Ice Cream Cake and Cupcakes

On a Monday morning I was contacted and asked to make an ice cream cake and 1 dozen cupcakes for a 6th Birthday party on that same Wednesday. [insert panic here]

I was so extremely nervous for two reasons. #1: I've never made an ice cream cake before and #2: I've never made a cake/baked good for anyone other than family or coworkers before.

Everything turned out fine. They were to pick up the order at about 4:00pm Wednesday. At 3:50 I slid the decorated cake back into the freezer to freeze a little more before they picked it up, at 4:02 my doorbell rang. Talk about finishing in the nick of time!

I googled countless ice cream cake recipes, watched an ice cream cake video on youtube and just went with my own plan of attack. I didn't follow a specific recipe, but I had the idea in my head. I event went to a local Dairy Queen to check out their cakes, prices and decorations.

Marble cake was the Birthday girls choice!

Ice Cream Cake
My original recipe

1 baked and cooled cake, flavor of your choice
96 oz of your favorite ice cream, softened (I used chocolate and vanilla)
2-3 sleeves of crushed up oreo cookies (I purchased the family size oreo box)
Hot Fudge sauce
Cool Whip or Homemade whipped topping
Buttercream frosting to decorate your cake with
9x13 disposable pans (regular cake pans would work fine, but I was giving this away and didn't want to give away my glass 9x13 pan)

Once my cake was baked and cooled, I knew I wanted to transfer it to a pan other than the pan it was baked in so I took it out and noticed that I needed to cut it down. I used my cake leveler to cut it in half lengthwise. I put the half that I was using in the disposable pan and set the half that I wasn't going to use aside. (I had intentions of making cake balls with it, but it really didn't end up to be that much so I just tossed it.)
Set your ice cream out now for about 5-10 minutes to let it soften up. You want it to be smooth and stirable but not soupy. Put a layer of ice cream on top of the cake. I did about 1/2 to 3/4 of my container of ice cream.

 Freeze for at least 1 hour (this is when I made the cupcakes for the same order)

 After the vanilla ice cream has refroze somewhat, I prepared the cooke fudge layer. I crushed up oreos and ccombined them with hot fudge sauce. I wouldn't recommend this again. The hot fudge got very thick and wouldn't spread as I was hoping it would. I revamped my plan and instead, I sprinkled the crushed oreos on the vanilla layer and drizzled some chocolate ice cream topping over the crushed cookies. I was very generous with both the oreos and the chocolate topping because I wanted them to be very noticeable in the cake in both presentation and taste.

I also sprinkled some Nerds candies on the fudge layer because I heard that the Birthday girl loves candy. Looking back, I should have sprinkled more nerds to create more of a layer rather than a sprinkling.

After you've taken the cake out after freezing it with the cookie fudge layer, you're ready for the final ice cream layer. In this case, chocolate. I tried to go a little heavier with the chocolate ice cream because that was a request from the chocolate lovin' Birthday girl.

At this point, it was about 10pm at night and I was ready for bed. After I had spread the chocolate layer on, I popped it in the freezer and froze it overnight and all day while I was at work the next day.

On Wednesday when I got home from work, I quickly frosted the top with my cool whip, added a few decorations/writing in Buttercream frosting and sprinkled more nerds on top. I can't believe I don't have a picture of the final cake uploaded yet. I'll upload that and edit this post soon.

It was a lot of fun to make and I'm glad to have had the experience. I was so relieved when the Mom of the Birthday girl text me and gave me rave reviews. Her Daughter loved the cake, they all loved the cake!

Whew! Ice cream cake = success.

Here are a few picture of the cupcakes. Both the ice cream cake layer and the cupcakes were box mixes-Duncan Hines marble. Easy & tasty!

 






White Buttercream Frosting
Source: The Girl Who Ate Everything
Review: I really loved this frosting. I'm not a fan of usual buttercreams and tend to go with the whipped toppings but this was really tasty. It wasn't too sweet or thick. It was so easy to make and light to work with too. It was a very smooth frosting.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Source: Hershey's 'Perfectly Chocolate' Chocolate Frosting
Review: I was sort of 'meh' on this recipe. I realized that I didn't follow the steps exactly though. It says to alternately add the powdered sugar and milk and without realizing I added all of the milk and then added the powdered sugar. The frosting had a little of a gritty taste to it which could be in part to my error. I'll definitely make this again and make sure to follow the instructions. My Husband who is a chocolate frosting lover, really liked the frosting but also commented on the gritty texture.

