Crock Pot Black Beans and Bolios

Today I had planned to make Black Beans in the crock pot. They turned out pretty good.
Recipe:
1 lb. dry black beans
1 (14 oz) can chicken broth
1 (small) can tomato paste
2 1/2 cups water
1 tsp. cumin
2 jalapenos, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced and sauteed
1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced and sauteed
4 cloves garlic, sauteed
1 onion, diced and sauteed
1 tsp olive oil, to saute above 4 items
fresh ground pepper to taste

OK, so what I did was rinse and sort the black beans and put them in the crock pot on low this morning at about 7am. I was up at 6:30 unfortunately. :/
I poured in the chicken broth, tomato paste, water, cumin and jalapenos and set to low.
After setting that up, I diced my peppers and garlic and onion. I sauteed my bell peppers separately so I could put them in the last half hour of cooking so they would not be soggy. I sauteed the onion and garlic and put them in the crock as well. I was gone till almost 1 with the beans on low. When I got home I turned them on high and proceeded to cook them till about 4pm. Thirty minutes prior to eating I poured in the bell peppers which I had placed in the fridge, and made some Spanish rice. Mmm. I served the beans with rice, crema, queso fresco and homemade bolios, which did not turn out as poofy as I would have preferred. I had a recipe in my cook book for bolios but they did not rise as much as I would have liked so I am not going to post about them until I get them right, although one is pictured with my dinner.
Hope you try this recipe, it turned out quite nice. I think next time I'll just use water instead of chicken broth.

Dinner!

Black Beans, bolio, Pace Picante Sauce (Hot), Carrot Juice.

Since dinner was pretty simple tonight, we got to get out the blocks and make "tunnels!"

Taste: 4/5 I think the consistency was a little too thick from the tomato paste and the Queso Fresco was the wrong brand... My bad

Try again? Yes, I love black beans. Whats left over from these are going in the enchiladas I'm making this weekend. YUM!!!

Times I dropped things? I think I dropped the spoon twice on the floor, DOOOOH!

Lesson learned: It doesn't really neeeed the chicken broth, I think that just added unneccary fat and salt.

Gotta love it!

God made me and I LoVe to cook!

Stuffed French Toast

This morning I made stuffed french toast. It is the only french toast I have ever liked. Ever!
Usually french toast is tasteless and bleh... but when I tried this recipe from Americas Test Kitchen... I WAS AMAZED!!!
So I had a HUGE miss-hap today... I burned my forearm. It was NOT cool, in any way, well besides the fact that I have some pretty gnarly scars from it. HAHAH Well, I was flipping one of the stuffed french toasts and the butter splattered. EDG! Not fun. They were very tasty, as always though.

 Cook till browned on both sides

I don't know why the picture won't rotate, but here is the finished product. YUM YUM YUM!

Stuffed French Toast and organic eggs. NOM! NOM!

 This is the bread I used this time...

 

My burned arm 3 hours later...

My burned arm after I got burn spray.

Soooo... I love STUFFED french toast! But I do NOT love burning myself. EGD! Thank you Lanacane First Aid Spray, you really saved the day. And thats to my Best Friend for buying it for me when I was too stubborned to get it!

Recipe:
For the filling I use:
6 oz reduced fat cream cheese
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
(mix them all up real smooth and put in bread... I make about 5-7 sandwhiched which this much filling)
Stuff to dip them in:
1/2 cup organic flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1 organic cage free egg
(mix these three ingredients together in a pie plate, then dip two sandwhiches in at a time. Heat a 12in skillet with 2 tbsp real butter and fry two sandwhices at a time, flipping after browned, about 3 minutes per side. Serve warm with powdered sugar and/or syrup. I cut them into triangles because well its FUN.)
Note to self: Be very careful when flipping. Butter burns!!!

Rating: 5/5
Lesson learned: Be easy when flipping, butter can and will scald you if you are not careful, DUH!
Will I make this again? YES! I love making these!
Times I dropped something... ZERO actually, but burning myself was pretty bad.

Oh how we love to be crazy! o_0

Gotta love it!

God is sooo good to me!

On A Roll...

