Mexican Bean Wraps and Borani

I'm going to jump right into my recipes today because it was a very Monday sort of day. Enough about that, it's not worth my time! Tonight's dinner was Mexican Bean Wraps. I can't remember where I got the recipe way back when, but I've tweaked it a bit. I've made these before and they're always a hit with all three kids (surprising since there are tomatoes in it.. but they disappear into the sauce). Just a head's up, though... these wraps taste better than they look. ;)

Mexican Bean Wraps

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 onion, sliced thinly

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp tomato paste

1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

14 oz can of chopped tomatoes with the juice

salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 small green pepper, sliced

1 small red pepper, sliced

10 small flour tortillas (I usually use whole wheat, but had white today)

lots of cheddar cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350.

Fry the onion in 2 tbsp oil for about 10 minutes until it's tender. Add the garlic and spiced, and stir to coat. Add the tomato paste, kidney beans, and tomatoes in their juice. Cook for about 10 minutes (or more) until the juice has reduced. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

In a separate pan, fry the peppers in 1 tbsp oil until it's tender. Set aside.

Take half of the bean mixture and place it in a bowl. Use an immersion blender to blend it into a paste. Add the peppers to the other half of the bean mixture.

Spread some bean paste over each of the tortilla wraps. Add some of the pepper/bean mixture on top of that. Top with cheese and roll the tortillas up.

Place the tortillas on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking oil. Bake in the preheated oven for about 10-20 minutes until it is heated through and just starting to brown at the edges.

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After dinner we watched the Top 22 perform on So You Think You Can Dance Canada as a family. I made a dip called Borani (which I got from a Moosewood cookbook years ago) and brought it out for during the show. It was served with pretzels. :)

Borani

10 oz fresh spinach, well rinsed, stemmed and chopped

1 small onion, chopped

3 green onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tbsp minced fresh dill

1/3 cup grated feta cheese

2 tbsp plain yogurt

salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

In a covered saucepan, cook the still damp spinach for a few minutes over medium heat, stirring a couple of times. Once it's limp, but still bright green, remove it from the pan and squeeze out any excess moisture. Set it aside.

Saute the onions, green onions and garlic in the olive oil. When the onions are translucent, stir in the spinach and dill and heat for 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon and pressing out any extra moisture, transfer spinach mixture to a bowl. Stir in the feta, yogurt, salt and pepper.

Refrigerate for 1 hour and serve.

Sometimes you just need melty peanut butter.

Have you ever had one of those days where things go wrong all stinkin' day long? Not really, terrible, horrible things, but little things that keep piling up until you decide to just do nothing for the rest of the day. That was yesterday for me. Because of that, this picture shows you what was for supper last night. Kyle made the kids fried egg bagel sandwiches and I sat down, on my own, and ate an everything bagel smothered in melty peanut butter. And you know what? It was delicious and just what I wanted. Now why was yesterday so bad, you ask.... well.. lemme tell you in bullet form...

*I had to drag my kids out of bed for the last day of school. (I know, you're thinking no big deal.. but this should have been an indicator of the day to come.)

*Before school I had to bake cookies for both Avery and Rhianna's classes at school. They had both asked me the night before, but I hadn't had time or energy after our busy evening. I'm quite the cookie baker and have it down to a fine art, so I knew it wouldn't take me long to get it done in the morning. And it didn't. EXCEPT.. apparently, I should not double my Skor Bit cookie recipe because the cookies were a big ol' FAIL! Puffy and thick and practically bread like. So much for my "expert cookie baking abilities"! (I almost wonder if I wasn't awake enough when I made them and miscounted my flour?) So, I tossed two whole batches of cookies. Not only that, but I also ran out of flour, brown sugar, cane sugar AND vanilla. This meant I couldn't make any more cookies until after I visited a grocery store.

*Sometimes, if my kids (mostly the boys - Rhi isn't interested) have finished their morning chores and have some time before the bus comes, I let them play some DS. The rule is that they can't play any games that are unable to shut down in an instant. They know this. For some reason, though, Tiernan decided to play a Pokemon game and enter a battle just as we were about to head off to the bus. And when I called them to go to the bus that morning it wasn't an "oh, we're leaving for the bus in five minutes" call, it was a "we need to go to the bus right freaking now!" call. I told him he didn't have a choice, he had to shut it down right then and he lost it. Completely freaked out yelling and telling me he just couldn't. Okay, no. No, no, no. This just wasn't the morning to pick a fight with me. I had a terrible Mummy moment with absolutely zero patience. The DS is now hidden in the garage and Tiernan was left in tears because he lost everything he did on his game that day. The good news is, we got to the bus in time.... but I was left feeling horrible Mummy guilt for giving the kids a bad start to their last day of the school year.

*After taking Tibbs for a walk, I headed out to get some ingredients for the cookie baking I still had to do. Only... wait a minute, where are my keys? I looked high and low. They were not in any of the places I would ever put them. They were also not in any of the places I wouldn't put them. They just weren't in the house. I retraced my steps from the previous night and was positive I locked them in the van. I had to call Kyle at work to ride his bike home to unlock the van to see if they were in there. Of course he had a super busy day, too. That figures, right? Anyway, he was my hero, as always, and we did indeed find the keys in the van between the two front seats.

*Once I finally get to the store and gather up the ingredients, I go to stand in a very long line up. It seemed like everything was going wrong for the cashier, too. Must have been one of those days for more than just me. As time is ticking, I start to panic. I realize I don't have much time to bake the stinking cookies so I do something I rarely do.... I put the ingredients back and go find some store bought goodies. In this process I clumsily knock down a bunch of Chips Ahoy cookie bags. Sigh.

