Mexican Fiesta!

I've been on a "homemade" kick lately, and I've been trying to avoid store-bought food whenever possible. I was craving Mexican food, so I decided for the first time ever to make my own refried beans. Definitely a winner! Not only were the beans lower in fat than the store brands, but they were much more flavorful. I put the beans in my slow-cooker at 10 a.m, and they were done a little after 6 pm.

I also decided to try my hand at making chimichangas. I ran into a couple of problems here, the main one being I was unable to find the large flour tortillas that the recipe called for. I had to make do with the next biggest size, but that caused some problems later on in the recipe. I couldn't tuck the sides in without ingredients spilling everywhere, so I ended up rolling the tortillas like burritos and baking them instead of frying them (which actually worked out for the best, since I'm trying to watch what I eat and I rarely fry food). I sprayed the bottom of the pan with cooking spray, and then I lightly brushed olive oil over the top of the tortillas.

Refried Beans (Source: All Recipes)

Ingredients:

1 onion, peeled and halved

3 cups dry pinto beans, rinsed

1/2 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
2 T minced garlic
5 tsp salt
1 3/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/8 tsp ground cumin (optional)
9 cups water

Directions:

1. Place the onion, rinsed beans, jalapeno, garlic, salt, pepper, and cumin into a slow cooker. Pour in the water and stir to combine. Cook on High for 8 hours, adding more water as needed. Note: if more than 1 cup of water has evaporated during cooking, then the temperature is too high.
2. Once the beans have cooked, strain them, and reserve the liquid. Mash the beans with a potato masher, adding the reserved water as needed to attain desired consistency.