Black Bean and Beer Chili

There are a million different ways to make chili!  Chili is such an easy meal to throw together in the morning and then let sit in the crock pot all day.  This chili recipe has a little bit of a darker, richer flavor than most of the chili's I make.  My husband loved it, my kids loved the hush puppies I made to go with it.

 

I started with the usual ingredients ... a couple peppers - one hot, one not, an onion, a few cloves of garlic.  I added 2 stalks of celery, 1 can of fire roasted diced tomatoes, 1 can of black beans and 1/2 bottle of dark beer.  I had recently bought some delicious hot pork sausage from my local farm co-op so I cooked that and tossed it in.  I added 2 Tablespoons chili powder, stirred everything together and let it cook on high for about 4 to 5 hours.  So easy.  Very delicious.  Enjoy! 

 

Thai Coconut Ginger Soup

One of my favorite Thai soups is Tom Kha Gai.  This version is very close to Tom Kha Gai soup; I altered the ingredients a bit to suit what I actually could buy in my local grocery store.  My children devoured this soup - tipped the bowl upside down to get the last drips.  The flavor is very mild - sweet with a little tang!

Ingredients:

8 oz. chicken, small pieces sliced thinly (lightly salted)
1 can coconut milk (regular or light)
1 cup chicken broth
1 stalk lemongrass (cut into 2 to 3 inch lengths and then cut again lengthwise)
1 inch ginger, grated
1 jalapeno, seeds removed, thinly sliced
2 scallions, chopped (white and green parts)
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
garnish with fresh cilantro

Directions:

Heat coconut milk, chicken broth, water, jalapeno, ginger, and lemongrass until it comes to a boil.  Add the chicken and allow the soup to boil for about 5 more minutes.  The chicken should cook through rather quickly if your pieces are small enough.  Add scallions, lime juice, and fish sauce.  Taste your soup and add more fish sauce or lime juice depending on your preference if necessary.  Right before serving garnish with fresh cilantro.  Enjoy!

Fish sauce can be found in your international food aisle.  Lemongrass can be found in the fresh produce section.  Fish sauce is salty and a little spicy and adds a zing to your Asian cooking! 

Black Bean and Goat Cheese Quesadillas

I recently bought the most amazing goat cheese from an Asheville, NC farm.  It really melts in your mouth.  While I was telling my friend, Amy, about my new delicious find she suggested I try to make black bean and goat cheese quesadillas.  What a great suggestion!  These quesadillas came out really delicious and they were pretty easy to make. 

Ingredients:

Olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 large clove garlic, minced
kosher salt
1/3 to 1/2 cup goat cheese
corn tortillas (or flour if you prefer)

Directions:

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil.  Add the onion and cook until it is soft and translucent.  Add the garlic.  Add the black beans and about 1/2 cup of water.  Simmer until the black beans are soft and the water is almost evaporated.  Add the cumin, chili powder and kosher salt.  MIx well.  Using the back of the spoon, mash the black beans. 

In a separate pan (or use a George Foreman grill or something similar), spray some nonstick cooking spray.  Prepare the quesadillas by spooning black beans in the center of one tortilla and dotting the black beans with goat cheese.  Cover with the second tortilla.  Cook about 3 to 4 minutes - flipping them over halfway if you are cooking them on the stove. 

Serve with guacamole.  We served this for lunch this weekend with some delicious strawberries.  This recipe makes about 8 quesadillas if you use smaller corn tortillas and probably 4 quesadillas if you use flour tortillas.  Enjoy!  My children and husband devoured these! 

Guacamole: 1 large avocado, 1/2 lime, 1/4 cup cilantro.  Mash one large avocado with the juice of a half lime and 1/4 cup cilantro.  Season with a little kosher salt if you like. 

Sweet Potato Chips with Chili Garlic Salt

This is by no means a meal, but it is certainly a delicious snack.  I love sweet potatoes and am always looking for new ways to cook with them.  Obviously, potato chips are not the healthiest food, but they taste far better homemade than anything you could buy in a store. 

