 2 lemons
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced-to taste
• 6 green onions, sliced thin-more or less to taste
• 1/2 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1 whole, large cucumber, quartered and sliced thin
• 1/2-1 bunch Italian flatleaf parsley, chopped-to taste
• about 2-3 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

• Rinse quinoa and add to pot with liquid.  Bring to a boil and simmer for about 20-25 minutes, until the water is absorbed and the quinoa looks fluffy.  Cool in the fridge
• Chop and prepare veggies.  Add to a large bowl with salt, pepper, lemon juice, olive oil.  Taste mix and adjust seasonings as desired.  There should be plenty of liquid to act as a dressing for the quinoa, if there isn't, add more lemon juice and/or olive oil.  Add cooled quinoa and mix to coat with dressing.  You can skip the parsley and it will still be delicious, just less like a real Tabbouleh. 

Mexican Quinoa

• 1 1/4 cups quinoa
• 2 1/2 cups liquid (1 can chicken broth + 1/2 cup water)
• Juice of 1 1/2 limes
• 4 green onions, sliced thin
• 1/4 red onion, finely chopped
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 -1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1 1/2 avocados, diced
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• Rinse quinoa and combine with water in a pot.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is fluffy. Cool in the fridge or leave warm-both ways are good.
• Chop veggies and combine in a bowl.  Add lime juice, salt and pepper to taste.  Taste the mix and adjust seasonings as needed.  Add more tomatoes, avocados, or whatever you like.  Mix with quinoa and serve.  Delicious with black beans and corn, over lettuce, with grilled chicken, on top of tortilla chips, etc.

Chicken Tacos and Refried Blackbeans

Since Spencer lived in Mexico, he is very particular about Mexican food.  He can tolerate a little bit of Tex-Mex (alla Cafe Rio), but mostly he wants it authentic.  My friend Anna made these refried black beans when we first moved to D.C. and Spencer talked about them for 2 years before I finally got the recipe and made them.  Anna got the recipe from a Latina friend, so they are indeed authentic, if not exact in the amounts and time.  The taco recipe I invented after a few recipes that didn't quite have what I wanted.  The brown sugar does not make the meat sweet, rather I added it to take off the bitter edge of the chili powder and lime juice  Serve with corn tortillas, salsa, avocado, cheese, chopped onions and cilantro, and you have a delicious taco dinner.  As an alternative, you can serve the chicken in tortas, or sandwiches.  Put the meat on sandwich rolls, spread with the black beans, add avocado, cheese, and red onion.

Chicken Tacos:

• 1 1/2 pounds chicken (about 6 medium chicken breasts)
• 3-4 medium garlic cloves roughly chopped
•  
• 1 Tbs chili powder
• 3 Tbs lime juice
• 1 Tbs brown sugar

• Place the chicken breasts in the bottom of the crock pot.  Mix the lime juice, chili powder and brown sugar together.  Pour over the chicken.  Sprinkle with the garlic.  Cook until done (time varies by crock pot) and then shred.

Black Beans

• 1 can black beans, or 2 cups dried beans that have been soaked.
• Onion, chopped (I like about 1/2 an onion, and in fact I once made these with no onion and they were still delicious).
• Garlic, chopped (I like 2-3 medium cloves)
• Cumin, to taste (I like very little cumin, but I don't really love cumin to begin with so I use maybe 1/4 teaspoon)
• Chili powder, to taste (I use maybe 1/4 to a half teaspon)
• Something tomato-y (Anna says her friend used whatever she had that was open and aviable: tomato sauce, tomato paste, salsa, etc.  My favorite is to use a little Jack's Special Salsa from Costco).

Directions::

• With a little bit of oil in the bottom of a saute pan, heat to medium heat.  Add onion and saute for a few minutes, until soft.  Just before the onions are done, add the garlic and saute together.
• Meanwhile, puree the black beans in a blender or food processor, adding water, until they are very soupy.  Add the black beans to the pan.
• Add seasoning and stir together.
• Simmer on low to medium heat until the beans have thickened and all the flavors have melded.  Taste as you go and adjust seasoning as needed.

These black beans are so awesome I make them all the time to add to various dishes.  For a vegetarian option, I once made Onion Rice, substituting quinoa for the rice and adding in a little chili powder and tomato paste with the onions.  It made an excellent mock ground beef to serve over a taco salad.