PINTO BEAN BURGERS AND QUINOA, ZUCCHINI, AND CORN MEDLEY

Yesterday I Made:

SOUTHWEST PINTO BEAN BURGERS WITH CHIPOTLE VEGENAISE and QUINOA,CORN AND ZUCCHINI MEDLEY for DINNER.

I've made this awesome burger many times and even posted it here.

It's still my all time favorite homemade patty.

It's spicy and just plain delicious.

I wanted to have a side dish that was fresh and healthy.

So, I decided on a tasty quinoa salad.

This recipe is different because it calls for raw zucchini,which we've never eaten raw.

It also contains green onions, corn, cilantro pine nuts, and an added surprise, HAZELNUTS!

The salad was dressed with a light orange, lemon dressing.

ZUCCHINI-CORN TACOS, NOPALITOS-STYLE CHAYOTE SALAD AND ARROZ VERDE

Today I Made:

ZUCCHINI-CORN TACOS, NOPALITOS-STLE CHAYOTE SALAD AND ARROZ VERDE for SALAD.

All recipes from VEGETARIAN TIMES May/June 2009.

The zucchini-corn filling turned out to be THE best taco filling we've ever had (not counting the Soy-Chorizo tacos from Hugo's Tacos).

Sauteed zucchini, thinly sliced garlic cloves, corn, pinto beans, and cilantro.

Served with warm tortillas and drizzled with homemade red salsa.

The salad originally called for NOPALITOS, but was substituted with Chayote squash (pear-shaped Mexican squash).

Along with the chayote, the salad included radishes, green onions, spinach, and dressed with a lime-chile dressing.

I loved it, but my husband thought the dressing was way too sour.

Arroz Verde literally means "Green Rice."

I used brown rice instead of long-grain white rice as was called for in the original recipe.

A blend of arugula, poblano chiles, parsley, cilantro onion, garlic mixed with water turns and flavors the rice green.

The rice turned out a little more like risotto, maybe too much liquid?

But the overall flavor was out of this world.

I will be keeping this recipe in my list of favorites.