Baby Back Ribs

I don't know about you but I'm definitely a meat girl. Not so much meat and potatoes, but I definitely enjoy having meat. Steak, ribs, burgers... I enjoy them all. I remember when Matt and I first started dating, we went to dinner at Applebee's one night before a movie and they had some sort of ribs as a special. I ordered it and it was very tasty. Matt later told me that he was shocked that I ordered ribs. He may deny it but I bet that's when he knew he wanted to marry me. ;-)

We don't have ribs too often, but when they're on sale at the grocery store, we'll buy a rack. They're a very tasty and often simple to prepare meal. We usually have a salad with our ribs or a lighter side. If we feel like splurging a little, we'll have some mashed potatoes or a baked potato.

This recipe is all Matt's creation. He's usually the cook when we have ribs. Up until now, his best recipe was the steamed ribs he did on the gas grill.

Baby Back Ribs
Amy's Matt's Kitchen Creations original recipe

1 rack of ribs (peel the skin off the backside of the ribs)
1 cup of brown sugar
1-2 Tablespoons of Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt*
1-2 Tablespoons of Tastefully Simple Everyday Grilling Seasoning*
2 Tablespoons of Tastefully Simple Awesome American BBQ Sauce

After you've removed the skin off the backside of the ribs, rub 1/2 cup of brown sugar on each side of the ribs. Let sit in the refrigerator for 40 minutes while you prepare your charcoal grill. (a gas grill would work too, but honestly, these ribs were the most tender, flavorful ribs we've ever had)

Just before placing on the grill, season both sides with the Tastefully Simple seasonings. *Matt wasn't sure exactly how much he used, he just sprinkled the seasonings on. Use your own judgement.

Grill for about an hour and a half rotating every so often. At the one hour mark, spread the BBQ sauce over the ribs. Continue cooking for another 30 minutes. Let rest slightly before enjoying!

Smoothies

This is actually a recipe that Matt whipped up for Breakfast on Friday morning. I had taken a PTO day so he made us breakfast that morning. He scrambled some eggs up with a chopped vidalia onion and some cut up sausages. He added this smoothie to go with it and it was perfect! 

I really like smoothies but don't want to purchase them everyday. Our only options around our house for smoothies are either McDonald's or Caribou. Neither of which I consider to be real smoothies.

This one is super easy and our magic bullet makes it even easier! Smoothies in about 5 minutes flat for uber cheap!

Smoothie

Source: Amy's Kitchen Creation Original

1 cup frozen fruit (we used a blend of strawberries, blueberries, melons and grapes from Aldi)

1 cup (8oz) orange juice

Put both ingredients into the magic bullet and blend until you reach your desired consistency. We like ours thin but not too thin.

What I love most about the bullet is that there is no additional cleanup. You make your smoothie in the same cup you'll drink from. One dish is dirtied and no time is wasted!

Here's something my dear 'ol Husband doesn't know... when I made his smoothie tonight (he's been sick and requested a smoothie for 'dessert') I added 2 tsp of flax seed. hehehe Feel free to add flax seed or any other extra ingredients for added nutrition, I bet you'll never notice!

We were at Aldi again the other day and picked up a different fruit blend. I can't wait to try it. Smoothies are definitely an easy way to get in your daily recommended fruits. 

Red Velvet Cupcakes

My Mom recently had a Birthday and I offered to make her Birthday dessert. I was eager to try my hand at red velvet cake and this was the perfect occasion. I asked her if she wanted a cake or cupcakes and she chose Birthday cupcakes! Awesome! Cupcakes are easy, transportable and always well received.

