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.