Made rolls again today. I was planning on making homemade french bread or bolios, but I forgot that in order to make these things one would need this gross ingredient called shortening. Bleh! I have never cooked with shortening, but I guess now I must (I really want to make homemade bolios).

I guess I should give these rolls a name since I kinda just winged it. lol
Well, lets just call them Honey-Flax Rolls (in my cook book it was called Whole Grain Pan Rolls, but I didn't exactly have some of the ingredients it called for so I improvised) HAHA

Anyways, I was hungry while making them so I had to have a snack. At first I was just thirsty so I grabbed what was left of my wine... but after a few sips I decided that I rather have the last Brownie Cookie. YUM! Those things are irresistible!!! So I dumped out my wine and drank some milk and had my chocolate fix. ;)  (Needless to say it did not help my headache)
Tonight we ate chicken fettuccine Alfredo with steamed broccoli and cauliflower. It was good, but the rolls made it great!


So, my recipe for these new Rolls, which are chillin, rising, in the oven while I type:

Recipe:

1/4 cup Organic Flaxseed Meal

3 1/4-3 3/4 Cup Organic flour

1/2 Cup Old Fashioned Oats (uncooked)

1 Cup water

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup honey (mmmm honey)

2 packages yeast

1 Organic, cage free egg

1tsp salt

Directions:

Melt butter with water and honey in small pan

Cool to 120 degrees

Whisk 1/2 flour, oats, yeast, and salt in a Large mixing bowl

Slowly add warm honey/butter mixture (I spilt mine here, EGD!)

Beat with mixer

Add Egg

Beat for about a minute or so

Add rest of flour slowly till dough forms. (I did this step with a spoon, my mixer WHOMPS!)

Turn the dough out on a lightly floured counter (this step was super messy for me, taking picts and all)

Kneed till dough forms elastic ball, about 5 minutes.

Divide dough in two and stretch about 18 inches (this would be better if it was left to rise for about 20 minutes but whatever this is what I did today)

Cut dough with back of chef knife, into 24 pieces

Roll into balls, Place on cookie sheets to rise for about an hour or until the rolls have doubled in size. (I placed mine in the oven today, I am out of plastic wrap and didn't want to use up my last two dish towels today. Don't worry the oven is off)

Bake at 375degrees for about 15-20 minutes or so. (DON'T BURN THE BOTTOMS)

Yields:2 dozen

First batch, buttered b4 baked.                      Second batch, not buttered. WAY better!

Times I spilled or dropped something: 3, I dropped two rolls and spilt the butter mixture when pouring it into the flour. Don't worry, I didn't use those rolls, I just cut up two larger ones to keep it at 24. :)

Will I make this again? Oh My Goodness YES! These rolls were sooo FLUFFY, I thought the ones I'd been making for the longest were the best, but I was wrong. Today's recipe out did my long time favorite!

Rating: 5/5

Skill level: Beginner, these rolls were easy. (probably because I didn't follow the books recipe, well na it would have been just as easy)

monkey boy thinks he's so strong haha can you tell he dressed himself today lol

My apron I made for Spanish class last semester
It says Besa A La Cocinera
(I had the best teacher last semester, Love it when teachers are there to help you and not just get a pay check)

OH, the kids have been getting into the fridge more since its summer and its gotten quite annoying so we fixed that little problem with a little help from Lowes.



Fridge LOCK! (lets see how long this lasts...)

Gotta love it!

God is soooo good to me!



Best Rolls YET!

     So I have this "game" for the Nintendo DS... It's called Americas Test Kitchen: Lets Get Cooking
I love it! I've had it for a few years but only started "playing it" this past year or so. It is amazing! OK, at first I thought it was like every other goofy game out there, but it's not. In the "game" it gives you actually recipes to make, with step by step by step directions of what to do and how to do it. There are even little helpful videos for people who aren't really kitchen smart. lol

     Well, in the game I found a recipe for homemade rolls. Awesome! I know. These rolls are the best rolls I have ever made to date. I LOVE ROLLS! Gotta give props to the makers of Americas Test Kitchen. It was a great idea and I love most of the recipes that I have tried. I will try to post on the things that I keep making from there, when I make them. I wish I would have started this blog back when I got the game. I've cooked over 100 times. Oh, that's another thing. The game keeps count on how many times you've cooked, what you've cooked and such. It is AMAZING!