I've never eaten red velvet cake before. I always had this preconceived notion that it would taste 'funny'... as if there was an absurd ingredient in it or something. Who knows. I was wrong. I was so wrong. These were phenomenal. They were perfectly moist and oh so delicious. Oh, and that cream cheese frosting? It was TDF (to.die.for). Definitely the perfect companion for my new beloved red velvet.

Annie never lets me down. I found this red velvet recipe on her website and it was perfect.

The batter is a beautiful, deep red color!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Source: Annie's Eats
Yield: about 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
For the cake:
2½ cups cake flour
1½ cups sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
1½ cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp. (1 oz.) liquid red food coloring
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. distilled white vinegar

For the frosting (see note at end)
8 oz. cream cheese
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar. Beat on medium speed until well blended. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared liners. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Let cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the vanilla extract. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth. Frost cooled cupcakes as desired. In my picture I used a Ziploc bag with a hole snipped at the end. My Mom doesn't have piping bags on hand (not many people I know do) and I didn't think to bring one with.

*Annie recommends to increase the quantities by 50% to make more frosting. This will allow you to have more frosting on your cupcake and if you're swirling it by using a large star tip, you'll want to have the additional frosting. You may end up with some frosting leftover, but hey, you'd rather have that than to be short frosting, right?

I had these cute edible decorations left from Christmastime and I used those to decorate a few of the cupcakes. Although they are edible, I don't think they're desirable. I don't know about you but when I'm eating a cupcake, I really don't want to bite into a hard crunch. I think they're really pretty on these cupcakes though. It really makes them look elegant; like little pearls.

Banana Walnut Muffins

Eeek. I didn't realize my picture was that bad. I guess that's what I get for taking pictures at 10:30pm  in an already dark kitchen. See that cute stand that I have my muffins on though? I saw my Mom had one when we were visiting and she said that she got them at Walmart for $3! When I was there the next day, lo and behold they still had some in stock! I grabbed two of these black ones and a white wire bowl that is currently housing my apples.

See?

Anyway... back to the muffins... My Mom had made some muffins a few days ago and passed this recipe along.

Banana Walnut Muffins

Adapted from: Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients:

2.5 cups of flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp table salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp flax seed

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 cup applesauce (original recipe calls for vegetable oil)

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

4 mashed bananas

Preheat your oven to 350*. In a large bowl combine the flour, baking soda, table salt, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, flax seed and walnuts, . Stir to lightly combine.

In a separate large bowl, combine your sugars, oil or applesauce, vanilla, eggs and mashed bananas. Make sure to mash your bananas completely or you'll end up with banana chunks that won't bake properly during the baking time (trust me, i know.)

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until well combined.

If you're not using cupcake liners, generously grease a muffin pan with baking non-stick spray. Divide the batter evenly into the cups. I filled them 3/4 full to almost completely full. I got two pans out of the recipe, so 24 muffins total.

WW info: 5pts per muffin

These would be a great breakfast combined with a smoothie and a small yogurt. Light, refreshing and filling!

Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

I'm really not a fan of peanut butter in treats like this. If I'm going to eat peanut butter I'd rather have a PB&J sandwich. I know, I know some people may now be considering me insane. But, it's true.

These little morsels may be a game changer though. My willpower and I can beat these little guys. I had a few of them the day I brought them to work, but that was it. I was satisfied without them. Yay!

They're really very easy to make. If you've got some pretzels, peanut butter, melting chocolate (I used almond bark) a few other ingredients and a little bit of time set aside, you too can make these! 

Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

Source: 17 & Baking

1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tsp butter, room temperature
2/3 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Pretzels (round pretzels or even the square ones will do!)
2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips (or almond bark)

In a small bowl, beat the peanut butter and butter together until smooth and creamy. Beat in the powdered sugar, light brown sugar, and vanilla extract until well mixed – you may need to add more to get the filling thick and stiff enough to hold its shape.

Roll teaspoons of the peanut butter mixture between your palms to form balls. Sandwich between two pretzels and put on a plate or cookie sheet. Freeze the pretzel sandwiches for half an hour.
Melt the chocolate according to package directions. (I put mine in the microwave for 30 seconds and then stirred it around and it was good enough. It all melted together nicely after being stirred around)

Dip each pretzel sandwich in chocolate, about halfway. If you're really feeling crazy, dip the whole darn thing. People will get a surprise bite of pretzel-y peanut butter-y goodness when they bite in. Kind of like those Take 5 candy bars! 

