Tasteful Tuesday

Today's recipes are in honor of my sister who just had a baby and called to say that she has missed my tasteful tuesday's because she always made what I posted that day. (Congrats Keri!) Since she will be short on time and energy, I am sharing 2 recipes that come together quickly with minimal ingredients and prep time. The Caramelized Beef Skewers are so yummy and who doesn't like eating their food on a stick?! The Sausage Chili is a new one to me and I won a prize at our recent chili cook-off for it. I think it is one of my husband's new favorites. I also posted a new pumpkin favorite that would be FANTASTIC for Thanksgiving on the recipe blog.

Caramelized Beef Skewers

1 lb steak, cut into strips (I usually use a london broil and cut it thin)

1/4 cup A1 sauce

1/4 cup barbeque sauce

1 teaspoon Dijon or spicy brown mustard

Marinate meat in 2 Tablespoons A1 sauce for 10 minutes or up to 24 hours. (I usually marintae it for 2-3 hours) Combine the rest of the A1 sauce with the barbeque sauce and mustard. Thread onto skewers and cook on grill for about 6 minutes, turning after 3 minutes. Serve immediately

Recipe Source:
Kraft Foods

Chicken Sausage Chili

2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed

2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed

1 onion, chopped

1 cup barbeque sauce

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon mustard

1 Tablespoon worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 ring chicken/turkey sausage (not the links, the big thick sausage rings)

Put all in crock pot and heat all day on low or 2-3 hours on high. Before serving, cut sausage into pieces. Serve with your favorite cornbread.

Recipe source:

Betty Crocker Weight loss for Families

Tasteful Tuesday

I have changed focus just a little. My new hobby is discoving great tasting, low calorie food. I have come across several really good ones that I will share for the next couple weeks. This Pork and Black Bean Chili as a good one and the kids even liked it. It was a snap to prepare, we are talking less that 30 min.

Pork and Black Bean Chili

4-6 boneless pork loin chops

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup salsa

Cooking spray

Green onions, chopped

Sour cream

Rub pepper into pork chops. Coat a large frying pan with cooking spray. Brown chops. Add beans and salsa. Cook until pork cooked through. Can serve by placing pork on top of beans or cut chops into bite sized pieces. Garnish with green onions and sour cream if desired. Makes 4-6 servings with 250 calories per serving (before the sour cream).

My Notes:

I used home cooked beans, substituting 4 cups of cooked black beans for the 2 cans. I forwent the sour cream and it was delicious.

Tasteful Tuesday

I know I have gone on in at least one other post about how we have been eating more beans and how I think they are the best things ever, and then I have left you high and dry without any bean recipes to try out. Well, today's recipe is from my sister, Kelly and it is all about beans. I personally LOVE refried beans and could eat a whole can myself. Now that I have a homemade version, it is even better. These beans are great for dipping, burritos, etc. and they don't take forever to make. Try them out, you might never go back to canned.

Refried Beans

Start by washing 1 cup of beans thoroughly (spread out and pick our rocks and yucky beans, then I like to use my salad spinner, fill it up with water and swish the beans around several times before pulling basket out to drain). Place in a DEEP pot with 3 cups water. Bring to a boil and slowly add 1/4 teaspoon baking soda. Remove from heat, skim off any foam, cover and let stand in liquid 1 hour.

Add 2 cups more water to beans and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 1 hour, stirring once, until beans are tender.

Now to refry them:

Heat 2 Tablespoons oil in skillet over meduim heat. Add cooked beans and 1 1/2 cups retained bean liquid.

Add:

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Mash until smooth and cook until liquid is mostly absorbed. Serve warm, top with 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese.

Recipe Source: Kelly Swanson, Nutritionist/Trainer, sister

My Notes:

I usually cook my whole bag of beans and divide it into 2 cups bags and put them in the freezer. Then when I want to make these, I just pull them out, thaw and cook as directed, adding a little water if needed. When I made them the last time, I remembered to soak the beans overnight so I could put them in the crock pot for a couple hours which left me free to do other things, but I like this recipe because you can still get it done a couple hours before dinner. I also usually do not add the cheese because of the calories, but it is even better with it.

Tasteful Tuesday

It has been miserable wet here the last few days. It still isn't very warm either. This is a good meal for those kinds of days. It is also quick and cooks in the crock pot all day. My kids love this with cornbread. I'll be posting the recipe for my favorite cornbread next week. If you want to try out an amazingly chocolate filled cookie, check out the recipe here.

Main Dish Baked Beans

(Sister Moses's recipe)

1 pound browned hamburger

1 pound cooked and crumbled bacon

1 large can Bush's Maple and Brown Sugar Pork n Beans

1 can each red, black, white beans

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup ketchup

1 teaspoon each salt and garlic salt

1 small onion chopped

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 Tablespoon white vinegar

Put it all in the crock pot and cook on high 3 hours. Then turn to low and cook until ready to serve.

