Pinto Bean Chili

1 t dried red pepper flakes
1 1/2 cups water
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bell pepper, chopped (need to chop very small)
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce (no salt added)
3 cups cooked pinto beans (or 2 cans, rinsed and drained)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon  paprika

In a large non-stick pot, sauté the onion in a little water (1 tablespoon to start) until it's beginning to brown. Add the garlic, bell pepper, and a little more water and sauté for 3 more minutes. Add the reserved chile sauce, tomatoes, tomato sauce, beans, cumin, oregano, black pepper, and paprika and bring to a simmer.

Cook on low for at least 30 minutes to allow flavors to blend.



Vegetarian - sour cream and shredded cheese
Vegan - use vegan equivalents


YUMMM!

Veggie Penne Pasta Vegetarian or Vegan too!

Veggie Penne Pasta

8oz of Penne Pasta

1 T oil

1 med white onion cut in half and then thinly sliced

2 Zucchini cut in half lengthwise and then sliced

2 yellow squash cut in half lengthwise and then sliced

1 prepackaged box of fresh sliced mushrooms

4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1 T flour

1 t Italian Spice

½ t red pepper flakes

1 c vegetable broth

1 8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese.

1 head of spinach, washed with most of the stems chopped off.

1 cup Parmesan Cheese

Cook pasta according to directions on package, drain and return to cooking pan.

Wash and chop up all veggies before starting cooking them.

Put oil in pan for cooking veggies

Put Onions in first, after 2 mins add garlic and then zucchini, squash and mushrooms.

Heat over to 375 degrees F

Once vegetables are tender crisp add flour and seasoning stirring for 1 more min.

Stir in broth another min of stirring

Add in cream cheese and stir until melted.

Add spinach to pasta then vegetable mixture and mix together.

Spray 5 quart casserole dish. Add pasta vegetable mixture top with parmesan cheese.  Bake for 10 mins or until cheese is melted.

As it stands this is a vegetarian meal.  To make it healthier use whole gain pasta, canola oil instead of Oil Oil, and you can use Neufchatel Cheese (1/3 fat Phily Cream cheese) instead of regular cream cheese.

I haven’t tried Vegan yet … but to make this Vegan; I saw some Vegan cream cheese and I am looking up Vegan Alfredo recipes. Maybe top with Vegan cheese or regular bread crumbs for a different texture.  Will try that next time I make this. 

Enjoy!

Winter High Altitude Bread Maker

OK so I LOVE LOVE LOVE my bread maker.  Got it this summer and used it all the time.  Winter came along and I got doing other things, then I tried it again and I have 3 batches ruined!  But I kept trying and finally figured out how to do it!

I live at 5000 ft, with cold, low humidity weather.

#1 Find a corner in your kitchen where you can really heat it up.

#2 Get a cheep heater (this one cost $15) and point it so it warms the bread maker AND the air around it.  On the left of my picture is my refrigerator and then I have 2 other walls to bounce the hot air around.  I really think that having the cupboards above this space I was working with really helped too.

#3 Boil water on your stove (set the timer so you don’t forget it and keep checking on it and adding to it while your bread is cooking.)

Start the water boiling and get the heater running about 15 mins before you start putting the ingredients in it.

Now enjoy your bread!

Snicker Doodles

This is my award winning Snicker Doddle Recipe!

(works great in a mixer!)

Cream thoroughly:

1 c shorting

1 ½ c sugar

2 eggs

Add:

2 ¾ c flour

2 T cream of tarter

1 t baking soda

½ t salt

Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and mix well. Roll into balls about 1 inch across.  Place ball of dough into a Cinnamon Sugar mixture, sort of squash the dough ball into the mixture flattening it a smidgen, then place it cinnamon sugar side up on the cookie sheet (the Air bake cookie sheets work best).  Press the center of the cookie with your thumb and index finger making two small indention's (I have no idea why, I was just taught to do it this way)

Bake 375 degree F for 10-15 mins or until golden brown.  Recipe SAYS it will make 5 dozen cookies, but I think it lies … Of course my family likes to taste the dough before its cooked and then they don’t stay on the plates long enough to count them!

