When You've Got a Hankering for Black Beans...

Last week I had a total craving for black beans. We went through an assortment of recipes for black beans and decided that we were all far too hungry to make anything too fancy (though we logged away black bean burgers for a later time); we decided on black beans and rice, salad, and tilapia.

To make it even simpler, we bought canned black beans, otherwise we would have had to soak them, and we were just too hungry for that. We picked out two nice looking tilapia fillets and got cooking! We wanted to do baked breaded talapia, so we set out some bowls with milk, corn starch (you could use flour if you so desired), and seasoned bread crumbs.

1. Get the rice started in the rice cooker.
2. Cut up some onion to mix in with the black beans and start sauteing.
3. Add the black beans with the liquid in the can; this makes a tasty little sauce for your beans. Add some garlic powder and salt once your onions are ready. Let simmer until the liquid thickens.
4. Dip the tilapia fillets into the cornstarch to make coating easier. Then dip into the milk and then into the bread crumbs.
5. Place the breaded fillets into a lightly greased baking pan. We wanted a bit of cheese, so we sprinkled some mozzarella over the fillets to melt. Put in the oven on about 350 for 15-20 minutes, or until the fillets easily flake with a fork.

All that's left to do is add to your plate with some salad! We like spinach an awful lot, and put some mandarin oranges on top with a lovely raspberry vinaigrette.

Man, I love black beans, so this really hit the spot. The mandarin oranges on the salad was fantastic, too.

Hope you all enjoy this meal!