I set each dipped pretzel sandwich on waxed paper to let them all dry.

Creamy Chicken Taquitos

This was a fabulous, filling meal. I've had taquitos at restaurants before, usually in their appetizer samplers. They've always been pretty good. I'm pretty certain that they're always fried though. Which is obviously, why they taste so good :-)

This recipe was SO simple to prepare. Honestly. I cooked the chicken the night before, let it cool, put it in the refrigerator and then the next night it took all of about twenty minutes to prepare and only about 15 minutes in the oven. Super simple!

As you can see, there was enough filling to feed an army! I used a whole package of 10 tortillas. I made burritos with it because I knew I'd need to break into another pack of tortillas with all of that filling and I really didn't want to.

I love how crispy these got in the oven without getting too crispy. I wish I would have been better prepared. These would have gone great with some lettuce, fresh salsa, gresh guacamole and sour cream. A very quick and delicious meal for any night of the week. These would be perfect as an appetizer as well.

Go easy on the spice and you've got yourself a perfect kid-friendly, finger food meal! You could even reserve a bit of the chicken mixture, without any of the seasoning to make some for the kids; then continue on and spice it up to your tastes.

Creamy Chicken Taquitos
Adapted from: Annie's Eats

Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup Vine Ripened Salsa from Tastefully Simple
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice (I used bottled)
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin (I omitted)
1/2 tsp onion powder (I omitted)
2 tsp Garlic Garlic from Tastefully Simple
3 tbsp chopped cilantro (I used cilantro cubes)
2 tsp Onion Onion from Tastefully Simple
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Mexican cheese (any cheese will do)
10 tortillas (approx. 6 inch size)
1 tbsp Ole Ole Fiesta Sauce from Tastefully Simple
a pinch or two of coarse salt

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 425. I lightly sprayed a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray. You could use parchment paper or a silpat as well.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, salsa, lime juice, spices, cilantro, chicken, fiesta sauce and shredded cheese. Mix thoroughly until well combined.

If you need to, microwave your tortillsa just a little to make sure that they're flexible enough for tightly rolling.
Spoon about 2-3 tablespoons of the chicken mixture onto the tortilla. Roll the tortilla up tightly around the filling. Place them seam side down on your baking sheet. Continue this process with the remaining filling and tortillas. Filling them more/less to your liking.

Line them up, evenly spaced on your cookie sheet and lightly spray the tops of them with cooking spray. Take a pinch of your salt and sprinkle it over the tops. Don't skip this step. It may sound odd, but it'll be delicious.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until crisp and golden brown. Serve plain or with your favorite toppings.

I'm bummed that I didn't take any other pictures. If you want a drool-icious photo, go check out Annie's post.

Perfect Party Cookies

I've really been on a baking kick lately. I just love to be in the kitchen and baking. I love when my recipes turn out, I love when my kitchen smells of whatever is happily baking in the oven, I love the smiles on faces when someone tries something I make and they enjoy it. Baking is also a great stress reliever for me.

The only thing I don't love? Having cakes, cookies, muffins, cupcakes sitting at home and staring me in the face. I do not have very strong willpower. I will eat them. So, when I can make something and bring it to someone or somewhere I'm the happiest! I get to do something that I enjoy, gift it to someone and call it a day without adding any calories to my daily intake.

I made a double batch of these cookies one day last week to bring to my Dentist appointment and to a staff meeting at work. Who brings a box of cookies to their Dentist, right? Well, my Mom used to work at this Dentist office so I know them pretty well. I knew they wouldn't mind getting a little box of sweets for a lunch time treat.

They went over well at both locations. The Dentist emailed me and said "I just ate one of those chocolate chip cookies and thought I had died and gone to Heaven. THANK YOU soooo much for bringing them in. You are the best." Now, if that's not a compliment, I don't know what is. At our staff meeting, a coworker had three of them before we even left the meeting room. Again, I'd say that's a pretty good compliment.

