1/5/12 - Chicken fajita tacos with pinto beans and rice

"Beans, Beans the Magical Fruit"

I love using my crock pot to make yummy things.  It is satisfying and fairly hard to mess up whatever you put in it (although I have made a few mistakes).  The main star of tonight's meal was my crock pot pinto beans.  Pinto beans are super easy to make in a crock pot, the only tricky part is making sure you leave enough room for water and the expansion of the beans.  A good ratio is about 1 cup of dried beans per quart of capacity in your crock pot.

What I do is buy bulk, dry pinto beans (usually in the produce section which I find odd).  Once you get them home sort through the ones you want to cook.  You are looking for rocks, dirt clods, sticks and nasty looking beans.  I usually sort them out on a large cookie sheet since I am clumsy.  Once they are sorted pour them into a strainer and rinse them really, really well with cold water.  Once they are clean add them to the crock pot and cover with cold water, make sure there is at least an inch of water over the beans.  From here I add my seasonings:  sea salt, cracked black pepper, fresh garlic and onions, a bay leaf, chili powder and comino were today’s culprits. When I am feeling cheeky I add diced pork salt. If you choose to use pork salt you can more than likely eliminate using any other salt.  B.C., before children, I also added a jalapeno and cilantro or chipotle with adobo.

For the first few hours I cook them on high.  After that time the bulk of the water has been absorbed so you should add HOT water now.  Again, enough to cover them by about an inch. I turn them down to medium or low at this time.

Everyone makes their beans differently.  What you add and how long you cook them is really up to you.  Find out what works for you and don’t be scared when you read about when to add salt and that you have to soak them in advance or drain off the liquid.  If you mess up the most you are out is a few dollars.  Sometimes when the beans are totally cooked I add a can of diced tomatoes.

As for the unpleasant side affects that beans cause some people, I find that we don't have the problem when I cook them in the crock pot.  I think because I cook them for so long...as long as a day and half.

The rest of the meal was rounded out with chicken fajita tacos, smashed avocado, white rice using today’s secret ingriedient of flax seed and lots of lime juice on the chicken and avocado.  Overall a huge success and probably one the girls top 3 favorite meals.

1/4/12 – Garlicky Bread Soup

Not my soup but a picture from Hugging the Coast
(http://huggingthecoast.com/) that looked similar.

Tonight's dinner was going to be Garlicky Bread Soup but Sean and I got our times confused.  He told me he needed to be at choir practice at 7pm.  I thought he needed to be there at 7:30pm.  Actually he needed to be there at 7:45pm.  Instead we ordered a medium 2-topping thin crust pizza (bacon and ham...we love our pork products in this house) and an order of Stuffed Cheesy Bread with Spinach & Feta from Domino's.  For around $13 bucks the 4 of us were feed well and we had leftovers (6 months ago there would not have been a crumb left).  I served it with shelled edamame (first thing out of the freezer).

Back to the soup…we all love garlic and I had some fresh cloves I needed to use along with some old, crusty French bread.  For all intents and purposes I followed this recipe, subbing shredded Parmesan for the Parmigiano-Reggiano, using evaporated milk instead of heavy cream and using some Caldo de Pollo instead of all broth:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/garlicy-bread-soup-recipe/index.html

Overall I think it turned out fine but tomorrow will be the true test to see if the flavors melded together more.  I don’t think my substitutions affected it much and if it did our palettes are not developed enough to tell.  If we have this for dinner tomorrow night I am thinking of serving it with sauteed spinach, mushrooms and garlic or simple salad.  But tomorrow night is up in the air because Sean is planning on going to “Free Week” in Austin (http://do512.com/freeweekaustin/).  Instead I am thinking the girls and I are going to have bean and cheese chalupas and chicken fajita tacos.  Harper is crazy for chalupas, Marlee loves anything she can put avocado on and I have a pot of pinto beans in the crock pot.

1/3/12 – Emmaus Potluck & Communion

Pio, pio!

