Katie’s Sweet Corn Bread

Posted on November 6, 2008 by Momzoo

I have never really been a fan of corn bread. Growing up I didn’t get what the big deal was about cornbread. It was ok, but not wonderful.

Until I met this Corn Bread

and I feel deeply, deeply in love.

I got this recipe from my good friend Katie, she has a blog, but it is private. So I am taking it upon myself to share this wonderful recipe (I hope it isn’t a family secret…).

It is seriously the best stuff, it will change your life, make your kids behave and your husband pick up his socks.

Yes, it is that good!

Here is our cast of characters:

1 cup cornmeal

2 cup flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup melted butter

4 eggs

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Mix all the dry ingredients, and give them a stir in the bowl.

Melt the butter and mix it with the wet ingredients.
Whisk it well.

Pour the wet into the dry

and stir it well

Pour it into a greased 9×13 pan

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.

Check for doness (is that a word?) by sticking it with a fork or toothpick, it will come out clean if it is fully cooked.

Serve hot with butter and honey….good enough to be a dessert.

If I am feeling particularly frugal I will freeze half of it. It freezes really well.

You can also make muffins, this batter will make 24 muffins. I keep them in the freezer and put them in lunches or use them for after school snacks.

Three Bean Soup

Posted on October 28, 2008 by Momzoo

Monday I made Three Bean Soup for dinner.

I already had some Great Northern and Kidney beans cooked and in the freezer so I needed to cook some black beans so my soup could be a true “three beans”.

I decided to demonstrate the “quick cook” method for cooking beans.
(note: when cooking dry beans nothing is truly quick)
I started by measuring my beans, dumping them in a big pot and covering them by several inches of water, you will cook off a lot of water, so don’t be shy, start out with lots of water.

I needed 2 cups for the recipe, so I measured out one cup of dry beans.

I brought them to a boil, then turned the heat down so they would simmer.
It took about 4 hours of simmering for the beans to become soft. Be careful to watch the water level, it is easy for the water to simmer off, and burnt beans smell really bad!

When following recipes you need to take into consideration your altitude. If I was closer to sea level it would have taken less time, if I was higher, more time. The higher you get the lower the boiling point of water becomes. Therefore you are not cooking your beans as at high of temperature. I am at about 4700 feet, and it took about 4 hours.

Once they were done I rinsed them off and sat them to the side while I got my other ingredients together.

Here is the cast of characters:
4 cups cooked beans (any kind)
4 cups stewed tomatoes
1 1/2 cups corn
1 can chili peppers
1 Onion, chopped
1 tsp garlic powder
1-2 Tbsp Chili powder (depending on your taste)

Chop your onion….

And dump everything into a pot….

Bring everything to a boil and let it simmer for an hour.

and that is it

I served this with Cheese and Corn Bread.

It is soooooo good!

and so low fat!
Unless you count the cheese, and the corn bread…
This would also be good with tortilla chips…there are so many possibilities.

This could be easily be made in the crock pot.
Also if you don’t want to to the trouble of cooking the beans, four small cans of whatever beans you like would work, along with 2-15 oz cans of stewed tomatoes and a can of corn.

I figure minus the cheese and corn bread this meal cost me 4$, the tomatoes did come out of my garden, so if you added the cost of those it would be more…even then it would still be super cheap, and it fed my family of 7 with enough for left overs.

(p.s. I am going to blog my corn bread recipe soon. Actually, it isn’t my recipe, it is my good friend Katie’s recipe and it is really, really good…my all time favorite!)

If you would like some more recipes and kitchen tips, check out Tammy’s site

Refried Beans

Posted on October 23, 2008 by Momzoo

Refried beans are one of the easiest and yummiest ways to prepare and serve beans

Here is our cast of character:
Cooked beans

some sort of fat

and seasonings

easy peasey

Start by heating up whatever fat you would like to use.
I used Canola oil this time
and to be very honest it is my least favorite I don’t really love the taste of the canola oil with beans, but it worked and it was still good.
I like using shortening better and my very favorite it bacon grease, it gives the beans a wonderful flavor.

Once it is nice and hot dump your beans in

I would advise you to wear an apron of some sort
(here is a link to some cute vintage aprons)
the grease will splatter a bit, and nothing bugs me more than a nice shirt ruined by grease!