Homemade Pizza Pie Dough

My husband loves pizza, but it cost WAY to much to eat it a lot and the franchise type ones always make me feel sick.  So I started looking online for a good recipe.  This one is AWESOME!

Pizza Dough: (makes 2 round  pizza’s)

Place in stand mixer:

6 c flour

2 ½ c very warm water

5 t Yeast

2 t Sugar

1 t Salt

3 t Oil (extra virgin)

Turn on mixer on second lowest setting. Let mix for 5-6 mins. Oil and take out the ball of dough. Place in a bowl in a warm spot in the kitchen and let rise for 5 mins. Split ball of dough in half for one pizza.  Oil your pizza pan and spread dough out with your fingers.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place JUST dough in oven and bake for 10 mins. Take the pizza out and then put all your ingredients on the top of the pizza, and finish baking for another 5 – 10 mins.

This pizza had some Hunts Spaghetti Sauce from the can for the base, then grated mozzarella cheese, chopped up Canadian bacon and Pineapple chunks (next time I will use pineapple tidbits)

I did another one that was very good. I put BBQ sauce on the bottom, chicken chunks and mozzarella cheese. (next time I think I will add caramelized onions to that one)

Canned Apple Pie Filling

I made this apple pie filling this summer with my canning spree! It was super fun to make.  I do have an apple, peeler, corer which made prepping the apples much easier. It was about $25 ish and  suction cups to the counter.  This recipe made 7 quarts for the apples I used. Depending on size of apples - its give or take. 1 quart is the filling for 1 pie. I cheated on the Pie crust, I used Philsbury refrigerated dough, but it did come out nice and flaky.  I backed it at 425 degrees for 35 mins. Perfect! (In a glass baking pie dish)

12 c sliced peeled cored apples treated to prevent browning drained
2 3/4 c granulated sugar
3/4 c Clearjel
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/4 c cold water
2 1/2 c unsweetened apple juice
1/2 c  lemon juice

Prep your jars, lids, canner etc.  You want it all ready before you start.
In a large pot of boiling water, blanch apple slices for 1 min, remove with a slotted spoon.

In a large stainless steel sauce pan combine sugar, clearjel, cinnamon, nutmeg, water and apple juice. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring constantly and cook until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Add lemon Juice, return to a boil and boil for 1 min, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Drain apple slices and immediately fold into hot mixture.  Before processing, heat and stir until apples are heated through.

Ladle hot pie filling into hot jars leaving 1 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary by adding hot filling.  Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met and then increase to finger tight.

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 25 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 mins and then remove jars, cool over night. unscrew the bands and gently wipe any food bits off jars and store with bands off (if it sealed properly this wont be a problem) If you store with bands on, they tend to rust.

This was the only picture I could find of the apple pie filling after being canned.  Its the row on the bottom right with chunky apple slices. The rest of the jars on the bottom are two different batches of Apple sauce. You can see the darker batch - it has more Cinnamon then the other batch. We liked the extra Cinnamon better so will do that next year. and see that one tiny jar? its apple sauce too - just didn't have enough to fill a quart jar so I put it in a pint jar. DO NOT can jars that are not full to the recommended head space. This will cause the seal to fail easier, then if it is filled correctly. With apple sauces its easy ... just put any left overs in the fridge and eat right away, there is NOTHING like fresh homemade applesauce. YUMM! great with chicken and pork too!

The top row you can see being stored in the boxes it came from the store in ... the Pints are all spaghetti sauce, and then the half pints on top are in front Mint jelly with out the green dye, I am trying to take out every unnecessary ingredient's in my family's food.  behind the plain colored Mint Jelly is Garlic Jelly .. heeheehee haven't cracked any of those open yet! LOL ....

7 or So Layer Bean Dip

This can be any number of layers you want.  Just start with the bottom layer of beans and add whatever you like!  SUPER tasty!  In fact – sometimes I just make this dip and that’s dinner, one of my husbands favorite.  This time I brought the dip into the front room, set it on the floor with a towel under it and announced we were having a picnic in the front room for dinner.  The kids were delighted! (hey its Jan in ID – too cold to go outside for much right now)  It was a fun family activity.  So here is how I did the one in the picture. (sorry about it being half eaten – dinner didn’t make it into the front room before everyone started eating it! I guess that means the really like it!)

