Winding Down!

I love Thursday nights since Fridays are so close by that I can almost taste it! Usually on Thursdays we lounge on the couch & catch up on the shows we've taped during the week & have a glass of wine (or two, or three if I really want to get crazy!) Sometimes we order in & sometimes I cook. Tonight I decided to whip up a recipe involving portabella mushrooms that was inspired by a chef at my work.

I made what I'll call, Southwestern Stuffed Mushrooms. Basically I sauteed onion & garlic, added a bit of white wine & chicken broth & let it reduce a bit. Then I mixed in a rinsed can of black beans, a squirt of tomato paste*, Rotel tomatoes/green chilis, a packet of 90 second, microwaved Spanish rice & chopped cilantro. Mike suggested that I mix in some goat cheese, which added a nice, creamy tang, but is absolutely optional.

After drizzling some olive oil, salt & pepper over the clean portabella mushrooms, I piled them high with the bean mixture & baked them in a 350 degree oven for about fifteen minutes. They were absolutely delish & very healthy. Even though this happened to be a vegetarian dish, you wouldn't even miss the meat if you're a big carnivore. You could get very creative in concocting mixtures to stuff into the mushrooms; Greek themed with feta, sun-dried tomatoes, olives & onions or even pizza-flavored with fresh mozzarella, basil & even pepperoni.

Hope I inspired you to make something new!



*And yes, they do make tomato paste in a tube; just make sure you don't get it confused with your toothpaste or you may have a not so gleamy smile! Works great since there are so many times you can add tomato paste to a dish for concentrated flavor & you don't have to worry about wasting the rest of the can. I don't know about you, but I usually end up putting the remainder in a Tupperware container since I feel bad about throwing away half of a can of perfectly good tomato paste. Then I inevitably toss it anyway, after finding it buried in the back of the fridge three weeks later!