Recipe: Spicy Bean Filling

I'm a big fan of Mexican food so this recipe was right up my alley.  Easy, fast and as an added bonus it's cheap because there is no meat in it.  Did I mention that it is really tasty, too?  I have made this twice now only to receive raves from my family.  The first time I served it as make your own burritos with lettuce, cheese, tomato, avocado, sour cream, etc.  The most recent time I made it I used it as a quesadilla filling with just the bean filling, cheese and black olives.  It's what I had on hand, and it was so good.  The left overs are really yummy too. 

Spicy Bean Filling

Serves: about 6

2 tsp. vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. ground cumin

1/4 tsp. salt

pinch of cayenne pepper

1/3 cup water

1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 (15 oz.) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1/3 cup salsa

Extras:

tortillas

lettuce

tomato

shredded cheese

sour cream

whatever else you think will taste good :o)

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add garlic to pan; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Stir in chile powder, cumin, salt and cayenne pepper; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Stir in 1/3 cup water and beans; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in salsa. 

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Source:  Slightly adapted from Cooking Light and Annie's Eats

Our Day

We're all still hanging on to this sickness, ugh!  So instead of being out and about, we are trapped indoors.  Today I played with our new camera a bit.  There have been a lack of cute bunny pictures lately on the ol' blog so Simon was my model for a few of these.  However, he is way too fast to be a good model.  I took a gazillion pictures of the bun but in most of them he is just a grey blur.  Here's our house bound day so far...

Extreme close up of the bun himself.  

Don't you just love his outrageous hair style!

Ava and I practiced our silly faces.  

She practiced with fruit snacks in her mouth.  

I practiced without the fruit snacks.

Cole worked on his "Up, up and away" Superman pose.

Ava got out all the toys she could find...

the house still looks like this.

Simon spent the morning stealing all of Ava's toys that 

he could carry.  His favorites are these wooden cookies.

Finally, naps.  

Thank God for nap time!  Both kiddos are asleep at the 

same time, and I might actually get a shower in.  Hallelujah!!

Printable Freebie & Book Club

Images from Lemony Squeezy's blog

I'm always a sucker for a freebie and these are so adorable!  Lemon Squeezy has these little goodies on her blog.  I always manage to misplace my bookmarks so the idea of having free ones that I can reprint as many times as I need to is great.  

I know I haven't posted lately about our book club books but we have read a couple good ones.  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot was a great non-fiction read that was extremely interesting.  Without her consent, Henrietta's doctor took some cancerous cells from her body.  Those cells have been sold and used for research throughout the world.  Her cells helped with the polio vaccine and many other medical areas.  I'm not a science-y person but it was so interesting and a little scary to read about the medical practices and ethics not that long ago.

We also read The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton.  This was last months book but I am still reading it.  Shhhh, don't tell my group!  Having a newborn has really cut down on my reading time.  Go figure!  I would much rather sleep than read.  Anyway, I really liked this one as well.  It's about a young girl who was left on a dock in Australia.  Years later this now woman decides to look for her roots after she is told that her parents are not her biological parents.  The story is told from 3 different perspectives and generations.  I would highly recommend this one, too.

Oh Face

Yesterday Cole was one month old.  Where in the world did the time go!?  He's a great eater and sleeper and is in general a happy go lucky little guy.  He's very eager to try to lift his head to look around.  He's started to coo at me when I talk to him which just melts my heart.  He loves to make this tight little "O" with his lips and has started to smile when I make the "O" face back at him.  Such a blessing he has been to our family.

Ava loves him to death.  She showers him with kisses (in a good way) and is always trying to share her toys with him.  Me, on the other hand, she is not too thrilled with.  She's having a bit of a time adjusting to mommy giving attention to Cole instead of her.  I'm just patiently waiting for her to get back to her sweet self.  Hopefully it's sooner rather than later!

Sick Days

All 4 of us have been sick the last week or so.  There have been a lot of tea parties and napping going on lately.  Not to mention all day pajama parties and PB & J for dinner.  Today I actually was coherent, alert and showered before 8.  Hallelujah!!  It made me start to feel human again.  

Little Cole man has been a trooper.  He's had a stuffy nose and the cutest little cough.  We've been using the nose sucker thingy on him all the time.  Luckily, he doesn't seem to be bothered too much by it.  He has been such a good baby especially considering that he's been sick 1 of his 3 short weeks here.  We're even getting tons of smiles while he's awake and asleep.  I know it's probably just gas but hey, I'll take it!

Sweet, Sweet Honey

image credit

This morning Ava and I finished up the last of our Savannah Bee Company honey.  We've been on a kick of sharing a toasted bagel with a little butter and this yummy honey drizzled over it.  While we were in Savannah with some friends this past September we came across this little honey store.  We sampled several different types of honey and even munched on some honeycomb.  I came home with the tupelo and black sage honey.  Now I'm wishing I had bought more.  Somehow Missouri honey just doesn't taste as good.  Steve says it's just because I know it's not as expensive...he might be right :o)

So Sleepy

This is kinda how I feel all day these days.  I know he'll be sleeping through the night before I know it so I'm trying to find the joy in the late night, early morning feedings.  That face makes all the yawning and puffy eyes so worth it though.  

On a side note, Ava adores her brother.  See that bunny in the picture to the right.  That is one of her beloved animals that she sleeps with.  She is always putting her bunny or bear next to Cole to help him sleep.  She's such a sweetie!

Diaper Bag Heaven

For Christmas, Steve got this bag for me to use as my purse/diaper bag and I LOVE it!  With Ava I had a diaper bag that I registered for and I never really thought it functioned well for me.  This time around I scouted out Etsy until I found what I thought would work great for me.  I have been super pleased with it so far.  I love that is has a long and short strap so I can wear it either way. There are plenty of compartments for anything and everything baby and non-baby.  Love it!  Go check out her other bags at Kinies.