Black bean burritos

A couple of weeks ago, I spent the evening with my sister and her husband. My sister is one of my dearest friends. She's incredibly motivational and being around her makes me happy. I stayed with her while at a job interview in Kansas City. I hope I get it for a lot of reasons (number one being that I am not cut out to be a stay-at-home mom) but one of them is that my sister motivates me to be a better person and care more about myself. She also leads a great life, which she writes about on A Listful Life. I highly recommend her blog. It's a great read.

While I was there, she made black bean burritos. I had never eaten black beans before, but this is a staple in my sister's house, and I didn't want to be a burden, so I decided to try something new.

They were delicious! She and Chase spent all of lent without eating meat, so she has a better handle on vegetarian dishes than I do. I have been telling Rob I was going to recreate her burritos for a few days, and today I finally did it!

This is the base of her black bean burritos. I added chicken, which I seasoned with McCormick's Quesadilla Casserole pre-measured seasoning. The recipe is super easy. 

(1) red pepper

(1) green pepper

(1) jalepeno

black beans (I used low sodium canned, but she uses freshly soaked beans. Either will work)

chicken breasts (I had a huge chicken breast that I butterflied and cut through to make 2 cutlets. It was plenty)

Minute Rice - (I cooked two dry cups with about 1.75 cups of water which turned out perfect)

McCorkmick Quesadilla Casserole pre-measured seasoning packet

cream cheese (use this to your desire. My sister used about 4 tablespoons. I used the entire brick because I added the chicken and rice and doubled the veggies.)

Burrito size tortillas
Mexican Cheese (if desired) 

Sour Cream (if desired)

Use olive oil to cook your chicken, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder and the seasoning packet. Reserve leftover seasoning to add to the veggies

Once the chicken is cooked to 165 degrees, remove it from the pan and let it rest while you start to cook the two peppers, jalepeno and black beans.
At this point, you should also be cooking your rice. If you are using leftover rice, don't worry about heating it up. Once it's finished, add it to the pan of black beans and veggies.
Slice the chicken in thin slices and add it to the pan. Heat everything through. Add your desired amount of cream cheese.
Spread mixture on burritos leaving room around the edges. If you want cheese and sour cream, add those to the middle. Fold your burrito.

At this point, they are ready to eat. I actually like my burrito a little crispy, so I put a little oil in a pan and toasted my cooked burrito so the outside got just barely crispy. If you do this, start with the seam side down and don't overfill your burrito. I learned the hard way tonight.

This was sort of a mix of a recipe I found on Pinterest and my sister's black bean burritos. Either way, it was delicious and definitely will become a staple in my house. It's not that unhealthy and with better (for me) tortillas, it would have been even healthier. One of these burritos comes in around 400 calories and after one, I'm stuffed!

Enjoy!