Pros of the game:
It has 300 different recipes
It will keep a shopping list for you if you check the things you need. It will keep up to 20 recipes shopping items.
You can rate each item once you make it.
You can search using key words or specific ingredients
LOVE THIS: you can mark recipes to try on a certain date, so you can plan your meals and you can even click try soon and it will keep it organized for you under the person who wants to cook it. I love that it has a calendar.
Oh ya, it has a timer in the game. I love that, its always set for the time it says on whatever step its on.

Cons of the game:
Sometimes the directions tell you to do steps in a goofy order, I try to go through the steps before cooking to make sure I don't have the oven preheating for an hour or anything else goofy going on.
I think that's the only complaint I have about the game. It was just frustrating learning that it give directions in goofy orders sometime.

OK, so the rolls...
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup milk
10 tablespoons butter (divided 8 & 2)
1 Organic egg
 4 cups organic flour
2 tablespoons organic sugar or honey
1 envelope yeast
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1) Heat milk to 110 degrees
2) Melt 8 tbsp butter in pan
3) Beat the egg in a bowl
4)Whisk the 8 tbsp butter and egg with the milk
5) Whisk the 4 cups flour, 2 tbsp sugar, yeast and salt together
6) Mix in the milk mixture till dough is formed
7) Turn out on a lightly floured counter and kneed till dough is smooth
8) Place in a lightly grease bowl and cover. Let rise for 30 min to 1 hr or till its size has doubled
9) Divide the dough into two
10) Stretch each dough piece into about 16 in length11) Using the back side of a knife or a bench scraper (I use my Cutco chef knife) ;) divide into about twelve pieces each, totalling 24 pieces more or less
12) Roll each piece of dough into small balls
13) Place on cookie sheets and let rise again for 30 min to 1 hour (it says to cover with plastic wrap in the game but I usually just leave them oven or cover with a clean dish towel).
14) Heat oven to 375
15) Melt the remaining 2 tbsp butter in pan
16) Brush rolls with remaining 2 tbsp butter and bake about 20 minutes. Now, usually my rolls are done in about 18 minutes, so check the bottoms of the rolls. While they still taste good burned on bottom, no one wants a burnt roll. lol 

17) Get your grub on! These rolls are delicious! 

cutting the dough, step 11 for me

letting the rolls rise

rolls risen w/out butter

rolls risen with butter

Will I try it again? Yes! I love making these rolls for family gathering or whenever I really want bread. I love it because they are so simple to make and it makes a ton, so I always have some to give away. Who doesn't like free fresh baked bread??!!!??
Rating: 5 out of 5
Lesson learned: always check them before the timer goes off, I prefer my rolls without their bottoms burned.
SIDE NOTE: If you already own a Nintendo DS go to your local Game Stop and purchase this game, you will not regret it. I payed $5 for mine and love love love it! Best $5 I have probably ever spent. Oh, I bough one for my baby sister. I don't know if she will ever use it, but maybe she will come spend the night and we can cook together. Making memories!!!

Gotta love it!

God made such yummy bread!

Fluffy buttermilk pancakes!

OK, so do you know about Omega-3's and all their wonderful benefits? Well, I have been doing research on them, reading books, scouring the web and all sorts of stuff and have come across an amazing recipe for pancakes that have Omega-3's! YAY! I know, your jumping for joy. HAHA
Well, its a few simple ingredients and you have some scrumptious homemade pancakes that you know exactly what is in them... no Bisquick necessary. (I must admit I do have Bisquick in my pantry, in case of emergencies.)
First of all, you will have to purchase some flaxseed mill. I buy mine at Kroger or Walmart, but the other day I saw it at H.E.B. for only $4! Scoooooore! That's a dollar cheaper than I usually pay for it. Anyhow, this recipe also take buttermilk, surprise, I know. Did I give that away in the title>?

Recipe:
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1Cup buttermilk (low fat preferably)
3/4 Cup Organic All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 Cup Flaxseed Meal
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp Organic Sugar
1 Omega-3 egg

Baggies of dry pancake mix!

