Garden Taco Night

I am happiest when I am cooking. I don't mean that when I cook I become happy, I mean that when I am happy I cook. And I do good stuff. Not the eat for survival stuff. 

The chicken sitting adventure is going well. We got 18 eggs today and rushed home and made thick egg sandwiches on rye before school.

I whipped up some soft taco filling: ground beef, beans that I made today not from a can, the last batch of corn preserved from a local farm last year and diced pepper from the lady who owns the chickens.

Spices for the batch include paprika, cumin, chili powder, hot chili powder and garlic powder. I use a lot of each, to taste.

Vegetarian Mexican night

I made burrito-y things with a vegetarian filling. Homemade guacamole, a mix of farm fresh corn, garden grown green pepper, black beans, sour cream and salsa. 

My guac today was a small batch as I only bought one avocado (what was I thinking???). 

- one avocado

- one small tomato from my garden chopped

- splash lemon juice

- sprinkle of garlic powder

- hearty shake of chili powder

- slight shake of cumin

Stir, chill.

The filling:

- one green pepper diced

- three cobs corn, corn removed

- 1/2 teaspoon four color peppercorn medley

Cook in saucepan for about 10 minutes on low, with just a pinch of cooking fat.

Add one can black beans. (Mine are reduced sodium and well-rinsed. Normally I make my own from scratch and freeze them but haven't got around to it lately.)

 Shake of chili powder. Increase heat to medium, stir and heat until good and warm.

Burrito bar

Dinner tonight was make-your-own-burrito with the following ingredients:

- tortilla
- Fresh Express iceberg garden salad
- homemade corn salsa, the last from my summer canning season
- black beans
- Morningstar black bean burger, crumbled
- green giant cheesy rice with broccoli, which I seasoned with garlic powder, chili powder, fresh ground black pepper and cumin

Multi-bean burritos

Do you ever have those days when you convince yourself "there's nothing in the house to eat"? And then you look around the house and you realize you're just lazy and blind?

Or is it just me?

So, today we made bean burritos for lunch.

Ingredients
- black beans (reduced sodium from a can since I couldn't find dry black beans at the store)
- red beans? Or pinto beans? I'm not sure. I made them all from dried beans and froze them in individual packs and I didn't label them.
- extra sharp cheddar
- small tortilla shells
- archer farms raspberry salsa
- red leaf lettuce, organically grown in my garden

Now, honestly, these did not need the cheese. Would be an awesome vegan lunch without the cheese.

Served with a side of tropical fruit salad

And I thought we had nothing to eat...

Canned black bean vegetable soup

It's cold & damp & I'm exhausted & feeling phlegmy & afraid I'm coming down with a cold.

I poured myself some water and dropped in some Aspirine UPSA with vitamin C (French effervescent aspirin) and opted for canned soup. Easy on my mouth, good for my soul.

I had grabbed a can of Amy's Organics black bean vegetable from Target during the weekend, $2.19 for two servings. While the salt content is outrageous (620 mg of sodium per serving or 26% of the RDA), the other nutritional content proofed beefy for a soup.

Other nutritional info, per serving:
- 1.5 grams total fat
- 5 g/ 20% daily fiber
- 6 g/ 10% protein
- 20% vitamin A
- 8% vitamin C
- 4% calcium
- 8% iron

The label claims it's GMO free, vegan and gluten free.

Now, dumping it out of the can is gross. The water comes first, then the puréed beans with vegetable matter in it. When it heated and blended to a single consistency, it proved delicious and hearty.

Very happy soup.

Black beans in the crockpot

Sometimes I can be so efficient and organized that I make every meal and all our bread from
scratch. I bargain shop and freeze. I stay on top of my school work and slay the laundry pile. That's the genius in me.

But then there are the days I can't speak straight. It takes two hours to make a 30-minutes-or-less meal. I can't find my shoes, my glasses or my umbrella. And I overslept. Yup. That's the idiot in me.

