Black Bean Taquitos

Another Pinterest favorite! Recipe adapted from Naturally Ella Baked Black Bean Taquitos

Ingredients

1/2 medium yellow onion

1 clove garlic

1 small jalapeno

1/2 tbls sunflower - i used vegetable oil

1/2 tsp paprike

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp seasalt

1/2 cup black beans

1/4 cup cilantro

6-8 corn tortillas - I used flour tortillas

1/2 cup colby jack cheese

sunflower oil for brushing tortillas - I used vegetable oil

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Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and bring a medium pot of water to simmer.

In a pan, heat oil over medium heat. Saute onion and pepper until onion becomes translucent. Stir in garlic, cumin, paprika, salt, and continue to cook for 1-2 minutes. Add in black beans and cilantro, cooking until beans are heated through, 2-3 minutes.

Turn off water. Taking one tortilla at a time, dip in hot water for 3-4 seconds. Place on a cutting board and scoop a spoonful of black bean filling and a pinch of cheese on top. Roll tight and place seam side down on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Repeat until all the filling is used. Brush each piece with oil.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until the tortilla is a light brown color. Dip in salsa, guacamole, or sour cream.

Crock Pot Pork Chops

So, apparently I have been into pork and using my crock pot. Both of which are good things and a nice change from chicken and having to cook everything after work. The crock pot saves me SO much time and energy! And of course I found this recipe on Pinterest.

Recipe adapted from Real Mom Kitchen Ranch House Crock Pot Pork Chops.

Ingredients:
1/2 inch bone-in pork chops
1 packet of Italian Seasoning
10 oz can of cream of mushroom soup
Russet potatoes
S & P
garlic cloves

Place pork chops and soup mix with italian seasonings into crock pot. Add chopped up potatoes. Mix all together. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Remove potatoes and mash them using a mixer. Add milk and butter.

Service pork over potatoes and drizzle with the soup/sauce from crock pot.

Balsamic Glazed Pork Tenderloin

I came across this recipe on Pinterest, which is where I find lots of my recipes nowadays. I bought two pork tenderloins from Albertsons and cooked them both. The meat turned out so incredibly tender and juicy and the glaze was delicious. I made my favorite side dish rice, curried cauliflower and rice and a salad topped with strawberries and mandarin oranges. I highly recommend this recipe for an easy crock pot dinner. 

Recipe from C + C Marriage Factory.

Ingredients:

1 (2 pound) boneless pork tenderloin (or regular pork loin)

1 teaspoon ground sage

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 cup water

Glaze

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions:

Combine sage, salt, pepper and garlic. Rub over roast. Place in slow cooker with 1/2 cup water. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. About 1 hour before roast is done, combine ingredients for glaze in small sauce pan. Heat and stir until mixture thickens. Brush roast with glaze 2 or 3 times during the last hour of cooking. Serve with remaining glaze on the side.

Thumbprint Holiday Cookies

Made from a box, but super cute, festive and yummy!!

Happy Holidays!

These owl cupcakes will make you swoon!

We had a Halloween bake contest at work and I got plenty of inspiration from Pinterest, and landed on making these precious little owl cupcakes. I think they turned out great, and they were a huge hit at the party!! They were super easy to make. I used Double Stufd Oreos for the eyes and Reeses Pieces for the iris and beak. And I used a butter knife to create the owl-like tufts with the frosting!

The best rice dish ever

If there is one recipe you MUST try from this blog, this is it!! I adapted my recipe from  Martha Stewart's, One-pot Curried Cauliflower Rice. Cauliflower is one of my favorite veggies, but I hardly eat it because the hubs despises it. One of his favorite foods is rice. Any type of rice, and he'll be happy. The beauty of this recipe is that I get cauliflower and he gets a yummy rice side - all in the same dish! It's easy, fun, and goes with any dinner.

via MarthaStewart.com

4 teaspoons vegetable oil

As much cauliflower as you want

Coarse salt and ground pepper

1/2 of a yellow onion, diced small

1 cup basmati rice (uncooked)

2 teaspoons cumin powder*

1 tsp garlic pepper

1/2 can of chickpeas (or more if you want), rinsed and drained

About 1 1/2 cups of chicken or vegetable broth

1/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a pot** heat 2 teaspoons oil over medium-high. Add cauliflower and cook, stirring frequently, until browned in spots. Transfer to a plate and season with salt and pepper. Add 2 tsp oil and onion back to  pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent, 5 min. Add uncooked rice, cumin, garlic pepper, and chickpeas and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until rice is coated, about 2 min. Add broth and cream and bring to a boil. Scatter cauliflower over top (do not stir to combine). Cover and bake until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed, 15 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving. 

*The original recipe calls for curry powder, but I didn't have any. If you'd rather use curry seasonings, use instead of the cumin and garlic pepper.

**I used a large oven-safe saute pan, but in the future, I will probably try this recipe in my new Le Creuset dutch oven.

Makes 3-4 servings depending on the amount of cauliflower and chickpeas you use.

Shucking Corn with Ken

A local AG man teaches us how to shuck corn with ease (and quaintness!) And nearly 4 million hits on You Tube - he's famous! How cute is he?! I am definitely going to use this trick next time I buy corn on the cob!

Alien Onion

Look at the size of this onion we picked from our garden! I think we left it in the ground too long because it was oober slimy..ew.

A Growing Garden

When we moved into our house two years ago, the existing garden area was overgrown with weeds, the fence was falling down, and goat heads ruled the dirt. Last year, Steve cleared out the weeds, built a raised bed, and fixed the fencing to keep safe from the deer. This year, we (Steve) expanded the garden to three raised beds with room to grow. Steve has tweaked the garden with better drip systems, beer holders, climbing wires for the cucumbers and canteloupe, and a cute flower bed to add a touch of color. I wanted to share with you Steve's labor of love and how he got our garden to flourish so wonderfully. 

For the record, I do help! I assisted in attaching the climbing racks for the cucumbers (which is very important for space). I shoveled my share of donkey doo for the compost and I save all of the kitchen scraps to add to the compost bin. All of this, combined with store-bought soil makes for the perfect growing dirt. I also weeded the beds a few times in the early stages, and helped tie off rope to the tomato bed to hold up the growing branches (also very important...you want your tomato plants supported as much as possible!) But, best of all, I cook and prepare the veggies! Nom nom nom..

2010 - One lonely bed:

2011:

One bed for tomatos, one for various veggies, and one for cucumber and cantaloupe

BEST. LETTUCE. EVER.

Bell peppers

Proud papa and his tomatos (and beer shelf!)

 

Not your average banana bread

Like I mentioned before, I am always left with a few overripe bananas and looking for new ways to use them. This time, I wanted to do a simple banana bread again and recently came across a new recipe while following various Bachelorettes on Twitter. (See, I knew there was a good reason for my new twitter obsession. I seriously cannot stop reading about what former Bachelors and Bachelorettes are up to...it's sick really.)

Anyway, I am not even going to write out this recipe, because you can find it here: Ashley's World Famous Ball-Bustin' Banana Bread. I followed it exactly and this bread turned out SOO good. Best banana bread so far. It is moist but not oily. The most brilliant part of this recipe is how you separate the banana mash into one lumpy banana mix and one banana cream mix. That way, the banana is infused into the bread but you also get yummy lumps of bananas inside the bread. LOVE this!

Try it. Now. Go on! You won't be disappointed!

I even tweeted Ashley about trying her recipe and got this:

Whoo!