You will not be disappointed when you make these cookies. They're so easy to prepare and not to mention, you don't get that many dishes dirty. You don't even need a kitchenaid/stand mixer! I mixed this all up with a spatula! One thing to note, if you're doubling the batch like I did, make sure you have enough sprinkles on hand. You'll need 8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) of sprinkles. I might have a sprinkle obsession and had plenty of them, but I don't know if non-baking households will have a sprinkle surplus like I did.

This would be perfect  to make with kids. Not too many ingredients, simple measurements and they look fun and festive. They're sure to catch a kid's eye!

This was my second time making a double batch. Can you tell I had to get creative with my sprinkle options? We've got a little Christmas sprinkles, some Spring-time sprinkles and some rainbow sprinkles.

Perfect Party Cookies
Source: Stephanie Cooks

Ingredients
1 cup of flour
1 cup of boxed yellow cake mix
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup butter melted & cooled slightly
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup chocolate chips
4 tbsp sprinkles of your choice

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Sift together your flower, cake mix and soda, set aside. In a large bowl, beat together the melted butter, egg, egg yolk and vanilla until slightly creamy. Add the sugars and stir well.Add the flour mixture, stir well to combine. Add your chocolate chips and sprinkles, sitr well to combine.

(At this point in Stephanie's recipe, she says to refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes because the dough will be runny. I've made these twice now and did not have runny dough either time. Use your discretion. If your dough is runny, refrigerate for 30 minutes. If it's not, you could charge on and not worry about refrigeration.)

Using a cookie scoop, place dough onto a greased cookie sheet. Keep dough cool in between batches. I did put mine in the refrigerator while a batch was baking.

Bake 12-15 minutes until the edges are golden brown and the center sets. Cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet and remove to a wire rack.

Personally, I love a cookie that is a little crisp but also a little chewy so I took them out at the 12 minute mark, let them cool on the sheet and then transferred them to the wire rack to cool completely.

These cookies were even worthy of me taking out my cookie jar from the cupboard! I still have some dough at home in the refrigerator. I think I'm going to bake up some cookies and sell them, bake sale style, at my garage sale this weekend. Like I said, I don't want to add too many calories to my daily intake!

Comments:

For some reason, when I made these last night again, they ended up being really thin. They spread out so much on my cookie sheet. I ended up only being able to put 6 on a cookie sheet at a time because they spread so thin. Personally, I loved them this way. The outside was just crisp enough, but they were still chewy. My Husband said "I feel like I'm eating a wafer." However, her liked them enough to still eat two.

I'm not sure what I did. I think because I was multi-tasking in the kitchen, I probably added a little bit too much, or not enough, of something. I still enjoy them, but just make sure to watch your measuring!  

Or else you'll end up with a giganto cookie!

Creamy Vanilla Pudding Cake

This dessert is one that I made as a teenager one time when my Grandma came down to Minnesota to visit when she lived in North Dakota. She had one bite of this dessert and was forever in love with it! Whenever she visited us she requested that I make this dessert. If we were up in North Dakota visiting her, she made sure she had all of the ingredients on hand so that I could make this for her. She eventually coined it, "Amy's Dessert." That's how I have it written on my recipe card. I don't even remember where I got the recipe from. I'm going to start calling it "Creamy Vanilla Pudding Cake" but deep down, it'll always be "Amy's Dessert." I always felt very special that she wanted me to make this dessert for her. We didn't live near either set of my Grandparents growing up so visiting them was always at least a weekend long visit. We'd go shopping, go to garage sales or just hang out at their house.

Grandma would always make us supper, at least once during the weekend, in her teeny tiny townhouse. There'd be 6 people, at minimum, in her townhouse but she always made us a homecooked meal in that cramped kitchen. My favorite meal? Her homemade mac and cheese. I think it's just elbow macaroni and velveeta, but as a kid, I loved it. I should get her recipe for that so I can always remember it the way Grandma used to make.

If you make this dessert, I hope you enjoy it as much as my Grandma did.While making it, I had faint memories of making it in my Parent's kitchen.

