Black bean tacos with cabbage and feta

I had no clever or catchy title for today's post. Just a delicious and super easy recipe for you!

Please excuse if any of the pictures are blurry or terrible quality. Pretty much all of my food pictures are from my iPhone at night now because I'm too hungry to get out my regular camera!

First you make some delicious black beans ...

Ingredients:
- 1 can of black beans
- 3 green onions
- a handful of cilantro
- cumin
- garlic powder
- lime juice (optional)

Method:
1. Saute black beans in some olive oil for a few minutes.
2. Add in green onions and spices to taste.
3. Sprinkle cilantro (and lime juice if you have it, if not - no prob) on the top.

Then you make some cabbage ...

 Ingredients:
- 1/2 head of green cabbage (washed and ribboned, you just slice down one of the sides)
- 1 tsp or so of sesame oil (I have toasted sesame oil from Trader Joe's)
- 1 tbsp or so rice wine vinegar
- sriracha (or other delicious hot sauce)
- dash of salt
- lime juice (optional)

Method:
1. Cut up the cabbage and wash and dry.
2. Meanwhile, heat up some sesame oil on medium heat.
3. Throw in cabbage, vinegar and salt (I also threw in some lime juice because I had it from the black beans). Put the top on the pan and let it stew for a bit.
4. Check on the cabbage after a few minutes, toss some sriracha in and cook for a few more minutes until tender.

Put together some scrumptious tacos ...

We added in feta cheese (which is awesome because the tang gives it something special). I happen to really like hard corn tortillas but you can use soft corn or flour tortillas as well.

So basically, cook some black beans and cabbage and put in tortillas with cheese. I have some friends out there who are a bit afraid to cook - so I'm looking at them to give this recipe (or use your own flavors!) a go!

Wordless Wednesdays

Tuesday Recipe Links

Here are some great looking recipes that I would like to make in the future. If you make any, please comment and let me know how they turn out!

Green Curry Broth courtesy of 101 Cookbooks
Lemony Chickpea Stir-Fry courtesy of 101 Cookbooks
African Chicken Peanut Stew courtesy of Simply Recipes
Hasselback Potatoes and Spinach Cashew Pesto courtesy of Joy the Baker
Spice Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Icing courtesy of Dinner with Julie

Happy National Pie Day

Apparently yesterday was National Pie Day.

Neither my friend or I knew this but we subconsciously decided to partake.

Damn.

Everything in moderation (even Boston Creme Pie).

A Sick Plate of Butternut Squash Pasta

Siiiiiick, man. Yeah I'm from 80s... but also really spectacular at puns (not really). Because I'm actually pretty sick.

My second semester of graduate school just started up again and I am ready to get blogging!

This recipe was pretty sick - and in the surfer slang way too. It is adapted from Roasted Butternut Squash with Penne. (Pretty much all ingredients are the same, just adjusted amounts based on my squash amount).

First of all, my head is so stuffed I wrote Buttersquash about 20 times thinking, "that doesn't look right". Well yeah it doesn't look right! My snot has officially taken over my brain people. It's like that mucus family from the commercial...



I have a family of lazy, horrible spellers living in my brain now... but they just experienced a delicious meal and no Mucinex so they are going to have to stay in there for a bit.

Ingredients

1 package of pre-cut butternut squash (a whole butternut squash would work here too)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 shallots, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 sprig dried sage leaves from Mother-In-Law's garden or grocery store

1 dash of thyme

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

1/2 cups low-fat milk and 1/2 cup full fat milk

salt

fresh ground black pepper
1 pound pennette pasta
~1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
~1/3 cup grated mozzarella cheese

To Make:
1. Preheat the oven to 400° F. Roast squash for about 45 minutes. Obviously if you have a full squash, it'll depend on how big it is.
2. Puree squash in food processor with about 1 cup of the chicken stock.
3. In medium saucepan, saute the shallots and garlic in olive oil. Add the pureed squash and the other 1/2 cup of chicken stock, all the milk, sage, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to medium-low and let that baby thicken.
4. Meanwhile, get your pasta cooking.
5. Put the oven down to 350° F. You may have had to turn it back off and on because you mistimed everything and you thought your tootsies were going to fry off in the kitchen because it was so hot.
7. Pour the sauce over the pasta in the pot and pour the mixture into a 13X9 baking dish. Sprinkle Parm and Mozz on top. Bake for 15 minutes until it is hot and delicious. Just like your bad self.

Pair with a salad or your favorite veggie and enjoy!