Enchiladas with Black Beans and Rice

These are SO GOOD.
adapted from: http://www.motherthyme.com/2012/10/black-bean-and-rice-enchiladas-with.html

shown here served with avocado and salsa

Ingredients:

For Enchilada Sauce:
8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 cup water
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
dash of red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

For Enchiladas:
2 cups cooked brown rice (save yourself time and buy one of those microwave pouches of already cooked rice. I bought seeds of change brown rice and quinoa with garlic).
15.5 oz. can black beans - drained and rinsed!
1 cup corn (I used some thawed frozed corn)
1/2 cup chunky salsa
2 cups Mexican cheese
1 1/2 cups enchilada sauce (recipe above)
10 6" flour tortillas (I found slightly larger tortillas - maybe 10 inch? package of 8, and the filling fit perfectly in 8 of them)


Instructions

For Enchilada Sauce:
In a small bowl wisk together tomato sauce, water, chili powder, cayenne, pepper flakes, tomato paste, garlic powder, salt and cumin until blended and set aside.
Heat vegetable oil over medium heat in a small saucepan. Stir in flour until flour dissolved. Gradually whisk in tomato mixture. Reduce heat to low and stir until sauce thickens, about 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.Makes 1 1/2 cups enchilada sauce.

For Enchiladas:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray non stick cooking spray on a 9"x13" casserole dish and set aside. (I ended up using 1 9x13 pyrex dish plus another 8x8...probably because I had larger tortillas)
In a large bowl combine rice, black beans, corn, salsa, 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce and 1 1/2 cups of cheese. Stir until combined.
Divide mixture between each tortilla. Wrap each tortilla and place seam side down in casserole dish. Pour remaining enchilada sauce on top.
Bake for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake for an additional 5 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly.

NOTES:
To reduce the fat/calories, next time I may half the canola oil and flour (just because the sauce was VERY thick, and I think it would have been fine a little bit thinner). Also might be worth trying low fat or fat free or whole wheat tortillas, low fat cheese, or no-sodium products to make it a little healthier. I'm also wondering if reducing the salt in the sauce will make any difference.

Ryan's Ghost Pepper and Jalapeno Salsa

adapted from: http://www.insanechicken.com/blog/ghost-pepper-salsa-recipe/

Ingredients:

6 large tomatoes * , peeled and chopped
1 can plain diced tomatoes (optional - see below)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small/medium yellow onion, chopped
jalapenos, chopped (Ryan used 4)
ghost peppers, chopped (fresh - Ryan used 3)
1 tsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
small amount of water (optional)

*We only had 3 small/medium tomatoes from the garden plus some cherry tomatoes. we used these plus a can of plain diced tomatoes. If you have enough fresh tomato you can omit the canned. The canned added a significant amount of liquid so adding water was not necessary. I would wait til all ingredients are added before you decide whether more moisture is needed.

Instructions:
First, peel the tomatoes. To do this, bring a pot of water to boil. cut a shallow "X" pattern on the bottom of each tomato. Drop into boiling water for about 30 seconds until skin starts to wrinkle. Take out and place in a bath of ice water. Then peel the skin off and chop into chunks. (Very small tomatoes will only take a few seconds in the boiling water).

Add chopped tomatoes to a pan with all other ingredients. Turn up heat until bubbling then turn to low and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes. Let sit for 1-2 minutes. Add salsa to food processor or blender and pulse until desired consistency is reached. Refrigerate.