Crockpot Taco Meat

This was a great way for me to use my dry black beans before they expire. My kids LOVED this. but I think Caleb is part Mexican. I have yet to try with pinto beans and also want to try with a homemade taco seasoning, but I will update when I do. For, now, this was so great and fed us for many meals. (freezing the rest)  Taco salad, tacos, navajo tacos, burritos, quesadillas...etc

  "An easy, healthy, and frugal way to prepare taco meat. Dry beans add fiber, take out the fat, and lower the cost! No prep, just throw everything in the morning and have the start of a great meal ready by supper time!"

 Crockpot Taco Meat

Nutrition Info

• Calories: 166.0
• Fat: 7.4g
• Carbohydrates: 7.2g
• Protein: 17.0g

Ingredients

2 lb. ground turkey (i used chicken breasts which, again, were partially frozen. just made sure they were done before shredding them--about 6 hours on low and the chicken and beans were done)
1 1/2 cup dried pinto beans
2 tbsp. minced garlic
1 large onion, chopped
1 tsp. salt
2 pkg. taco seasoning
4 c. water

Directions

Place all ingredients in crock pot and stir till blended. Cook on high for 6 to 8 hours. Before serving, stir up the meat mixture. Serve as filling for burritos, tacos, nachos, or taco salad. Makes 12 servings, so freeze half for another night.

Number of Servings: 12

Chicken & Brown Rice Casserole-good, quick, versitile, healthyish stand by

Was lookin for a brown rice casserole without cream soup and found this. This recipe came from here and some of the comments help if you don't have or don't want to use Lipton soup mix. I didn't use mushrooms(we don't like them) and subsituted half of the brown rice (because we only had one cup on hand) with barley and it turned out great!  I'll remember you can substitute the two for future recipes. We like brown rice and now we like barley, too! who knew? Surprisingly, my kids liked this, too. I think they were hungry, but it was pretty good considering how easy it was. OH! and I only had frozen chicken so I defrosted in microwave for a couple minutes tops and then sliced it into 1.5" strips and layed them on top. I quickly sliced a green pepper and layed that on top to sift through later because my kids wouldn't have eaten it if it had too much of that chopped up in it. I left the house for 1 hour and 45 minutes and it was perfectly done when I got back. Probably could have checked it at 1.5 hours. Next time, I am gonna try to measure the oregano better instead of throwing it in and also gonna try different veggies. Good, quick stand by.

Chicken & Brown Rice Casserole

By Bobbiann on October 25, 2006

3 Reviews

• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Total Time: 1 hrs 25 mins
• Servings: 6

About This Recipe

"This one is a bit healthier and there is no cream soup in it. You can add or remove vegetables and it will still be good."

Ingredients

• 2 cups brown rice(I used 1 cup barley, 1 cup b rice)
• 1 (40 g) packages onion soup mix
• 1 onions, chopped
• 1 (10 ounce) cans mushrooms (optional)
• 4 cups water or 4 cups broth(i used costco's organic broth)
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• 1/2 green peppers, chopped
• 2 lbs chicken pieces ( drumsticks or boneless or whatever)

Directions

1. In casserole dish, mix together all ingredients except chicken.
2. Place chicken on top.
3. Cover and bake at 350º-400º for 1 hour 15 minutes or until rice and chicken are cooked.

So we have absolutely NOTHING to eat at our house. Sunday night Matt decided to make a chocolate peanut butter milk... I thought..... gross! but then thinking of what we had in our fridge I decided to try. He blended natural peanut butter, organic hot chocolate and organic milk. It was just like a shake. I have decided that organic milk is creamier than regular milk and won't go back.

BUT:

I have been looking into getting non-pasturized milk because I heard organic milk could be bad too. Did you know you can get milk, cheese, meat in your area that is not pastuarized and of course fruit and veggies that actually say on their website NO PESTICIDES? i want to check these places out:

 http://www.pickyourown.org/UT.htm

I am sure you can check out other places and do more research and even in Florida or Colorado I am sure there are places like these. 

Healthy Trick

Just thought I would share a healthy trick Margaret taught me a while ago. When there is recipe that calls for a ton of butter, you can replace the butter with 1/3-1/2 as much canola oil. For example if the recipe calls for 1 cup butter, you add 1/3 c. or 1/2 c. of oil instead. Just to be safe, I don't usually go all the way when I do this however. I usually do it for half the butter amount. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 c. butter, I add 1/2 c. butter and 1/4 c. oil. I always do this in my snickerdoodle recipe and they turn out great every time.

