Black Bean Soup

I got this recipe from my good friend and neighbor. Its so simple and easy, and freezes really well. I adapted it just a teeny bit.

BLACK BEAN SOUP
serves 8

2 cups dried black beans (food storage!)
2 cups frozen corn (or 1 14 oz can corn)
one medium onion, diced
2 Tbs. garlic (about 2 cloves, finely diced)
2 Tbs. cumin
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste

You can easily add extra grains in this soup. Quinoa, barley, millett would all be easily disguised.

Sort and rinse the beans. place them in a large bowl to soak. I usually soak my beans for 2 or 3 days before I cook them, just be sure to drain and rinse them well twice a day, keep them covered with water.

When you are ready to cook your soup add the soaked beans to a crock pot and cook them about 8 hours on LOW. Add corn, onion, garlic, cumin, salt pepper and chicken stock. Smash the beans a little if you want and let everything heat together in the crock pot. Add pre cooked quinoa, barley or millet a few minutes before serving. Top with avocados, tomatoes, cheese, salsa, sour cream, or other favorite toppings and scoop up with chips or serve with corn bread!

Crockpot chicken tacos

I got this recipe over on kukis kookbook blog and it is tasty and easy.

2 to 3 chicken breasts
1 can chicken broth
1 package taco seasoning
1 Cup salsa
1 can corn- I used frozen and it worked fine.
1 Can black beans drained

Place all ingredients in the crockpot for 3 to 4 hours on high. Just before serving, shred chicken and mix in one cup sour cream and 1/2 cup shreddded cheese. It will be runny. you can serve in tortillas, taco shells or on scones or on chips. top with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, avacados, or anything else you like.

Chicken Stock

A few weeks ago I bought some local natural raised chickens. They were whole and had never been frozen. (there were even quite a few feathers left on!) I cooked them up right away and cut off all the meat to use later in enchiladas or soup or something. I did my usual routine with the bones and skin - made stock.

For stock, you can use whatever you can get your hands on. Fryer chickens are sometimes really cheap at the local grocery store. You can bake them, cut off the meat and use the carcass. If you buy one of those rotisserie chickens from Costco, save the bones. I have also heard of people using chicken wings to make stock.

This is such an easy thing to make and great to have on hand. You know exactly what is in it, no strange additives, no mysterious ingredients.

Chicken Stock


Clean as much meat and fat from the bones as you can. Put the carcasses in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil (this is important as the boil will cause any fat to float to the top and you can skim it off). Boil the carcass for about 30 minutes. You can keep your stuff on the stove, but for convenience I prefer using my crock pot on high at this point. After the pot has boiled on the stove about 30 minutes, skim the top again and pour everything into your crock pot. Then add some carrots, celery, onion, a bay leaf or two and some salt and pepper. There is no set amount but you probably want at least 3 or 4 carrots and one big onion. All the veggies need to be cleaned and roughly chopped. They will get discarded later so they dont need to look great.
Simmer in your crock pot for about 3 hours. Pull out all the big pieces and pour the liquid thru a fine strainer. You can use it immediately or freeze it for use in later dishes.
2 carcasses covered with water should make about 2 1/2 quarts of stock.

Mock Refried Beans

This is an easy recipe to make refried beans, without actually cooking them a second time. You just throw everything in your crock pot, let it cook away, then you mash it all up and VIOLA! Re fried Beans.

I cooked a big pot of these, and just put the leftovers in the freezer. They will be good for bean burros or tostadas on a night when I am in a hurry.

A LITTLE SIDE NOTE: I was lucky enough to have some delicious homemade tamales to eat along with the yummy beans. The tamales were the ABSOLUTE BEST I have ever had (and I have eaten a lot of tamales in my day!) My friend and her family buy whole corn, cut it off the cob and grind it themselves to make masa for their tamales. Which just supports my whole thinking on food, homemade is always best. Time consuming? Yes. But always best. Getting as basic as you can always yields the best results.

Re Fried Beans

1 large onion, diced (or about 1/2 cup dried onion flakes)
*About 4 cups dried pinto beans*see note below
2 fresh jalapenos, seeded and diced OR 1 can of diced green chili for a milder flavor
4 Tbs. minced garlic
1/2 tsp cumin
salt
pepper
taco seasoning


Sort and rinse beans then leave to soak overnight. *(The beans will bulk up after a soak on the counter, so be sure and adjust the recipe to the size of your crock pot. I have a large crock pot so I had no problem fitting this into my pot.)

After beans have soaked for 12 - 24 hours rinse them really well and dump them into your crock pot. Add onion, peppers, garlic and cumin. Pour enough water in the crock pot to cover the beans. Let it cook on high for about 8 hours. Check to be sure the water does not get all absorbed in the cooking process and add more if needed. Once beans are are soft, turn off your crock pot and drain out the water, but reserve it for later.

Mash up the beans with a potato masher (I used a pastry cutter) If the beans are too thick, add in some of the reserved water. The beans should be about the consistency of mashed potatoes.

