Orangey Black-Bean Stuffed Shells

From cooking last week, I had left-over pasta shells and a left-over mix of black beans and red kidney beans. Plus, I had about four oranges, mainly because I'd gotten some for fresh orange zest for cookie repeats last week *AND* apparently I have to nab at least two of any fruit that's given out for free at work, even if I don't like it. Which means, I came home with *two more* oranges that I needed to do something with.

So, given that and the fact that I've been on a temperature-craze lately (i.e. I've been enjoying experimenting with a mix of hot and cold ingredients in preparation for the summer months), I decided to try utilizing all three ingredients and whipping them up into something ravishing. Which was not, in fact, the end result. But at least it was edible and didn't give me food poisoning. Woot woot.

Directions (with complete lack of specificity--I was hungry, and I made this back on Thursday without jotting anything down, so I am sorry to say I remember not a thing today):

Dice up a few roma tomatoes, a bit of basil, and a clove or two of garlic (a la the pesto stuffed shells)--drizzle a wee bit of olive oil over them, mix, and let sit.

Throw a good size portion of drained canned black beans and red kidney beans into a pot (somewhere around 2 cups). Dice up a few tablespoons of green onions and add to the pot. Juice one orange and throw the juice in with the black beans. Add some cayenne, coriander, and garlic to taste. Let simmer at very low heat.

In the meantime, peel and cut up another orange into small bite-sized pieces. Set aside.

Microwave (or cook) up some pasta shells while you wait.

Once your beans are cooked through but not TOO mushy, remove them from the stove and add in the orange-chunks. Stir. Throw your tomatoes onto a plate. Scoop out your bean mixture and stuff your shells with it. Toss on top of your tomato mix, and chow down.

This will make you about 1-2 servings worth of dinner.

I wasn't super-bowled over by the end-results, so I am not listing it as a recipe in the sidebar until I further perfect the recipe. I *definitely* think it would taste much better over a bed of some sort of rice--the flavors seemed to be masked a bit by the noodles, and when I ate some of the bean mix just on the side without the noodles, I enjoyed it much more. So put that advice in your pipe and smoke it.

I am also not yet sure that I've been converted to mixing any sort of fruit (other than mangos) in with black beans, but I'm willing to be convinced otherwise, so if you have any fruity black-bean recipes you recommend, BRING IT ON!