My notes:

I usually make my own beans instead of purchasing canned ones. I cook a big pot and then divide into 2 cup portions. Make sure to keep some of the liquid from cooking your beans as you don't drain the canned ones. **2 cups of cooked beans are approximately what you get in a can.

Also, this is great in a dutch oven when camping.

I like to serve this with cornbread...recipe coming.

Tasteful Tuesday

I usually have the hardest time deciding which recipes to share. My camera is now full of food pictures instead of cute kids! Anyway, today I decided to share two recipes. The first is another one from my mother in law which I have changed a little bit. It is my favorite chili recipe. Since the weather here is starting to cool off, it makes for a great, quick and easy dinner. I usually serve it in a bowl, more like soup (and I especially like the lettuce in it) while my mother in law usually serves it on a plate more like nachos or taco salad. Do whatever suits your fancy. The second recipe is one I would never have thought to put together. My husband and I were able to sneak away for a date on Sat. We tried a restaraunt new to us and while the entrees were just okay, the appetizers and dessert were fantastic. The chocolate pineapple upside down cake was what we tried. Very yum! I still need to work on the recipe that is here to make it just like the one at the restaraunt but this was still very tastey and would be great if you are looking for something different to serve to company. It looks really nice on a plate. Hope you enjoy!

Chiliquiles

1 onion, chopped

1/2 lb. ground beef

1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce

1 Tablespoon chili powder

1 can chili beans

1 can black beans

1 can creamed corn

Brown beef with onion and drain. Add in rest of ingredients and heat through. Serve with corn chips, cheese, sour cream and shredded lettuce.

Chocolate Pineapple Upside Down Cake

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 (20 oz) can pineapple slices

1 package dark chocolate fudge cake mix**

1 box instant vanilla pudding**

1 cup pineapple juice, from canned pineapple with little bit of water added**

1/2 cup oil**

4 eggs**

Seedless Raspberry jam

Butterscotch Sauce (from ice cream topping section)

Preheat oven to 325. Melt butter in 9X13 pan. Sprinkle brown sugar over melted butter. Place pineapple slices in pan. Put a small spoonful of jam in center of pineapple slices. Combine cake mix, pudding, juice, oil and eggs in large mixing bowl. Blend on low 30 seconds and onmeduim for 2 minutes. Pour batter over pineapple and bake 40-50 min. Cool 5 min and turn onto serving platter, pineapple side up. To serve, warm butterscotch and small amount of jam (in seperate bowls) and drizzle over plate. Put a piece of cake in center and spoon more butterscotch on top. Top with dab of whipped cream.

**I have found that I like this recipe sooo much better with the following from scratch chocolate cake. If you want to make the cake from scratch replace the astricked items with the following recipe and follow the rest of the directions.

Chocolate Cake

2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup boiling water (for this cake use the pineapple juice plus enough water to make 1 cup and bring to a boil)

Combine all dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Add in eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat 2 minutes. Add in boiling water, slowly. Batter will be very thin. Pour over pineapple and sugar. Bake at 350 for 35-45 min.

Tasteful Tuesday

So this post is coming in a little later than I would have liked but I got to spend a wonderful morning with Bronson and his class at the pumpkin patch. Fall is so pretty here and I was glad to be able to take advantage of a nice day.
So, I am back to beans....you know "Beans, beans the magic fruit. The more you eat the more you toot! The more you toot, the better you feel. So let's eat beans for every meal!" We really don't eat them for every meal but we have started to eat them a lot more. My sister Kelly has an on-line fitness blog on which she posts great ways to improve your fitness level. Last year, she did a challenge that encouraged her readers to go for a month without meat. I, at the time, did not participate in that challenge but it really did get me thinking about how much meat we were eating. It turned out that we were eating an awful lot of it....definately more than we should have been. I didn't really think that a meatless meal would go over very well but I tried it one day and it was success. I have since then been trying to use beans more for 2 reasons: 1) they are CHEAP! and 2) they are a good, meatless source of protein. I have come to find that it really isn't too hard to substitute beans in. Here is a recipe idea you can make to your tastes, that is easy and really yummy. Ainslee ate about 3 of them. I guess my next step toward eating healthy needs to be to keep our serving sizes in check! I also have a whole wheat tortilla and a soft wrap recipe that I will hopefully get around to sharing sometime. Hope you are having something quick and delicious for dinner tonight!

Quick and Healthy Wraps

Tortillas or wraps

About 1 cup of cooked rice

About 1 cup cooked beans (I especially like black)

1/2 red pepper (or you can use both green and red or none at all)

1 small can olives, sliced

Any other veggies you want to add

1 package taco seasoning

Cheese, just sprinkle on how much you like

Cooking spray

Tomatoes, Salsa, sour cream

Mix the rice, beans, vegetables, and taco seasoning together. Sprinkle tortillas with cheese, then place good amount of filling in the center. Fold sides in and spray with cooking spray (don't make the mistake I did of folding the ends in as well....they just all fell apart when I tried to turn them. Just fold over the two sides). Place seem side down in dry frying pan and cook over medium heat until it is brown and crispy. Serve with your favorite toppings.