I have made beans in the crockpot before, at least twice, but now I can't find the recipe. Here or online at large. I swore it was Crock Pot 365.

So, I'm moving forward.

I took two pounds of Mi Casa black beans and 16 cups of water and brought it to a boil while stirring. I have this one really bad pot that everything sticks to if you don't stir. This is the rapid method of bean soaking.

Boil 2 minutes.

Now if you're me, you'll spill stuff all over your pants the second the water finally boils. And if you're me, while the beans are boiling for two minutes you'll run upstairs to change your pants and your kid will chase you around explaining why she had to pull dolls in your bed in addition to her bed...

Then you'll rush downstairs to find bean-foamy boiling water about to bubble out of the pot, so you cut the heat, grab the pot, remove from the burner and cover.

The official direction is cover and let stand for an hour.

At this point, I had to run down to the basement and start a load of wash because you remember those dirty jeans? Well, they're the only jeans I have that fit since I lost weight having broken several teeth in that walking accident in May. I have a dentist appt today to talk about more dental work I need but can't afford, and if I go in baggy clothes they comment how thin I've gotten. The office is mostly women, and their compliments annoy me because if their office had fixed my teeth I could eat more easily!

But the beans...

I'm going to rinse and sort them, and I never do a thorough job. I pick out the obvious nasty ones.

Then they all go in the crockpot. With water to cover. On low. Probably 5-8 hours.

Taco rice?

For breakfast, we had leftover scones, bananas and Greek yogurt.

For lunch, daughter requested rice. I put some in the steamer with chili powder and fresh cilantro from the garden.

Then in my skillet I put about a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oiland a teaspoon butter. I threw in frozen corn, the taco meat I made in March (thawed via the microwave)and the last of the black beans I have cooked.

Curried pasta salad with tuna

My husband hates cold salads-- the kind with pasta or potatoes.

Today for lunch I needed a meal for me.

So I prepared 10 ounces of multigrain penne.

In my skillet, I poured 2 tablespoons cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, 2/3 cup frozen peas, 2/3 cup black beans, 2 teaspoons curry powder, 2 teaspoons parsley, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 2 tablespoons flax seed and 3 tablespoons sunflower seeds. Heat and mix thoroughly.

Now if you want to keep it vegan, mix two tablespoons vegan mayonnaise and the noodles. Then add the hot "sauce." I also added a can of tuna.

Tacos

I don't know what got into me, but I decided to make tacos.
I made the homemade tortillas this afternoon and found this site:
http://www.mex-recipes.com/tacorecipes.html

QUOTED FROM THE SITE:
Ground beef
(I prefer ground chuck)
Salt
Chili powder
Paprika
Cumin
Garlic powder or 2 cloves
Bell pepper
Onion

Instructions for taco recipe:

Let's take 2 pounds of ground beef in 2 quart sauce pan add 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of chili power, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder or 2 chopped garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 2 tablespoons of paprika. Enough water to cover meat.

Bring to a boil. Simmer over medium low heat about an hour. I will check in about 15 minutes take a potato masher break up the meat a little don't want it to cook up in lumps.

Repeat this process 2 or 3 more times. Also make sure we don't run dry of water. Add water if needed. Hour over already!

OK, add 1/2 medium chopped onion, 1/2 medium chopped bell pepper, continue cooking 20 or 30 more minutes.

MY VARIATIONS:
I used 1/2 ground beef from a local farm and 1/2 black beans (the ones I made in the crock pot over the weekend.)
I omitted onion, and used one green pepper from my garden.
I turned up the heat a little on the stove, not the taco meat, because I didn't start early enough.

And I'm using my Le Creuset skillet instead of a saucepan.

Beans, Rice and Green Beans

I'm fairly certain I mentioned this is one of my leftover posts last week, but I'm not sure where it is so I'm uploading the picture here.

