• Tortilla Black Bean Casserole (see recipe below)
• Chicken-Avocado Soup
• Salsa Rice
• Chipotle Corn Salad

Start your dinner with Chicken-Avocado Soup and then move on to Tortilla Black Bean Casserole, Salsa Rice, and Chipotle Corn Salad for the entire Southwestern experience. Adding salsa to the water for cooking the rice is a nice trick to remember: You can add all kinds of flavors to rice this way. This is another dinner that can easily be made for a vegetarian diet: Just use tomato soup in place of the chicken -- it will be just as good.

Tortilla Black Bean Casserole recipe

Bring chicken broth to a boil. Stir in diced cooked chicken, diced avocado, broken tortilla chips, and chopped cilantro.

Following directions on package, subtract 1/4 cup water and add 1/2 cup salsa for each batch of rice you make for dinner.

Chop green onion and tomato and add to drained canned corn. Stir in chipotle-flavored salsa to taste. (Add a dash or two of chipotle hot sauce to regular salsa if you don't have chipotle salsa.)