*By this time I have an incredible migraine. My head is throbbing, and I'm super sensitive to both light and sound. I tried everything, and nothing made it go away until much later in the day when the skies cleared... pretty sure it was air pressure related. Or possibly stress!

*After I made the deliveries to the school I headed home and decided to sit on the couch and do nothing. Except, I can't really do nothing. I figure a couple of loads of laundry can't hurt. What can go wrong with laundry? I marched into the laundry room, put a load in the washer and sat down on the couch. I usually sit with my legs curled off to the side and this was no exception. My calf got itchy so I started rubbing my calf with my foot. I then felt something wet and assumed it was a few drops of water from the washing machine. I kept rubbing my feet and legs together until I realized that something just didn't feel right. I pulled back the blanket I had on me and found that my legs and feet were covered in cat crap. I'm not kidding. Oh, how I wish I was kidding. Alas, no joking around for me. I had smeared a piece of crap that I assume was left out of the litterbox (which is right next to my laundry detergent) and was then stuck to my arch. I know it must have been the arch because there was no sign of it on the floor, at all. It also must have been fresh and warm because I sure didn't feel it. And let me tell you - it wreaked! Oh wow. That was unbelievable. I cried in the shower. I felt so defeated.

*You know what I did until my kids got home? NOTHING. This time I really didn't do anything. I left the laundry in the machine and didn't move. I wrote out my next two week menu, watched some TV and puttered about on the computer.

*And then my kids got home. My kids have the best bus driver in the world, and she gave them each a jumbo freezee to celebrate the last day of school. Naturally, both boys were finished eating theirs, but my slow poke daughter still had her melty orange one in her hands when she got home. It was probably over half full. So, we are all talking about our days. Theirs went really well, and I told them about my horrible day. They laughed at my cat crap story and told me I should play some Wii to relax (haha). That's when Rhianna's freezee decided to flip itself over and empty itself all over my lap and my favourite spot on the couch! Yes, really. Orange on everything. My shirt, my capris, my couch. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Tiernan ran and got a towel to clean everything up, and Rhianna ran and got me a new outfit to change into.

*Luckily, aside from some tired, whining kids, the day did not get any worse. Thank goodness. Don't know how much more I could have handled.

Today has been a brand new day and was one million times better than yesterday! The first day of summer holidays was filled with blue skies, trips to two different libraries, a few drives out into the country, and a bit of shopping. It was busy, but also nice. I love having my kids home with me. They truly are the best company I could ask for. They are so smart, so funny and they teach me little things on a daily basis. Rhianna is off at a birthday party sleep over with a friend at her trailer. It's so strange not having her here. I miss her a lot! This is the first time she's slept at a house of someone who wasn't family. It's a big deal! I know her friend's mother is taking really good care of her, and we are looking forward to spending time with them tomorrow at the lake.

Tonight I was on my own for the first time in a very long time. I started the evening out with a walk on the trails with my pupperoo. It's the perfect time of day for it. The air is cooler, the sun lights everything up in this perfect brilliant hue, and the people are all smiling. Tibbs mingled with some dogs and I mingled with some humans. :) The funniest moment was when I took the picture on the left.. I had it on self timer (obviously) and it was flashing and beeping. As we were walking away a guy on a motorized chair comes over in a big panic thinking I was settling off a bomb. Hahahah! Yup, that's me. I look like such a threat. ;)

At one point during our walk, we sat down at this bench in silence, enjoying the view. Tibbs lay down and seemed to taking it all in. The geese with their babies. The boats on the Bay. The breeze in the air. I sure love that doggle of mine. ♥ When we came home I got some stuff ready for our Canada Day adventures and sat down to watch SYTYCD and 16 & Pregnant. All in all, a good evening. No complaints here after my day yesterday! ;)

Pretty.

That is one happy dog!

I will never tire of this view.

Nothing exciting to report for dinner today. We had some mushroom, monterey jack cheese and salsa stuffed quesadillas with a side of steamed broccoli covered in a scrumptious cheese sauce! Who doesn't love broccoli... especially covered in cheese sauce!? Unfortunately I really like it and had two large helpings of it... and now my stomach is paying for it. You know what they say about broccoli.. especially for those of us who are physically unable to burp! Eep!

Cheese Sauce

3 tbsp butter

3 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp salt

heavy sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup grated cheese (tonight I used a combination of monterey and cheddar.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and add the flour, salt and pepper. Stir well to combine. Add the milk and put it back on the heat. Stir continuously for about 5 minutes, until the sauce has thickened. Remove from the heat and add the cheese. Stir until smooth and then serve immediately.

We're alive and well!

I have been such a terrible blogger! June is typically a whirlwind, and this year is no different. It's been all wonderful though, so I'm not complaining.

So what exactly have we been up to? Well...

There has been canoeing on the Bay of Quinte!

There have been cousins visiting from Northern Ireland!

There was Dance Recital day for my two youngest kiddos.

There have been long walks along the trails and on the docks at the marina to drool over the boats.

There was Summer Solstice and all of the traditions it brings us!

And there was lots of crazy family antics!

This was only to name some of the fun. There was also a few different birthday parties, Father's Day, some soccer games for the biggest boy, watching of So You Think You Can Dance & SYTYCDCanada and more stops at playgrounds. This makes me even more excited for the adventures that await us this summer! Only three more days of school left. It's hard to believe.

Yes, we have also been eating delicious food. I admit to quite a few repeat dinners - ones that are pretty easy to throw together, along with some BBQs at my parents' house. I have made a few blog worthy items and I plan on writing a new entry tonight to include those. For now, I'm going to do some dishes and then maybe head out for a bike ride since it's not raining (yet!). They've been promising rain all week, but so far we haven't had much at all.

Enjoy the last few drops of your weekend, friends!