Taste the beans, if they need more flavor add taco seasoning, salt, pepper, salsa, cheese, sour cream, whatever sounds good until the flavor is to your liking.

I added in about 3 Tbs. taco seasoning and some salsa while I was mashing. Then my husband topped his bowl of beans with cheese and sour cream. Very versatile and easy dish.

Minestrone

A friend shared some of this soup with me the other day. It was spectacular! Since it is the end of the gardening season for us, we eat a lot of soups in the fall to help clean things out. Minestrone is a good versatile soup cuz you can add or subract almost anything you want.

In general, my kids will eat anything. They had a hard time with the spinach in this soup. I think next time I make it, I will use fresh spinach and chop it up more so its not so clumpy and stringy in the soup. It didnt bother me, but they were irritated that it kept falling off their spoons.

The original recipe (and the picture) are found here


This is my version:
8 cups chicken stock
2 cups fresh tomatoes, diced and save all juices
2 cups dried beans - rinsed in hot water. I used black and white beans
1 cup chopped carrots
1 onion, diced
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1/2 cup uncooked pasta (I used whole wheat shells)
1 cup fresh grated zuchinni
1 cup fresh diced yellow squash

I rinsed my beans in hot water and soaked them overnight before I used them in this dish.
If you are using any variety of red beans, YOU MUST do a rapid-boil to kill a possible toxin that occurs naturally in red beans.

Add everything to the crock pot, cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours, or until the beans are soft. Add dry pasta, and cook on high for about 30 minutes.

Serve with bread sticks and enjoy!

Crockpot Lasagna

We have a recipe club in our ward, and this month we focused on crock pot recipes. I made this lasagna for the first time and it was pretty yummy.

Ingredients:
12 lasagna noodles, uncooked
1 pound ground beef, browned and drained
1tsp. italian seasoning
1 jar (28 oz.) Spaghetti sauce (or you could make you own)
1/4 Cup water
1 carton (16 oz) cottage cheese
2 Cups mozzarella cheese, grated

break noodles in half. Place half of the noodles in the bottom of a greased slow cooker. Stir italian seasoning into meat and spread half over the noodles already in the slow cooker. Then layer half of the sauce, water and cottage cheese, and half of the mozzarella cheese over the beef. Repeat layers. Cover and cook on low heat for 4-5 hours. Do not cook more than 5 hours. makes 6-8 servings.

Crock Pot Mexican Chicken

I don't really have a name for this because it's just a concoction that I came up with the other day out of desperation. I knew I wouldn't be home in time to make dinner so I went through my fridge and pantry and came up with this.

2 chicken breasts
1 can diced tomatoes
1 jar green chili salsa

All I did was season the chicken with garlic salt and season, throw them in the crock pot and cover them with part of a jar of green chili salsa and about 2-3 of a can of diced tomatoes. I cooked it on low and when it was ready I shredded it up for burros. I also added a few spoonfuls of salsa, just for the heck of it.

I made some homemade tortillas and filled them with meat, lettuce and avocado. Yum!

Taco Casserole

Here is another one from the neighborhood exchange. We ate it over the weekend. It was pretty good. I have altered the recipe just a bit, here is my version of it.

2 (15 oz) cans chili
1 can diced tomatoes
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1/2 lb. ground turkey (or hamburger) browned and drained
1 pkg fritos
2 cups cheese

mix together chili, tomatoes, taco seasoning, 1 cup of cheese and browned turkey. Place mixture in 9 x 13 pan and top with chips. bake at 250 for 30 minutes. remove from oven and top with rest of the cheese. serve with sour cream, olives, tomatoes, etc.

Since everything just needs to be warmed thru, you could put this in your crock pot also. I would think putting it all in there for 3 hours or so on low (or serve if you have that setting) would do the trick. put the fritos and extra cheese on top of individual servings before eating. I think the fritos would get soggy in the crock pot.

Dr Pepper Roast

I know not everyone is as fond of Dr. Pepper as I am. If you want to substitute, I am sure Sprite or something diet would work, you could probably do caffeine free Dr. Pepper as well. My assumption is any type of pop will work, but I have only ever used the real red can.

I have tried lots of roast recipes. Some of them have turned out great. This one is the best, in my opinion. Make a big batch and use the leftovers for burrito filling. The meat just falls apart, so shredding it for burritos is not hard at all.

Roast (i usually get 2 lbs or so)
12 oz. can Dr. Pepper
1 package Lipton onion soup mix
1/2 - 1 tsp. Creole Seasoning (I could not find Creole Seasoning in Rexburg. I used Cajun spices instead. They are almost the same thing. And neither one makes this spicy in the least. but you can omit if you are worried)

Throw everything in your crock pot and cook it on low for about 6-8 hours. Or high 4-6.
Remove the roast and shred or slice for serving.
Remove about 1 1/2 cups drippings and add a few TBS flour to thicken. Heat in a saucepan and use as gravy.

Serve with mashed potatoes.