This is the quick meal I made when I thought I was making sausage and rice with greenbeans and I discovered that I didn't have sausage so, at my husband's suggestion, we made greenbeans, rice and black beans. I tried to whip up a seasoned white wine sauce, but it failed. The meal was bland so I topped with some garlic salt to salvage it, though the rest of the family liked it bland.

Dried Beans in Crock Pot

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/cooking-dried-beans-in-crockpot.html

Quesadilla

I wanted to make cheddar and bean quesadilla with my homemade guacamole last night but I didn't get there... We had salads with guac and chips instead.

Today for lunch I made the quesadillas: cheddar, velveeta, black beans and black olives, garnished with romaine lettuce, homemade guacamole, and mango salsa. And a side of strawberries.

The little one loves it, and while she insists at restaurants she does NOT like guacamole, she sure loves mine.

She even said to me when I served her, "This is guacamole?"
And I replied yes.
"But I don't like guacamole, but I love this!"

Another batch of chili

So... It's raining. I'm making a batch of chili.

I started with one idea and due to my mistakes ended up with quite another.

I started with a partial teaspoon of olive oil, some garlic powder and some diced tomatoes. I added four color pepper, Italian seasoning, a pinch of cumin, a teaspoon of chili powder, and I meant to add a pinch of Indian chili seasoning but I ended up with closer to a teaspoon. Oops!

So I added almost two teaspoons of cocoa powder and another can of diced tomatoes, this one Italian style, and more garlic. Then I added a 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple. I boiled it for about 15 minutes, then simmered it for an hour and added two cans of no salt added dark red kidney beans, one can light kidney beans, and one can black beans.

I made the cornbread dumplings to go with the chili, and I didn't have enough milk, so I reduced the amount of milk, added some water (do-it-yourself skim milk) and a little extra canola oil.

VERDICT: The chili wasn't spicy and because I cooked the pineapple and tomatoes together for a couple hours, everything more or less melted into one flavor. And the flavor was very rich and despite the lack of spice still had taste.

Now the dumplings took over the pot, but they were yummy, even if it was hard to find the chili underneath.

Perhaps my best batch of chili ever.

Said to my husband, I probably won't be able to replicate it, but then he said I probably wouldn't try...

This is the link to only the three recipes I usually blend to make my chili:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2008/12/five-alarm-chili.html

All my chili-related recipes:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/search/label/chili

Sausage and egg noodles

So, I think my husband may be learning some new tricks thanks to our food experiments during the last year.

I worked late, so he cooked up a lovely dinner of, well, I'll write it as if it were on a menu.

Spinach-asiago chicken sausage and egg noodles with bite-sized broccoli and black beans in an olive oil sauce.

I don't taste any spices, no garlic or black pepper, but man, it's tasty.

Pork with black beans, egg noodles and broccoli

I had a craving for something different... A long time ago, my mother (Mimi) mentioned something about how good for you black beans are and she made a pork, black beans and egg noodle dish in beef broth that was pretty good.

I thought I'd make my own spin on it.

I started with two small crowns of broccoli, chopped into bite-size pieces.

In my Le Creuset skillet, I placed the following:

• Several tablespoons lemon juice
• one tablespoon butter
• Several tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 of one large clove garlic, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon four color pepper

I cooked this for a few seconds and then placed the raw broccoli in the skillet and cooked it in the sauce. I sprinkled it heartily with It's a Dilly Seasoning (probably about two teaspoons, it came out fast) Don't cook too long. Want to leave it crispy.

I removed the broccoli from the pan. Then, I began a new sauce, the same, but more:

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• less than 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• the other 1/2 of the large clove garlic, sliced

My husband sliced two thick boneless pork chops into stir-fry like pieces. I sprinkled them directly with the four-color pepper and added them to the pan. Cook about five minutes on each side, on low side of medium.

Meanwhile, cook one pound egg noodles. Open one can black beans. Rinse well.

