Burritos

So Monday's post will make a lot of meat and beans. So many, you'll want to count on it for two meals (if you have a small family). These burritos require very little work and taste really good!

Ingredients

• 2 cups leftover Pork Chili Verde from Monday (1/5/09)
• 2 cups cooked white rice
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 6 flour tortillas, warmed in the microwave
• Mexican blend shredded cheese
• Sour Cream
• Shredded Lettuce

Directions

Mix together rice, lime, oil, and salt in a bowl. On each tortilla, place rice, meat/beans, cheese, lettuce, and sour cream. Roll into burritos.

Chile Verde with Beans

The nice thing about this recipe is that it can be used with almost any kind of pork you have around. Shoulder and rib cuts work very well, but you could probably use loin or sirloin cuts or chops. Bones and other connective tissue in the meat will add moisture, body and flavor.

Ingredients

• 3-4 pounds country style pork ribs (see note above about using other cuts)
• 1 pound dried beans (great northern, pinto, or black all work well), soaked overnight and drained (check for bad beans or rocks first!)
• 6-8 cups water
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cans (4 ounces each) diced green chiles
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoons oregano

Directions

Place all ingredients except pork and water in a slow cooker. Stir to evenly distrubute spices. Add pork, keeping the pieces evenly distributed and surrounded by beans (as much as possible - this might be difficult in a smaller slow-cooker). Add enough water to cover everything by an inch or two. Put on lid and cook on high for 8-10 hours. Check every couple of hours to ensure the food stays covered with water, adding hot water as needed to keep everything submerged.

Pudding Cake

I'm not a huge fan of plain chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (it's usually too dry), Kai on the other LOVES it, so I bought a box of Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge cake for his birthday party. On the back, I discovered this tasty recipe: Chocolate-Peppermint Poke Cake.

It was wonderful. Since then I've made different variations:

1. Straight up chocolate, no peppermint stuff.
2. White cake, banana pudding filling, white frosting, banana slices covering the top
3. Yellow cake, coconut pudding filling, chocolate frosting, toasted coconut generously sprinkled on top

I plan to try a white cake, lemon pudding filling, a thin layer of raspberry jam with lemon frosting on top. I'm not sure how that will turn out but we'll see.