Burritochiladas

Sometimes I invent recipes based on "things that have been in my pantry a while and I want to get rid of" and "ingredients in the supermarket that are cheap and healthy." Sometimes these recipes fail, but other times they're delicious. Fortunately, this one fit into the latter category.

Burritochiladas are a combination burrito-and-enchilada. They're tortillas filled with rice and beans, burrito style, then covered in tomato and cheeze sauce and baked, enchilada style. This did turn out being rather "step intensive" to prepare all the different stuff, and in the end I had WAAAY too much filling so I'm going to write this out using half as much rice as I used which should solve that problem.

Now these are a mild Mexican flavored food because you're probably aware of my onion and spicy things issue by now.. but one could definitely kick it up by sauteeing a diced onion and some jalapenos (or hot peppers of your liking) and adding them in with the other veggies.


Burritochiladas
8 whole wheat tortillas (NOT the huge burrito/wrap sized ones!)
1 can vegetarian refried beans
1 28 oz can tomato sauce
1 1/4 cup instant brown rice
1 bell pepper, color of your choosing, diced
1 1/2 cups frozen corn niblets
6 cups chopped kale
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground paprika
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp chili powder
2 clove garlic, pressed or grated
water
[URL="http://megatarian.blogspot.com/2008/10/vegnews-mac-cheese.html"]1/2 recipe of Cheeze sauce from Veg News Mac & Cheeze recipe[/URL] (optional -- you could get away with some grated vegan cheddar, or nothing at all)

1. For the rice -- prepare according to liquid:rice ratio on the box, substituting 1/2 of the water with tomato sauce. Add 1/2 tsp each onion powder, cumin powder, paprika and oregano to the cooking liquid.

2. Meanwhile... sautee the bell pepper and the kale in the olive oil until the kale is wilted. Add the frozen corn and cook until the corn is defrosted. If you find the veggies sticking to the pan, add a little water to sautee in. Stir the veggies into the rice when the rice is finished cooking.

3. Add the garlic and the rest of the spices to the tomato sauce.

4. Now start assembly. Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce in the bottom of a 9X13 inch baking dish. Take a tortilla and spread it with refried beans. Add a few heaping scoops of the rice mixture, and roll it up. Place the tortilla seam side down in the bottom of the baking dish, and repeat with the other 7. You should end up with 2 rows of 4 burritochiladas.

5. Top the tortilla rolls with the rest of the tomato sauce. Top that with the cheeze sauce. Bake uncovered at 375 for about 30 minutes until the sauce is bubbly.