Mexican Black Bean Rice Bowls

My original menu plan for this week called for black bean & rice stuffed wet burritos. But I just didn't feel up to making tortillas today because I had so much after the weekend catch-up to tackle.

So I decided to improvise and turn the filling into rice bowls instead. It turned out deliciously!

I used my chicken & black bean taco filling as the basis for the recipe and made a few changes to make the filling a little more appropriate for this dinner. Basically, I needed the sauce to be saucier and I needed to bulk up the flavor a bit since I wasn't using chicken. We were all really happy with how it turned out, including the kids. Two of them even literally licked their bowls clean.

Mexican Black Bean Rice Bowls

• 2 T. extra virgin olive oil
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 green pepper, diced
• 2 T. cumin
• 2 t. salt
• 1 t. coriander (optional)
• 2 c. frozen corn
  
• 3 c. fully cooked black beans (reserve 1/3 c. cooking liquid or liquid from the cans)
• 1 jar salsa
• 1 c. beef stock, vegetable stock, or water
• 5 c. fully cooked brown or white rice
• Optional garnishes: shredded cheese, sour cream, lettuce, taco shells, tortillas or tortilla chips, sliced green onions

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, green pepper, cumin, salt and optional coriander. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often, until pepper starts to get tender. Stir in corn and cook 3-5 minutes longer.
2. Stir beans, salsa and stocks or water into skillet. Bring to a slow boil and cook for 10 - 15 minutes. At this point, you can turn the heat down to low, cover and simmer until dinner, or place in the refrigerator to reheat at dinnertime, or just serve as is.
3. Put rice in bowls, cover with bean mixture and add any optional garnishes. Enjoy!

Here's our fully-garnished dinner. I only had cheese, sour cream and taco shells on hand. We used the taco shells to scoop up dinner, and then finished with a fork. Definitely yummy, frugal, and very stolen-moments friendly. It's always fun to tackle a new dinner creation.

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