Changing tastebuds?

I’m in complete shock that my tastes and preferences have changed already.  I’ve been having a green monster every morning for breakfast before leaving the house for not even a week, in addition to eating mostly vegetarian the rest of the day and I think my tastebuds are changing already. 

Yesterday I had a Cadbury Cream Egg for the first time this year (they’re on sale now and I’m cheap!).  I used to be able to down these things one after another…yesterday it was too sweet and made my mouth and teeth feel really icky.  For my lunch wraps this week the first two days I used some leftover chicken from Saturday’s Easter Dinner chicken and I just didn’t really like the texture much.  I left out the chicken today.  I’ve also been really enjoying fresh tomatoes in my sandwhiches/wraps and traditionally I’ve hated fresh tomatoes.  I can’t wait to see what else is going to change.

Black Bean and Rice Wraps

For the last week I’ve been trying to find a black bean and rice recipe that I can use as a wrap filling for lunches.  The biggest problem I had was that I didn’t want to rely on store bought salsa for flavour and heat but didn’t necessarily feel confident enough in my tex-mex cooking to do it myself.  After finding some things and being completely uninspired by them, I decided to wing it last night and make my own.

Black Bean and Rice Wraps

 

1 cup uncooked Brown Rice

2 1/2 cups water

1 (14oz) can Black Beans

1 medium Onion, diced

1 tsp olive oil

4 cloves garlic, diced

1-2 jalapenos, diced (with or without seeds)

1 medium Green Pepper, diced

4-5 Tomatoes, diced

1 cup frozen corn

1/2 tsp cumin, chili powder, salt, red pepper flakes

1tsp black pepper

1. Put rice and water into a medium saucepan, bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer untill rice is done and water is absorbed.

2. Heat oil in a large saucepan or wok, add onions and garlic; sautee till soft and onions are translucent.  Add green pepper, jalapeno, and spices, sautee for about 5 minutes.  Mix in tomato, cook untill tomato is soft and mostly broken down.

3. Drain and rinse black beans.  Stir in black beans and frozen corn, heat through.  Add rice once it’s done, mix well.  Use in wraps with lettuce, sour cream, cheese, and avacado. 

Out of this recipe I got 2 wraps last night, 2 wraps for lunch today plus 5 1-cup portions in baggies which I froze for later.  I used jalapenos I had bought, diced and frozen when they were on sale this summer.  It wasn’t spicy enough for me, next time I’ll use fresh jalapenos and leave some seeds in.  I’ll probably up the spices used next time too, except for the salt and pepper.  You could probably use quinoa or some other grain instead of the rice and could use a mix of beans as well.