Creamy Vanilla Pudding Cake
Recipe origin: unknown
Ingredients for the crust:
1 cup of flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar

Ingredients for the filling:
1 8ounce cream cheese, softened
1 cup cool whip
I cup powdered sugar
I also added about 1/4tsp of almond extract to the filling but that's not called for in the original recipe

Ingredients for the topping:
2 pkgs vanilla instant pudding (5oz size box)
2 1/2 cups cold milk
Cool whip per your preference (if you want a lot of cool whip on top, use a lot; if you want a little, use a little)

*cool whip note: I used almost all of a 16oz container of cool whip between the 1 cup used for the filling and the topping.

Mix the crust ingredients until they're well combined and the result is a moist but crumbly mixture. I used a pastry blender to help me with this process. Once combined, press mixture into a 9x13, lightly greased, pan. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes until light golden brown.

The crust needs to be completely cool before you can top it with the filling.

When you're ready to make the filling, combine the softened cream cheese and the powdered sugar together. I put the cream cheese in a medium sized mixing bowl first. I whipped it up a little with my hand held mixer until it got really creamy and soft. Then, I added the powdered sugar and used a spatula to help mix the two together knowing that I'd create way too much powdered sugar dust if I went at it with my hand held mixer! Once they were well mixed together using the spatula, I used my hand held mixer for a minute or so to make sure that they were completely combined. Fold in the 1 cup of cool whip and spread out evenly on the crust. After they're mixed together, it sort of resembles marshmallow fluff I thought. It's a stirable mixture but it looks really sticky.

Then, it's time to prepare the filling! Combine your 2 packages of pudding mix with the 2 1/2 cups milk in a medium bowl (I used the same bowl I used for my filling) and whisk until it's thick. You don't want it to become set in your bowl, but you want it to be thick and pourable.

Pour the pudding mixture onto the filling layer and make sure it's spread out evenly. The final topping is the cool whip layer.

Top with as much or as little cool whip as you'd like. I top mine with just enough so that it's almost touching the top of the sides of my baking dish.

I think I should work on making my layers more even, don't you think? Oops! It's not too pretty when you look at it from this view.

I do think that the next time I make this, I may make the crust layer a double batch so that it's a bit thicker. There is so much on top of it that I just feel the crust should be thicker.

I'll be eating this tonight for an early Easter meal with my Husband's family. I'll definitely be back to share how it was received by everyone. I hope it's as good as I remember it being.

If you make this, I'd love to hear how you like it!

Edited to add: Well, it got rave reviews at dinner! My Husband's Grandma even asked for the recipe. I think that's always a compliment. I still think I'd double the crust layer next time and be careful to not be cool whip heavy for the topping.

Spicy Black Bean Burritos

Coming from someone who doesn't typically enjoy black beans, this was really good and I will likely make them again. They were very simple and it was a fun, filling dinner that both my Husband and I enjoyed.

Spicy Black Bean Burritos

Recipe from: None other than Annie's Eats

Yields about 6 servings

Ingredients for the bean fillings:

2 tsp vegetable oil

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp minced chipotle in adobo sauce

1/4 tsp kosher salt

A dash of cayenne peppper

1/3 cup chicken broth

2 (15oz) cans of black beans, drained & rinsed

6 tbsp salsa

6 tortillas, warmed (9-inch or 10-inch size)

You'll also want your choice of toppings such as:

Shredded cheese

Diced tomatoes

Shredded lettuce

Chopped green onions

Sour Cream

Avocado/Guacamole

Directions:

To make the bean fillings, heat the oil in a skillet on medium-high heat.  Add the garlic, chili powder, chipotle in adobo sauce, salt & cayenne pepper. Stir and cook just until fragrant, about 30-60 seconds.  Add the beans and the broth.  Bring the mixture to a boil.  Reduce the heat to medium-low and allow the mixture to simmer for about 10 minutes.  Remove the skilled from the heat, stir in the salsa and mash the mixture with a spoon.

Spoon about a third cup of the bean mixture down the center of each tortilla.  Top each with your desired toppings.  Roll the tortilla up tightly, burrito style, and serve immediately.