Bottom Layer to Top Layer.

Beans – Vegetarian Canned (you fart less if you eat the Vegetarian canned beans)

Sour Cream – full fat enjoy this mean

Avocado mashed in a bowl with a fork

Salsa

Cheese

Sliced Green Onions

Sliced Olives

You can also add things like

Cooked ground beef

Guacamole

Peppers

Canned corn

Chopped Tomatoes

What ever you and your family likes, toss it in. 

Makes a great party dip, and once in awhile dinner.

Optima D34/78 YellowTop battery

Usually I am all about a good bargain.  But in life there are some things I just wont scrimp on, cars and car parts being some of them.  If it is hauling my family around I want it as safe and reliable as possible.  My family loves cars. We love engines.  To that end we love what we put in them.  I always laugh when I watch car shows and people lift the hood and they have a wimpy battery when they went all out with everything else.

You don’t need a super racer, you can put it in your daily driver if you want too.

I know how to jump a car if I have too.  But I don’t WANT to, and I defiantly don’t want it to happen while I have the kids with me.  So here is one of my recommendations Optima D34/78 YellowTop battery.  It rocks, enjoy!

* If you are going to buy this battery please click on the link to Amazon on the side bar on the right.  If you purchase through that link, then we will get a percentage of the purchase and it will help our family, and help us pay for college! Thank you for looking!

The Happiest Baby on the Block

The Happiest Baby on the Block is a DVD and BOOK. This is the BEST DVD and book. Its by a UCLA Pediatric Dr who kept seeing shaken baby syndromes, and couldn’t understand why, because many other countries don’t have this problem! He did 30 years of researching how other countries raise and handle there babies and came up with the 5 S’s. These are 5 things to do to sooth your crying baby. A quick overview .. Swaddle tightly, Shhhhh (in there ears), Side (holding not laying them down), shake (not for real, its like a gentle giggle), and Suck (pacifier). For a quick preview you can see some of it on YouTube, HOWEVER you absolutely need to buy the DVD because it has 3 sound tracks on it, to duplicate the noise your baby heard in the womb. One is really loud to calm them down from a crying fit, one is a med noise to calm for just gentle crying, and the last one is 40 mins long of gentle womb noises to help them sleep. I PROMISE they work great! We have used it with both our children and the cry less and sleep longer and both our kids were breast fed. This is the BEST DVD and Book to have if you want to have a happy baby and get more sleep yourself!

So I suggest getting the DVD LONG before the baby comes, watch it a bunch of times and PRACTICE swaddling on dolls – it helps! Then buy the book and the book goes into a lot of detail as to WHY these things work so well. By educating yourself as to why these actions work, you will be better able to understand what your baby needs.

You will be a better parent for having watched this DVD, reading this book and implementing it in your family’s lives.

There is also a second book for “The Happiest Toddler on the Block” it works too!

Good Luck and go have a Happy Baby!

* If you are going to buy this book or DVD please click on the link to Amazon on the side bar on the right. If you purchase through that link, then we will get a percentage of the purchase and it will help our family, and help us pay for college! Thank you for looking!

Green Chili Pie (for Breakfast or Brunch)

This is a favorite breakfast food around our house. Mostly sat mornings or it I have time Sundays too! As you can see it went faster then I could take a picture of it!

In a glass backing dish (make sure to spray cause this sticks)

1 7 oz can of diced green chilies (I use 2)

½ lb grated cheddar cheese (I just do a giant plateful)

1 dozen eggs, beaten (you can use less if you don’t have 12)

Spread Chiles on the bottom of the dish. Then lay the shredded cheese on top of the chilies – should be a layer about ½ inch of cheese (loose not packed) Pour beaten eggs evenly over the cheese.

Bake at 350 F about 30-45 mins. I usually do 40 and its fine. Cut and serve, it comes out real hot, so you have to allow time for cooling too. Enjoy!