Black Refried Beans (from scratch) & doing dinner with an infant

When I was prego I craved taco bell's bean & cheese burritos sans onions bad really bad. But there were a few problems with this craving. Cravings are never convenient. First, I live out in the middle of nowhere sort of. I am 20 minutes away from my fav fast food place, that one that serves amazing chicken sandwiches and advertise with cows. My son adores those cows. Its quite funny actually. We are surrounded by cow farms and they sink really bad. Yet, he doesn't adore those. There is a large disconnect going on someplace. 

Second, I refused to drive that far in my uncomfortable state in hot Az weather (105+ degrees F) to give in to something that was so nutritionally deficient I couldn't even justify it to myself - let alone let a little helpless baby in my tummy eat some junk like that. True story. Just don't ask me about not caving into an ice cream fast food blizzard craving that made me sicker than I care to remember. Deal? Good :)

So I found this recipe and slowly it has evolved into a "go to" dinner for my oldest son and I. It is especially handy now that my littlest guy is a few months old now, and wants to be held all the time time. I can make this awesome creamy homemade refried beans as a side dish at nap time and then and reheat it later or the next day. You'll need this recipe for delicious taco bell-esce bean & cheese burritos (incase you get umm a crazy craving like I did), bean dip, nachos, for Cinco de Mayo coming up in a few months, tacos, black bean & cheese quesadillas, or if you are already planning ahead for snacks during the first preseason football game in the fall (my favorite sport). 

Here's my recipe adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

2 - 14-15oz cans of black beans, reduced sodium, one can drained and the beans rinsed

(if you forget to keep the other undrained add some water)

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp onion powder

3/4 tsp chili powder

3/4 tsp cumin

2 Tbs oil

2 garlic cloves, peeled but not smashed

4 Step Directions:

1. Heat the oil to medium and cook the garlic cloves in the oil until they are brown on both sides about 4 minutes.

2. Smash the garlic cloves, carefully with a fork, & add in the beans and spices.

3. Stir often cook for 5 minutes until beans are heated. Then smash them your preferred thickness of refried beans. I prefer really creamy ones like out of the can from the store - so I pull out my old hand head mixer and it gets it super creamy - no lumps in about 3 minutes. Note I always use a metal pot just incase the mixer scraps the bottom of the pan - don't want to scratch up a nonstick pot. An immersion blender would be awesome at this too.

4. Taste & adjust salt or pepper if needed. 

Eat while warm or cover and refrigerate for later. 
Enjoy!