Tonight we went to our first Emmaus Gathering in about 4 months so I didn't cook at home.  This Gathering is a potluck meal followed by a short religious service.  Sean and I have both taken part in an Emmaus Walk in the last few years. The Walk to Emmaus is a spiritual renewal program intended to strengthen the local church through the development of Christian disciples and leaders. The program's approach seriously considers the model of Christ's servanthood and encourages Christ's disciples to act in ways appropriate to being "a servant of all."  (http://upperroom.org/emmaus/whatis/)  The Walk is open to Christians of all denominations but it is grounded in the beliefs of the Methodist Church.  Emmaus is ecumenical not only because members of many denominations participate, but because Emmaus seeks to foster Christian unity and to reinforce the whole Christian community. This is one of the great strengths and joys of the Emmaus movement. (http://upperroom.org/emmaus/whatis/structure.asp)


While enjoying fellowship and good food with my brothers and sisters in Christ it made me take a moment to think about how important food is not only for my physical sustenance but my spiritual sustenance too.  But with all the laughing and talking I ended up overeating a great deal.  To the point that I felt sick. I was there to hear the word of the Lord, not be a glutton.


During worship in the sanctuary I took notice of how beautiful the "place setting" was, if you will.  A small, plain table draped with a white cloth.  Beneath the cloth was the chalice and bread...the blood and the body.  Nothing fancy or grand, just a simple meal.  Nothing to physically over indulge in but yet completely fills me.  Taking some time to observe and celebrate what Christ did for us and sharing that experience with others moves me to tears every time.  While kneeling and receiving the blood and the body I realized that this is what I need to fill me, not KFC.  Jesus sacrificed not just who he was, but his life for me.  Who am I to continue to disrespect this gift of life by showing so little self-control?


So yes, I love to cook and I really enjoy food, but I enjoy the community (kind of like the word communion, huh?) aspect of it more.  I will continue to cook, eat, enjoy and probably lose sight of what my favorite part of a meal is, but I know I can always regain my focus by taking part in fellowship and communion.

1/2/12 - Mexican meatballs with maple pecan sweet potatoes

Christmas plates rock!

I like using what I have on hand to make a meal.  It has to be a big occasion or a serious craving for me to go out and buy special ingredients.  So tonight I used to 1 pound chub of lite sausage I had to make Mexican meatballs.

I normally would have just browned it and used it in a meat sauce for pasta but my daughters have had Italian or tomato based foods 3 days in a row and I figured they would revolt if they had more sauce or pasta.  I seasoned the meat with sea salt, ground black pepper, fresh garlic, onion, comino (my power spice), chili powder, unsweetened apple sauce (my secret ingredient in all my ground meat dishes) and the leftover "innards" from the New Year's Eve stuffed mushrooms I made (seasoning, mushroom stems, garlic, a little cream cheese, mozzarella cheese and breadcrumbs all mixed and chopped together). I made a little test patty to see if the seasoning was OK and remembered that the lite sausage I buy is on the spicy end.  How to take some of the heat out so my taste bud compromised daughters would like it?  I added more breadcrumbs, applesauce AND real maple syrup.  I did another test patty and I liked the way it came out so I made some meatballs and put them in the oven to cook.  Cooked on 400° on a foil lined and sprayed cookie sheet for about 12 minutes, turned and then cooked on 325 ° for another 10-12 minutes till done.

While the meatballs were doing their thing I peeled some "on the good side of bad" sweet potatoes and cut them in small wedges.  I then threw the wedges on one of my new heavy-duty cookie sheets and drizzled olive oil over them and added a little sea salt and ground black pepper.  Cooked on 400° for about 5 minutes, turned and then cooked on 325 ° for another 10-12 minutes. Checked one last time and added some leftover plain and sugar coated pecans and some of the real maple syrup to time tie the flavors of the meatballs in.  A little of the maple syrup goes a long way.

Finished things off with a green salad with lots of veggies, tortillas for the girls to eat their meatballs in, and a little smashed avocado (and sour cream for the little blonde one).

Verdict:  They ate it!  Sean and I ate the meatballs over the salad and had the sweet potatoes on the side.  The girls ate theirs as pictured.  First time for the girls to actually eat sweet potatoes so I was stoked.  I will try this meal again but I will either make my own sausage so the seasoning is to our taste or I will just use hamburger or turkey meat from the start.