The best way to prepare potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets, or any other veggie for frying is to use a mandoline.  A mandoline is a very sharp slicing apparatus that allows you to cut veggies to different thicknesses.  Always use the guard that it comes with while slicing veggies or you could seriously hurt yourself.

I do not fry very often so when I do, I simply use a deep heavy-bottomed pan and put about 1 to 2 inches of canola oil in the bottom.  If you have a thermometer that will clip to the side of your pan, the temperature of the oil should be about 350 degrees.  When the oil is hot, add the sweet potatoes in small batches.  Don't let the potatoes overlap each other so they can get nice and crispy.  If you add too many, they will be soggy.  Potatoes should cook for about 3 minutes or so.  I usually turn them over halfway through the cooking time. 

Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and place on a plate covered with paper towels.  While the chips are still hot, sprinkle with some chili garlic salt and let cool. 

Chili Garlic Salt: 
2 Tablespoons Kosher Salt
1 Clove Garlic, finely minced
1 Teaspoon chili powder

Mix ingredients well.  I always have extra so I cover it and use it in my next recipe! 

2 Pork Tenderloins, 8 Dollars, 3 Dinners!

Last night, someone asked me how much of my day was devoted to cooking dinner for my family every night.  I think they were imagining me spending hours in the kitchen preparing home cooked and healthy meals.  Nothing could be more wrong!  I would love to spend hours in the kitchen but for now I must make do with about 20 minutes (if I am lucky).

DAY ONE: Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Whenever I see pork tenderloins on sale for half price I must buy them!  They freeze very well and are incredibly versatile.  I bought a package of 2 pork tenderloins for about $8 and decided that this week would be all about pork.  Think about it - if you could spend $8 on your main protein and make that last for three delicious meals - how much money could you save on your weekly grocery bill!? 

On Saturday I took the pork out of the freezer and let it thaw in the refrigerator for the day.  Sunday morning after church I made a very fancy marinade - McCormick Southwest Seasoning marinade packet, vinegar, and oil (follow the directions on the back!).  I mixed the marinade in a large freezer bag, added the two pork tenderloins, and threw it back in the fridge for the day.  Since my husband was home, I took advantage of his culinary expertise - the grill - and told him he would be cooking Sunday dinner.  Cooking pork tenderloin on the grill is very easy - cook it about 10 minutes per side, bring it inside, put it on a plate and cover it with foil for about 10 to 15 minutes.  The pork will continue to cook, but it will stay incredibly moist.  Slice the pork and serve with your favorite sides - my children chose green beans and mashed potatoes.  I promise you that there will be plenty of leftover pork - probably enough for two more days.

DAY TWO - Southwest Green Chile: 

While my kids were eating lunch on Monday, I quickly prepared the ingredients to make a Southwest Green Chile.  I have been told that the addition of potatoes and corn is what makes Southwestern Green Chile "Southwestern."  I took about half of the pork tenderloin that was left and diced it into 1 inch pieces.  I threw that in the crockpot and added the following ingredients:

1 can diced tomatoes
2 cans diced green chiles
1 large white potato, peeled and chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 cup corn, frozen (or 1 can corn)
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 can black beans
1 Tablespoon cumin

Cook on low for about 5 hours.  Serve with corn bread!  Delicious.

DAY THREE: Pork Fried Rice

Fried rice is one of the easiest dinners I can make.  I usually save this meal for nights that we have late swimming lessons and I need to whip something up for starving kids quickly!

Earlier in the day (or even the day before), prepare the rice so that it is cold - or at least room temp - when you are ready to use it.

Rice 

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 1/2 cups rice (I used brown jasmine)
2 1/2 cups water
Salt 

Lightly saute garlic in the olive oil.  Add the rice.  Coat the rice in the oil and let it cook for about a minute.  Add the water and a little salt.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for about 20 minutes if you are using white rice and about 35 to 40 minutes if you are using healthier brown rice.  When the rice is done, set it aside until dinner.

Stir Fry

Make your sauce: Combine about 2 Tablespoons soy sauce with 2 Tablespoons duck sauce (hoisin sauce) with some minced garlic and powdered (or fresh) ginger.  Taste it - add flavor according to your preference.  Stir well, set aside.