Old- Fashioned Yellow Cake

Mark's favorite cake is yellow cake so I made this for his birthday. I have never made a cake without using a box and I have to say that I have been wasting a lot of money. This seemed just as easy as a box and tasted SO much better!!!! We loved it! Mark even wanted me to hold off on the frosting because he loved it so much. If you want a really light and fluffy cake this may not be the right recipe for you as it was a little denser than boxed cake. For simpleness and all around taste though, this gets an A +. If you need another good treat idea...here's a good one. I had extra home made chocolate frosting after I made the cake so I split the peanut bar recipe in half that we all have and substituted the peanut butter for almond butter. Oh man! I could not stop eating it! So good!

http://www.cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com/2010/09/best-one-bowl-yellow-cake-recipe.html

Old-Fashioned Yellow Cake

(adapted from McCall’s Book of Cakes and Pies)

2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

1 + 1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans.

2. In a large mixing bowl sift flour and sugar, baking powder and salt.

3. Add butter, milk and vanilla. Beat with a hand mixer on medium speed for 3-4 minutes, occasionally scraping sides of bowl.

4. Add eggs, beat for 3 more minutes.

5. Pour batter into prepared pans, dividing equally among both. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

6. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Turn out and cool thoroughly on wire racks. Frost with cream cheese or whip cream frosting. If using whip cream frosting the cake must be refrigerated.

Whole Wheat Tortillas #3 The Best One!

So I tried a third recipe for tortillas and I have to say that this finally got the consistency right between the flour, oil, and water. The only thing is that I discovered that tortillas just take way too long to make! I think I am going to start buying mine or find out about getting a tortillas flattener. I guess I could always hire a real authentic mexican to roll them out for me. :) If you do want to make your own, you should try this recipe. Just don't double it like I did! You will be mixing and rolling these babies for hours. Good thing I had conference to keep me entertained so I could keep my sanity!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mexican-whole-wheat-flour-tortillas/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=whole%20wheat%20tortillas&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page

No-Bake Granola Bars

When I made these they turned out a little too crumbly because I added more stuff to make them healthier. If I were to make these again, this is what I would do and I think they would work. I will let you know how it goes next time I do.

1/2 c. almond butter
1/2 c. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. quick cooking oats
3/4 c. crispy rice cereal (they had an off brand at Whole Foods that was like Kashi rice cereal that wasn't too expensive. It said the ingredient was puffed wheat rice)
3/4 c. unsweetened coconut
2 T. wheat germ (I found this in the bins at Whole Foods)
2 T. ground flax seed
1/2 tsp. vanilla
chocolate chips -next time I 'll have to measure.  My guess would be 1/2-3/4 c.
In a small pot heat almond butter and honey until it comes to a bubble. Pour in vanilla and stir. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl including chocolate chips. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix well. Mash into a jellyroll pan. Cool at room temperature or stick in fridge to hurry it up.  Cut seran wrap out and use to wrap cut granola bars. May have to store in fridge since it has almond butter? That's my guess at least. :)


If you don't care about being extra healthy and you want to make sure they work then you could follow this recipe. These are still much healthier than store bought I'm sure:

No-Bake Chocolate Chip Granola Barsyield: 10 bars
Print This Recipe http://www.laurenslatest.com/no-bake-chocolate-chip-granola-bars-easy-healthy/
adapted from Rachael Ray
Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups quick cooking oats {not rolled oats!}
1 cup crispy rice cereal
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips
Directions:
In a large bowl, stir oats and rice cereal together. Set aside. In a small pot, melt butter, honey and brown sugar together over medium high heat until it comes to a bubble. Reduce the heat and cook 2 minutes. Pour in vanilla and stir. Pour over dry ingredients and mix well to moisten all ingredients. Pour into lightly greased small jelly roll pan {about 12x8x1} and press out to be about 3/4 inch in thickness. {If your pan isn’t small enough, pack the mixture into one side. You really want to press them down so they stick together.} Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips and press down lightly. Cool on a countertop to room temperature for two hours or until the chocolate chips are set before cutting into bars. Wrap in parchment or plastic wrap and store at room temperature.
Recipe Notes: If your granola bars don’t seem to be staying together when you cut them, you may have made them too thin or you didn’t pack them in tight enough. Stick them in the fridge for 20 minutes and that should help keep them together. {Be sure not to keep them in there too long or else they’ll become super hard!} The next time you make them, try reducing the butter to 3 tablespoons and really packing them down.