Whenever I make these pancakes I make about 6 baggies and just toss them in the freezer to use whenever my babies want pancakes. This way, I'm not measuring everything out every time we want pancakes, that's a chore.

Directions:
Toss all the dry ingredients together in Ziploc baggies and freeze until use. Then take out and mix egg and vanilla. Add buttermilk and stir gently. Pour in dry ingredients and mix gently. If you over stir the buttermilk mixture then your pancakes will not be soooo fluffy. (they fluff up once flipped, usually ;)) Keep heat low enough that pancake bottoms brown within 2-4 minutes. I keep my stove just about medium or right under medium. They turn out great!!!

Pancake!

Hope you like these pancakes!
Taste: MMMM
Try again: YES, I make these like 2-4 times a week!
Healthy:hummm sure, without syrup. ;)
Lesson learned: I learned the first time I made these to make a bunch of mix and put in baggies!

Gotta love it!

God made me, and my love for cooking!

Freeze the brownies!

I've been feeling really lously lately. So not ok because I have a whole cookbook to get through and I just bought a new bag of flour the other day. I need to bake! I miss it!

Well, the other day I made those amazing brownie cookies but they turned out really flat. So... I stuck the rest of the batter in the freezer. Well, I made the freezered batter and those cookies turned out sooooooo magnificent that I did not wanna give any away. I did give two bags away though because lets face it, I don't wanna get HUGE! ;)  SOOOOO, When making brownie cookies, make them ahead of time and freeze the batter and take out later and bake! YUMMM

the frozen cookies, baked. they turned out fluffy!!!

I love PITAs! These were only $1 at walmart! I used to buy them at Kroger but they are usually $3... :(

I felt alright enough yesterday to straighten my hair!!! WOW! And I tried some new eye liner goop ;)

I guess this post was just saying I'll be back to baking in no time!
I have two posts I need to do today, one about some amazing pancakes and one about the best rolls, hand down! But, as for now, I need to go make some hot tea. My throat HuRtS! (All of the above is straight randomness) AHHHHH

Lesson learned: I look funny in LOTS of eye liner
Will I do it again: probably, who knows, I like eye liner, just maybe not that MUCH
Taste: those cookies were the bees knees after frozen!

Gotta love it!

God gave me freckles, Lots of freckles!!!

Brownie Cookies! YUM!

I made two new recipes today, not the smartest thing to make them at once, but hey I had laundry to do. ~yay~

I made such a mess making cookies today. The kids were asleep so it had nothing to do with them, although usually it does. Haha When I was mixing the melted butter/chocolate into the rest of the mix my mixer went crazy! It's one of those cheap ones thats only like $6. Ya, I need to invest in a new one, but I just don't use it enough to justify buying one now. I'd rather get my coveted rice cooker and steamer basket. I cannot wait to begin making bentos for A when school starts. And I'd dying to make tamales!!!<- my randomness hahaha
Well, The cookies turned out great. I took a plate to the apartment office and they loved them, or they said they did. LOL These cookies were soooo sweet. I had to put some of the batter in the freezer because no way could we eat all these cookies this week. It made a bunch I made 3 trays I believe. I'll save the rest of the batter for when my bro comes to visit. Yay for not having to make more of a mess when he comes!!! If anyone wants the recipe just leave a comment and I'll post it, I don't feel like getting up right now. Me=lazy. ;)

Ingredients HAHA

This is the stick of Butter, 4 (1 oz. unsweetened chocolate), and 1 cup Organic Chocolate Chips

I made a mess. My mixer is NO GOOD. :/ Good thing I wore a "play shirt"

The Cookie Brownies! I forgot to take a pict of them when they came out of the oven.

Lesson learned: either use a bigger bowl next time or get a proper mixer. Oh and one more thing... The "cookie" dough was way too runny, I had to put the batter in the refrigerator and let it thicken up a bit before doing the second batches and on.
Taste: YUMMY, but very very sweet. I think next time I'll only use half the bag of chocolate chips... I dono how that with work with unsweetened chocolate. We shall see.
Health: HAHA I think these cookies were somewhere close to 300 calories per cookie... NOT good. EEEk
Will I make again? Yes, but will freeze half the dough, I don't need so many cookies.

Gotta love it.

God made cocoa, cocoa is yummy!