black bean " fritters ...? "

So... these were created out of a desperate attempt to make something tasty for girls' night whilst one of our girls was doing a "slow carb" diet. (whatever the heck that is) ;) Love you, boo. Basically it means she can't eat anything that we normally have on girls' night because that's our night to go ape.

I also didn't have much in the fridge. BUT- I did have black beans and fresh jalapenos... that usually makes for a winning something, right? I actually ended up kind of liking these things ohhh three days later... but at first try, I wasn't having it. And the poor girls probably weren't havin' it either but A: it was all I made considering her slow carb thing and B: they're WAY too loving and supportive to tell me when something I make stinks. (speaking of the girls being loving and supportive, I've gotta tell you something so sweet at the end of this post, so stick around)

SO- try these if you're willing to not love them at first haha... basically I'm giving myself a public "fail" here, friends... but like I said, they'll turn out better a few days later, especially topped with a tiny bit of goat's cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. Goat's cheese makes everything taste good.

I used:

• black beans
• fresh garlic
• corn
• hummus - recipe here.
• fresh jalapeno
• avocado
• lime juice
• dijon mustard
• cayenne pepper
• chili powder
• black pepper
• salt to taste
• extra virgin olive oil
• Jiffy corn mix

* i was making these for three people, so i used about a cup and a half of beans and corn, half an avocado, half a jalapeno, etc... and i've still got mix sitting in the fridge so don't over do it.

That's right. You see Jiffy corn mix on that ingredients list. It's a total nostalgic love thing. My mom uses it. Her mom uses it. Anything they use (for the most part), I use. I have WAY too many fond memories of making Jiffy corn cakes with my mom to not have it in my pantry for whatever occasion I deem necessary. Onwards!

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Combine the black beans, garlic, corn, hummus, jalapeno, avocado and lime juice in your food processor or Vitamix. (ps: Vitamix is on sale right now at Costco for $349! WAY DISCOUNTED) Toss in the cayenne, chili powder and pepper and continue blending until it's a gritty type mush.

Great! Now that it looks like gritty cement, pour it into a bowl and add in dijon mustard, more pepper and salt to taste and stir.

Okay the mix is done so set that aside. Get out a big plate and pour some jiffy corn mix on it. Spread it out across the bottom of the plate.

Now here's the fun part! Lightly olive oil the bottom of a baking sheet. Get out your cookie scoop, if you have one... if you don't, sprinkle little piles of the jiffy onto the baking sheet in the spots where you'll dollop on a spoonful of the black bean mixture. People with scoops! Scoop a bit of the mixture and "dip" the bottom into the corn mixture like so.

cool right?

Now dollop these babies all over the cookie sheet and sprinkle the tops of each with more jiffy. Slightly flatten them with the back of a spatula so they can easily cook through. Place them in the oven for about 25 minutes, flipping them at the 15 minute mark.

That's it! If you want to keep with the slow carb thing, serve them as is with a side of caramelized onions... that's what I did and they were good! Just not great haha! Honestly. :D Having said that though, they really did taste better the second time I made them after the mixture had time to sit in the fridge. So who knows... maybe the jalapeno didn't have enough time to flavor the beans, maybe I used too much avocado, I don't know. But try them for yourself and see if you can get them to taste great! The consistency is awesome and the idea is cool, too so, I'll definitely make them again. Just not sure what I'll do differently next time.

Nothing like shamelessly posting your "not best" work for the world to see online! :) All I'm saying is, I'm in it with you, friends... sometimes your culinary genius has a brain fart moment and leaves you wondering what the heck you just made. Happens to the best of us. ;)

LOTS OF LOVE to you today!

xox

the amazing little tid-bit I wanted to share with you here is that even after my horrible fail at girls'night... ginny and steph announced to me that they are coming over on Sunday night with their FAVORITE Recitherapy dish to celebrate our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of RECITHERAPY! aren't they the sweetest?! so stay tuned! photos to come, re-posts of their fave recipes and GIVEAWAYS!