Operation: Eat Salsa!

We currently have an over abundance of salsa. . . and no chips. I keep thinking about the episode of Everybody Loves Raymond when Ray's father becomes obsessed with salsa. Ray tells his dad that, yes, he has tried salsa before, and his dad responds with, "but I bet you've never had it . . . on a chip!"  HA.

Here's a nice alternative to the chip.  An egg fried on a corn tortilla with re-fried black beans and . . . SALSA! Or more commonly known as huevos rancheros!

Well.  We didn't have any re-fried black beans.  But we did have black beans!  So me and my awesome ingenuity created our own version of "re-fried"  I like to think it's a bit healthier too.  But then, I like to think a lot of things.

I used about 1/2 TBS of olive oil and minced up a clove of garlic.  Over medium heat I let the garlic cook in the oil for just a few minutes until it starts to smell so good you want to pick it out of the pan with your fingers.  Then I added my black beans.  Mine were canned and were already drained and rinsed so I added about 1/4c of water too.  If you opened a fresh can you could just dump it all in there.

As the beans heat up, throw some salt in there and maybe some cayenne pepper or whatever sounds good.  Then as the water bubbles start mashing the beans with the back of a spoon.

Keep going.  Keep going.  It won't be perfect but you'll get there!  And soon it will look something like this.  If it's too thin just leave it on the heat to cook some water off.  Of course if it's too thick you can always add more water.  The garlic and salt gives the beans enough flavor to make them a bit more interesting, but these are still healthier than regular re-fried beans.

Now for the main event!  Start with a little olive oil in a hot skillet and fry up one side of a corn tortilla.  I tend to use as little oil as possible which means that I'm constantly swirling to try and get the oil spread evenly.

Get that side just barely cooked and flip the sucker over, you'll get another chance to brown it so don't over cook them. 

Then crack an egg right over one of your tortillas.  I happen to have a wonky element (read: innovative) so I had to squish each tortilla against one side to keep the egg from sliding completely off the tortilla.  This left mine a little lopsided, but still edible.  While it's cooking sprinkle some salt, pepper, or whatever-is-in-your-cupboard over it.  Then when the white of the egg are looking mostly done, flip the egg and tortilla over again to let the top of the egg cook.  These are best when the yolk is still a bit runny, but remember that the egg is getting heat through the tortilla so it might take longer than normal to cook.

When it's done top it with some black beans, some fresh cilantro and some . . . SALSA.

I'm sure these would have been great with some melted cheese on top . .  .mmmm. . . .cheese . . .  but I was trying to cut down on extra calories and they turned out pretty good on their own.  Remember to season your egg though, that makes a big difference.  And of course, so does the homemade SALSA.