Black Bean Veggie Tostada

Fresh tomatoes, green crisp lettuce, sweet corn, slightly spicy salsa, fragrant cilantro, crunchy tortilla... Yes! Another great Mexican inspired meal. Its fast, fun, and delicious. 

Black Bean Veggie Tostada 
(aka the 10 minute, kid friendly, healthy dinner)

I have made this several times throughout the years. I wish I could remember where I got the recipe from. It is fail proof. I promise. This works well anytime of the year. In the summer it can be a very light and refreshing meal perfect when you don't want to heat up your house. Or during the colder months its great because you can make it more hardy by changing up the veggies, and adding meat. Either way its a very family friendly meal that's easy! Just because Monday night football pizza night is over,  doesn't mean fun with food stops. Every once in a while you gotta have some laid back, good food that you can eat with your hands. Right? Right. Good. So grab several napkins you'll need them! Your eyes will enjoy all the pops of color and your taste buds will thank you.  It's not a great picture, but you get the idea.

Ingredients:

• 4 tortillas store bought or homemade 
• 1/2 cup of white, wild, or brown rice cooked (according to package directions)
• 1 cup of black beans, cooked (from a can or dried beans homemade)
• 1 cup frozen corn*, defrosted
• 3/4 cup - 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese ( Pepper Jack would taste good too)
• couple Tbs of your favorite kind of salsa 
• handful cilantro, chopped
• 1 or 2 small roma tomatoes (depending on your taste)
• 1 cup romaine lettuce, chopped into bite size pieces
• 1/2 red pepper, finely diced 
• Meat if so desired (this is a great use for leftover chicken or taco meat of any kind)
• sour cream or greek yogurt

*(in the summer months I use fresh grilled corn, and grilled or sautéed zucchini)



Directions:
1. If you have leftover rice to use - preheat that in the microwave if not cook some up. I used some wild rice in the dinner pictured above. 

2. Ditto with leftover black beans. If you don't have any leftovers to use up. Grab a can of black beans and use those... just be sure to drain and rinse well.

3. Prep all your veggies  and put on a plate or small bowls for easy tostada building. You could easily do this family style so everyone gets to do their own and pick whatever veggies they want to eat. 

4.  Preheat your oven to 350 and throw your taco shells directly in the oven on the rack and let them crisp up (takes only a 3-4 minutes) The firmer they get, the crunchier they will be, and easier to eat. This is also easily done on the bbq if its summer time and the idea of putting the oven on makes you cringe. 

5.  Pull the shells out and start building. Put your cheese down first so it can act as the glue to the other ingredients. I usually do it somewhat in this order... heavier stuff to lighter stuff. I aim for 1/4 cup of rice and 1/4 cup beans on each one. Starting with the meat if using, beans, rice, corn, salsa, tomatoes, lettuce red pepper, sour cream, cilantro, ect... anything you eat on a taco is great here. After all a tostada is just a messy flat taco right? 

6. Grab some napkins or paper towels and dig in :) 

Recipe makes 4 tostadas good for 2 or 3 people. My son can eat a whole one but he has a big appetite. For smaller kids it may be easier and more fun to use a circle cookie or biscuit cutter and cut a few smaller circles out of one tortillas. It would be easier for them hold and eat if you are doing the messy fun dinner like what we did. 

Now who said eating your veggies was hard.... 

Enjoy!

From my kitchen to yours!