(side note, isn’t that itty bitty measuring spoon so stinking cute!)

I add my spices, anything works, whatever floats your boat.
A spoonful or two of salsa is really yummy.

Once the beans start to warm up you and start smashing them. If you like them really chunky just use the back of your spoon.

I use a potato masher, it is quicker.

and if you like them really smooth, put them in your food processor
whatever you preference it

There you have it
Refried Beans

Typically I use my beans in two different ways,
I will make bean Quesadillas and Burritos.

My Burritos are really simple

Just plop a glob on a tortilla, sprinkle on some cheese…

…roll ’em up

pack them in a pan as tightly as possible
and smother them with cheese

Served with Salas and Sour Cream….
a family favorite.

Now tell me please, my bloggy friends, are you finding this series helpful? It is interesting to you? Would you like me to keep going…or should I move on to other things?

Bean Taco Bake

Posted on October 13, 2008 by Momzoo

This Bean recipe is one of my family’s favorite. Everybody will eat it, and Dadzoo fights to have leftovers for the next day!

Here is our cast of characters:

1 cup milk

2 cup Salsa

2 cans tomato soup

4 cups cooked beans

2 cups shredded cheese

12 tortillas cut up into 2 inches pieces

Start out by getting one of the kids to cut up the tortillas.

Today Punk #1 is my kitchen helper.

This is a great recipe for little helpers, it is pretty basic.

While the tortillas are being cut up mix the ingredients, leaving out 1 cup of cheese.

(she wouldn’t look at the camera…..stinker!)

Spread the cut up tortillas in a greased baking dish,

and pour the bean mixture on top

give it a good stir

and pop it into a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until it is bubbly around the edges.
Then sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and let it melt.

Now this is where Momzoo lost her mind and little and in all the hustle and shuffle of dinner time forgot to take a picture of the finished product.

I like to serve this with some corn bread and veggies on the side.

YUMMY!!!

Beans, Beans….

Posted on October 8, 2008 by Momzoo

About a year ago when I decided that we needed to live a more sustainable life I took a serious look at beans. Bean are a wonderful food. They are full of nutrients, and combined with rice are a complete protein. They store really, really well and best of all they are cheap!

There was one catch…

Ok,

well,

two catches….

First, I didn’t know how to cook beans. I had, up to that point, only used canned beans from the store, on the rare occasions that I used beans.

Second, I didn’t think we would really like them.

So I came to two decisions: #1 I needed to learn how to cook beans, my pioneer mothers knew how and I needed to relearn this skill. #2 I needed to learn to like beans, I needed to try recipes and serve them to my family often enough that they go use to them and eventually like them.

So for about a year now I have been searching and cooking and learning all about beans. We have had our share of crunchy beans for dinner (bleck), my family has been wonderful patient with me (at least Dadzoo has, he is really good at tolerating, with a smile, my mess ups).

I thought I would share what I have learned with everybody. In times of plenty and times of famine knowing how to cook from scratch is an invaluable skill. I can have 1,000 pounds of kidney beans in my basement, but they are worthless to me if I don’t know how to prepare them and serve them. Also, I believe, that a time of crisis is not the time to be learning these skills, we should prepare ourselves, not only in the storing of food but the skills to use them the best way possible. Our families need to be use to eating these foods, a time of famine or emergency is not the time to be teaching a 10 year old to love beans! I have a series of posts I am going to be doing in the coming weeks, with some recipes and some tips I have learned along the way.

First of all I would like to show you all how I cook beans. I do a large batch and freeze the beans for later use. This is really convenient and easy, especially if I am running behind, it takes about 5 minutes to grab a bag of beans and defrost it in some warm water.

I start out with 6 cups beans. I am not picky on what type, (I have used Great Northern, Kidney and Black, in various combinations) Today I picked Great Northern and Kidney. I measured the beans and put it in my crock pot.

I fill the crock pot up to the very tip-top with water (about 12-14 cups)

I add salt, pepper and any other spice, a tiny bit of hot pepper is yummy too. (just a note, I have heard that salt and onions make the beans cook slower, when I do the crock pot method I don’t worry about that, we will be cooking these babies for about 10 hours so it doesn’t really matter.)