Easy Black Bean Tostada’s
Last night I wanted to make a quick and easy dinner. One of our default easy dinners is tostadas. Tostada shells (or baked corn tortillas), canned refried beans, whatever easy veggies can go on top (usually greens and tomatoes sometimes leftover roasted veggies from earlier meals), and salsa. Simple, fast, crowd pleaser.
The simple, easy, 10-minute dinner quickly became derailed when
- I discovered we didn’t have refried beans (a staple in our house) and
- Jon notified me that our tortillas weren’t good anymore
I was really in the mood for tostadas and didn’t want to use my imagination to find something else for dinner, so even though we were down two main ingredients I decided to make tostadas anyway. I grabbed Eli, one of my favorite sous chefs, and we whipped up homemade tostadas from scratch. With Eli helping it only took about 25-30 minutes, so not a 10 minute prep but: it was FUN, I got to spend time in the kitchen with my kid, and we both learned new things like corn tortillas are SUPER EASY to make.
Corn TORTILLAS
For the corn tortillas we used this Gimme Some Oven recipe: simple and easy. Ours may not have been as round or thin but for sure way more unique and just as tasty.
Masa, salt, water.
Mix. Flatten. Cook.
Can’t get much easier than that. Try it!
BEANS
Ingredients:
1/2 Red onion
3 Cloves of garlic minced (or use frozen garlic cubes from Trader Joe’s)
1 Tbs avocado oil
2 cans of black beans drained and rinsed
1/2 cup of salsa
1/2 cup non-dairy milk of choice (I used soy)
Directions:
Saute onions and garlic in a saucepan over medium heat in small amount of avocado oil
Add two cans of black beans
Add about a half a cup of dairy free milk of choice
Add about half a cup of salsa
Use a potato masher (or fork or spatula or whatever you want) to smash them up as much as you want to smash them
SO-GOOD TOPPER
3 radishes diced in ¼ inch blocks
½ cucumber diced in ¼ inch blocks
½ cup frozen corn
1 avocado cut into ¼ inch blocks
Juice from 1 lime
¼ cups of cilantro (Just learned recently that you can freeze cilantro! Now I have it on hand all the time)
Salt and pepper to taste
Mix all ingredients
Build your tostada and enjoy!
Finished Results!
Nutritious Parenting Pro-Tip: Have your kids try to make the prettiest plate and take a picture of it. The challenge of making it pretty means their food has more color. Color = Variety = More fiber, vitamins, antioxidants in their lives! The more you can incorporate your kids into the cooking process the better.
This meal’s PLANT POINTS: 11
Dena DePiazza is a National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach and is certified as a Certified Pain Management Coach. She is your personal advocate for living an energized and passionate life. She works with clients to help them create healthy lives in a way that is flexible, fun, and free of denial and unsustainable discipline. By working together, you can discover lifestyle choices that best support you. Dena helps you learn to make gradual, lifelong changes that will enable you to reach your current and future health goals.
with a Bachelor’s Degree in Nutritional Sciences. She is a Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Nutrition Coach through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM).
Nadia enjoys providing the guidance and support people need to achieve good health and considers herself their biggest cheerleader when they decide to make their health a priority. As a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, Nadia works with clients one on one to help them optimize their health through holistic health practices. She helps reduce the symptoms of chronic illness through nutrition and lifestyle practices, but is not limited to helping anyone who wants to learn how to make better choices. She teaches clients basic kitchen skills, how to read labels and will even do grocery tours. As a personal trainer, Nadia works with clients of all levels, ages and in various settings. She has taught group fitness classes and worked with clients one on one. She emphasizes the importance of staying injury free and building strength to move about their day without pain.
Karissa originally attended Westmont College in beautiful Santa Barbara, and began her B.S. in Psychology, then transferred to Montreat College, in the Appalachian hills of North Carolina, graduating Cum Laude with a B.S. in Music Therapy, and a double minor in Psychology and Music Business.
