Red Beans and Whipped Cream

Currently bastardizing bbq sauce in a way that would annoy both eastern and western NC folks.

Uhhh.  So I haven’t updated this blog in like three years.  Woops.  Hard to find time to do a lot of cooking right now.  But I’ve been playing with new recipes more as I tried to lose the last of the baby weight (calling it baby weight makes it sound more acceptable… really it was EAT ALL THE JUNK FOOD BECAUSE I WAS BREASTFEEDING AND THE INTERWEBZ SAID I COULD weight).  And I succeeded.  So perhaps I should share some of these recipes.  And who are we kidding, I should also share recipes for eating all teh junk.

But also?  In the last few years a beautiful website called Pinterest has arrived on the scene.

I created a board for all the pins I have tried, along with notes on many of the pins with my level of success.  It’s not all food, but a lot of it is.  http://pinterest.com/rhiyaya/things-i-can-check-off-the-to-do-list/

There are already plenty of website that test Pins.  So I’m not shifting my focus to that.  But there will probably be more pin testing, since that is where I get the majority of my new recipes these days.  But I’ve also been making a lot of soup.  And lots of interesting lunch combos, since I need lunches that I can bring for a whole week, and reheat using only a microwave and toaster.  I’m hoping to be back soon.   But first I need to re-make some of the recipes I have in mind so that I can snap photos.  Bonus?  In the last few years I’ve gotten a fancier camera.

Seriously. If you love chocolate, make this. Please oh please make this. It’s so easy, so rich, so chocolatey.

1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk
1/4 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

Mix the sugar and cocoa together. Beat the eggs with a fork and mix into sugar/cocoa. Add the rest of the ingredients.

Pour into the pie crust and cook at 350 for at least 45 minutes. Mine was probably closer to an hour.

I recommend topping with ice cream or whipped cream.

Make sure the butter is not really hot when you add it, or else you’ll end up with scrambled eggs in your pie. Not so yummy.

I wanted to make another one and had ingredients for it except for the evaporated milk. I replaced it with some heavy cream I had on hand and it worked. That pie was way uglier, but actually may have been better tasting, even. It ended up with a crunchy meringue type crust on top.

One of my dear online friends suggested this recipe when I was feeding my freezer before Lorelei arrived.

I’m writing this for two pot pies because one pre-cooked chicken from the grocery store is perfect for two, but you can always cut it in half.

2 pie crusts and 2 pie crust tops (you can buy unroll-and-bake crusts in the fridge section near the biscuits and use those for the top and bottom or just for the tops)

meat from one pre-cooked grocery store rotisserie chicken

2 cans cream of mushroom soup (if you don’t like the fungus amoung us, substitute whatever “cream of” soup you want)

2 cups milk

frozen mixed veggies

Combine all ingredients in prepared pie crust. Use as much of the chicken and the veggies as you’d like. Top with another crust. Seal edges. Poke wholes with a fork.

You can freeze this uncooked.

When ready to cook (from frozen)- 400 degrees for around 1 hour and 15 minutes.

This is such an easy thing to feed to your freezer. I just froze in two-serving sized bags, since there are two of us who eat solids.

1 pound ground meat- turkey, beef, chicken, or fake meat
1/2 jar salsa of choice
1/2 jar enchilada sauce
tablespoon taco seasoning
some oil for your pan

You can add whatever else tickles you… diced onion, peppers, etc. If you choose to do that, add it to your oil first, before the meat, and let them soften some.

Pour some oil in your pan and let meat cook mostly through. Then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for a few minutes- until desired consistency.

If you use fake meat you don’t even need to cook it (unless you use onions or peppers and you want to cook those).

This is my dad’s recipe from back when he ate poultry. It’s soooo easy.

1lb ground turkey, browned
2 cans Great Northern or Navy beans (I used one can great northern and one can of white kidney beans)
1 can white hominy
1 packet chili seasoning

I added 1 small can of green chilies, too.

Combine in pot and simmer for twenty or thirty minutes, or put in a crock pot for about two or three hours on high or four or five hours on low.

Here is the recipe I used. It’s a slight variation of the recipe that my friend, Anelle, posted soon after he son was born.

1 Cup butter
1 Cup peanut butter
1 Cup Sugar
2 Cups Brown Sugar
4 eggs
1 TBS vanilla
1 tsp salt
2 tsp Baking Soda
2 1/2 C flour
1/3 C Wheat Germ
1/3 C Wheat Bran
1/3 C Flaxmeal
4 C Oatmeal (I used old fashioned)
Chocolate and peanut butter chips

Cream sugars and butter/pb, add eggs and vanilla and mix. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients except oatmeal and chips. Slowly beat dry ingredients into wet. Then stir in oats and chips (just use as many chips as you want).

Line a jelly roll pan (cookie sheet with sides) with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. Press dough into pan evenly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

You can also use all butter instead of butter/pb. And you can use whatever chips or other add-ins you want. Yum!

Oh so yum. Not very pretty to look at, though.

I had no soy sauce, so I looked up soy sauce substitutions online and just kinda guessed. I also went heavy on the honey.

1 cup lentils
2 cups water
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp soysauce
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp ginger
1 clove garlic
1 small onion
salt & pepper to taste

Bake, covered, at 350 degrees until tender. It was about an hour and a half for me, but they probably could have used another ten minutes.

My freezer was so hungry! I mean, it’s full of breast milk. But it’s seven months old so it’s totally ready for solids. It sits all by itself and everything.

So I decided to feed it. Nom nom nom.

Here’s what I fed it this time:

24 turkey meatballs

5 turkey burgers

5 beef burgers

2 chicken pot pies (8 servings)

1 quiche (4 servings)

4 servings of white chili

8 servings of fake taco meat mix

honey baked lentils

2+ servings of balsamic mustard dump chicken

2+ servings of honey seseme dump chicken

2 pans of lactation bars

Plus I made 7 servings of chicken bbq – but we ate that already

I haven’t tried most of the recipes before, so I feel wary of putting them up yet. But as we eat things I’ll post the recipes and link to them here. If you want a recipe for something in particular just email me and I’ll send it your way.

My freezer is full now. It still has room for more breast milk, though.

My family is all laughing at me right now, I’m sure. “Leave it to Rhiannon to find a way to find another way to eat ketchup.”

Chipotle Ketchup

1/3 c Ketchup
1tsp Lime juice
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin

Mix all ingredients together

I’m cooking up a bag of sweet potato fries to go with this, but I bet it would be good on a burger, too.

Note that this is only as spicy as your chili powder.