I haven't cooked this much since I was cooking for a living! Every night I try to come up with something different so it's not boring for The Man, or for me. Plus, I try to make it something that is easy to reheat for lunch the next day, as he loves his "Lex-overs"... yeah, cheezy, but really cute. Great sale on chicken breasts at work (all natural, free range, hormone and antibiotic free chicken boobies that were almost a pound each!), so obviously we were having chicken. But how? We did chicken parm a few weeks ago. (with his ah-may-zing sauce; definitely the topic of a future blog.) Chicken corn chowder was just a week ago, and how many soups can one man eat? Plus, I had just finished working all day and didn't want to eat at midnight. It was a toss up between a stirfry and something Mexican, and the black beans were calling to me. Grabbed a few things from the market and got to cooking. First things first, a batch of white rice in the rice cooker. Onions and garlic sauteed in some olive oil in a big pan, with chili powder and cumin, a little chopped red bell pepper, strips of chicken, cilantro and parsley. As the veggies and chicken browned, I halved some grape tomatoes and added them to the pot with a splash of chicken stock. Seasoned with salt and pepper, and was unimpressed. Hmmmmm.... a ha!! I added the half a jar of roasted garlic salsa that was in the 'fridge, and it came together nicely. A couple of cans of black beans, drained but not rinsed, and the pan was turned down to simmer while the rice finished. In about twenty minutes, I was dishing up an amazing smelling bowl of goodness, topped with a little shredded cheddar and jack mix, a couple of lime wedges and a half of a nicely ripe avocado. Really good, really fast.