Add broccoli and beans to finished pork, in skillet. Drain egg noodles. Add to skillet.

Finish with about 16 ounces vegetable stock. I use Wegmans. Let simmer in skillet until hot.

I thought this was fabulous.

Yummy Yummy Taco Salad

While I walked our daughter to school in some very nasty wind, my husband made this incredible salad:

• organic spring mix
• black beans
• black olives
• New York Extra Sharp Cheddar
• tortilla chips (broken)

with a dressing of

• sour cream
• mango salsa
  

Stuffed Quesadillas tonight

Tonight I made stuffed quesadillas... because despite going to the warehouse club last night we have no milk or eggs and I didn't thaw out meat and we had tomato soup for lunch so that ruled out anything with tomato sauce so no pasta (and I had hoped to have pasta tomorrow)

Now that was a run-on sentence.

In a skillet, I layered some extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled some garlic pepper, with the heat on medium low, I added a tortilla shell, piled it with black beans and sliced black olives, then lots of extra sharp cheddar, a little pepperjack for zest, and a lid of another tortilla shell. Cook until crisp on the outside, gooey on the inside.

Serve in nice triangles with mango salsa and sour cream.

Egg noodles with pork and black beans with ceasar salad

Sorry for the lack of posting, but I threw my back out sneezing. We went out to dinner Friday before this event, at one of our favorite Mom-and-Pop restaurants (Little Italy Food Center in Pohatcong).

Saturday my mom invited us for dinner after my injury and stocked us with leftovers that we've been eating. The price "recipe" seems to be a pork with black beans and egg noodle concoction she made. She made it with beef broth and pre-seasoned pork, but I'd season my own pork (or omit it entirely and replace with broccoli) and use vegetable broth instead of beef.

Tonight we had this for dinner with a side of store-bought prepackaged Ceasar Salad.

Modified Ugly Bean Dip

We needed a quick vegetable-rich dinner, so we made ugly bean dip. We modified the recipe based on what we had on hand:

Sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup sugar
(I did not use it all)
Boil and cool.

Dip ingredients, mix in bowl:
red onion to taste, finely diced (about 3/4 cup for me)
3 small tomatoes from the garden, diced
about 1 cup finely diced cucumber
about 1 cup yellow corn
one can black beans, drained

Pour sauce on ingredients and stir.

We didn't have the fancy scoop Fritos so we ended up dumping the fritos on top of our dip on the plate and spooning it into our mouths instead of dipping.

Garden Chili

I wanted to make something a little different for dinner, something we hadn't had in a while and chili seemed right. But we're seriously lacking ingredients, so I had to make do with what I had. So this is what I call "Garden Chili."

Garden Chili
In a big pot, combine:
About three teaspoons fresh oregano
One tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
About 1/4 cup fresh spinach, shredded
About 3 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped
1/2 teaspoon fresh parsley

Cook until spices are aromatic and tender.

Add:
Two tablespoons tomato sauce (it was leftover, certainly not 'needed')
Two tablespoons garlic powder
Three tablespoons commercial chili seasoning

Cook until well combined.

Add:
14.5 ounce can diced tomatos with basil, oregano and garlic
10 ounces crushed pineapple 1/2 teaspoon Indian chili powder
2 tablespoons cocoa

Mix and bring to a boil on high. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add:
15.5 ounce can black beans
15.5 ounce can dark kidney beans, organic

Return to a boil; then reduce heat and simmer for another 30 minutes.

Add:
15.5 ounces of sweet yellow corn (Del Monte in this case)
Cook for 15 minutes.

These were literally the only things in my garden and cabinets that would remotely work for chili. We'll be eating at five. I'll edit this post to report in on if it's gross, indifferent or yummy.

And the verdict is: Two bowls each husband and chef, daughter ate all of her bowl and ate well. It was the best bowl of chili I've made in a long time. Not spicy, yet flavorful.