Dinner Redo: Black Bean & Lime Soup/Clean Out the Fridge Burritos

I love leftovers!  I like to cook, but often get busy with other things.  Leftovers make my life so much easier.  However, my family will start to complain if they have to eat leftovers too often. So, I've started trying to create two meals from one time cooking. The idea comes from Cook Once, Eat Twice.   The following recipes, however, don't come from that book.  I'm not really in love with the recipes in it.


Day one: Black Bean & Lime Soup. I have no idea where I got this recipe from originally.  I've changed it so that it can be made entirely with food storage items.  But, the truth is that I usually use fresh items, except for the beans.  I'm usually too cheap to buy canned beans.   


Black Bean & Lime Soup

Work time: 10 minutes 
Cooking time: 2 hours  
Must soak beans overnight

2 C (1lb) dry black beans
4 tsp chicken bullion
1/2 C dry onions
1 Tbsp garlic powder - I will often chop fresh onions & garlic, then saute them before making the soup
3 C salsa (1 to 2 16-oz jars, to taste)
3 Tbsp lime juice
4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp dry red pepper
1 C dry sour cream mix (optional) - I use fresh sour cream
Corn chips (optional) 

Cilantro, fresh (optional, but really nummy)

SOAK beans overnight.  

DRAIN, then cover beans with fresh water and bring to a boil.  Boil for 5 minutes, turn heat down to simmer.  Cover and simmer until soft (about one hour) stirring occasionally.

ADD remaining ingredients (except for sour cream, corn chips, and cilantro) to the beans.  Cook 25-30 minutes, until dry onions are soft.  I will usually make this up in the morning & let it simmer most of the day so that the beans get really soft.

MIX dry sour cream mix with 6 Tbsp water and allow to sit while soup finishes.

GARNISH each bowl of soup with sour cream and corn chips.  (And cilantro, if you have it.)

8 Servings 

(Nutritional content without garnish:  101.1 Calories, 0.9 grams Fat, 0.0 mg Cholesterol, 704.5 mg Sodium, 423.9 mg Potassium, 19.5 g Total Carbohydrate, 5.7g Dietary Fiber, 0.3 g Sugars, P5.6 g Protein.  --  Daily Values based on a 2000 calorie diet:  12.5% Vitamin A, 10.6% Vitamin B-6, 27.1% Vitamin C, 3.1% Vitamin E, 5.6% Calcium, 21.0% Copper, 20.8% Folate, 14.5% Iron, 12.3% Magnesium, 17.7% Magnanese, 5.5% Niacin, 2.7% Pantothenic Acid, 10.1% Phosphorus, 3.8% Riboflavin, 2.1% Selenium, 11.0% Thiamin, 5.6% Zinc.)

Day two: Clean Out the Fridge Black Bean Burritos

Minimum ingredients:

Leftover Black Bean & Lime Soup

Tortillas

Clean out the fridge ingredients at our house have included:  

Leftover cooked Rice

Leftover sauted onions

Grated cheese

Cilantro

Avacado

Tomato (leftover from hamburgers)

Sour Cream

Lettuce or Spinach
Salsa
Peppers
and, my favorite:  Hidden Valley Spicy Ranch dressing


To take this up a notch, I've made the following chicken to go in the Burritos as well. Cooking the meat kind of defeats the idea of only cooking once, but I can marinate the chicken the day before, and it really doesn't take long to cook if I don't have to make the full meal.  

The chicken recipe is my take on Applebee's Tequila Lime Chicken from Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilber.  

Lime Chicken

Marinade

1 C water

1 C teriyaki sauce

2 T lime juice

2 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp liquid smoke

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground ginger

4 skinless chicken breast fillets (I use frozen straight from the bag, and I don't defrost them first.)

Mix up marinade, pour over chicken.  Chill for 2-3 hours.  Cook in your preferred way (grill, saute, bake....)  I  usually throw these on the George Forman.  To use in tacos:  When the chicken is done, I remove the meat & boil down the marinade (partly to kill any bacterial from the meat & partly to make it thicker.)  Meanwhile I chop up the meat.  When the marinade is thick, I stir the meat back in.