In a large saucepan, heat about 1 Tablespoon oil, lightly scramble 1 or 2 eggs.  Set aside in a separate bowl.

Choose your veggie (or veggies) - check your crisper and your freezer - almost anything will do.  This week, we used a bag of frozen broccoli as our veggie.  I steamed the broccoli in the microwave for about 2 minutes and then added it to the hot pan.  Add the diced pork.  Pour the sauce over the veggies and pork.  Add the rice.  Mix well.  Chop 3 scallions - white and green parts.  Add the scallions to the fried rice at the end with the scrambled egg.  Easy and delicious!  This can really be on the table in 10 minutes.    

Pumpkin Bread with White Chocolate Chips and Raisins

I have made a lot of pumpkin bread through the years but this is certainly my favorite so far!  I tripped across a great site all about bread making - A Fresh Loaf - and I got the main ingredients for this recipe from that blog.  I made the mistake of doubling the following recipe.  While I am happy now that I have two large and two small loaves of delicious pumpkin bread (or, shall I say, two large and one small... since my children have already devoured one small loaf), it was quite difficult to mix all the ingredients in my mixer.  I had to split the dough between two bowls to add in the final ingredients of chips and raisins - the amount of dirty dishes seemed to multiply by the minute. 

Ingredients:

1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
3 eggs (I used half real eggs and half egg beaters)
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup white chocolate chips (or butterscotch or cinnamon or chocolate)
1 cup raisins

Directions:

Cream butter and brown sugar in a mixing bowl.  Add eggs. Add pumpkin.  Combine dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.  Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.  Add chips and raisins.  Spread in one large loaf pan or 2 small loaf pans.  This batter would probably also make an excellent muffin!

Cook at 350 in greased loaf pan.  Small loaf pans - about 25 to 30 minutes.  Large loaf pan - about 50 minutes to one hour.  I tested mine with a fork to see if they were done.  Let cool about 10 or 15 minutes and then pop them out of the pan.  Enjoy!  

Asian Style Pulled Pork

Recently I was trying to explain to my friend how easy it was to cook pork in a crock pot.  After chatting about different ways to prepare pork, it made me realize I hadn't actually cooked pork in a crock pot in quite a while.  For this recipe, I found a 2 lb. pork loin roast on sale at our grocery store for about $6 and decided to try an Asian-style pulled pork with it.  I served it with a broccoli slaw.  Delicious!

Directions: 

Slice up one onion and 3 cloves garlic and put them in the bottom of your crock pot.  I combined 1/4 cup of sesame teriyaki sauce with 1/4 cup ginger soy sauce and a splash or two of water.  (You could probably use any teriyaki or soy type sauce you have in the house as long as it equaled about 1/2 cup or so.)  I added in a little extra ground ginger, 2 Tablespoons brown sugar, and  1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar, stirred it well, and poured it over the roast.  Taste the sauce before you pour it!  Add flavor according to your own taste. 

I cooked the pork loin on low for about 5 or 6 hours.  At the end of that time, I removed the loin from the crock pot and shredded it with two forks.  I ladled out about 2 ladles of sauce and added 2 diced scallions and a little more teriyaki sauce and then poured that over the shredded pork until the pork was well covered with the sauce.  Very easy and a little bit of a different way to make pulled pork!

Hash Brown Scramble

I feel almost silly posting this recipe because it is almost not a recipe.  However, it is sooo delicious and a really easy way to make a hot breakfast on a chilly day - even a weekday. 

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
frozen hash browns
4 eggs (or the equivalent)
1/2 cup shredded cheese

Directions:
To serve 1 adult and 3 hungry preschoolers, I used about 1 to 2 cups of frozen hashbrowns sauteed in 2 tablespoons of melted butter in a large frying pan.  Brown them on both sides.  (About 8 minutes or so.)  I add 2 eggs and the equivalent of 2 more eggs in the form of egg whites or egg beaters.  Scramble the eggs around the cooked hash browns, mixing them together well.  Add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup shredded Mexican cheese and stir well.  Remove from heat.  I like to season mine with Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning but the kiddos prefer theirs plain or with a little Krazy Salt.

So delicious!  So easy!