Bean Dish

In preparation for Lent, Elizabeth at That Married Couple is having a week of blog posts dedicated to meatless meals, so I thought I'd join in with my favorite ever vegetarian meal!

This is a meal that my mom made for vegetarians that visited my parents' restaurant when I was in high school. I never saw the actual recipe, so I just kind of guessed all the ingredients and made it my own! I don't have a name for this entree; around here, we call it "Bean Dish". Real creative, I know. :-P But what it lacks in titles, it more than makes up in flavor!

Ingredients
-One can black beans (or equivalent in dried beans, cooked)
-One can diced tomatoes
-1 cup frozen corn
-1 small onion
-A few cloves of garlic
-Olive oil
-1/2 cup salsa
-1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (or more, if you're not too attached to your taste buds)
-Salt and pepper to taste
-1 cup rice
-Shredded cheese, sour cream



1. Cook the rice. The box will tell you what to do. :-P

2. Chop the onion and garlic, reserving some of the onion for garnish. In separate saucepan, saute the rest of the onion and garlic in olive oil until cooked. (if you want to add meat, here's the place to do it! Toss in a chicken breast or 1/2 pound of ground beef) Add beans and tomatoes. Add corn, salsa and cayenne pepper (and other spices you wish); let simmer until bubbling.

The green flecks are cilantro that I added at the last minute.

3. Serve the bean sauce over rice. Top with sour cream, cheese, and the reserved onions.

Serves about 4.


Easy, huh? And you wouldn't believe how quickly it fills you up, and how tasty it is-- it's a little fiesta for your taste buds! So, if Friday rolls around, and you are strapped for a good vegetarian meal... you know what to eat.

Quick Homemade Pizza

Hello, I'm back! I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed your turkey! By now, you have probably used up all the Thanksgiving leftovers (if not, you might want to think about, um, opening that tupperware), so today I will tell you how I made a really quick homemade pizza this past weekend!

The words "quick" and "homemade pizza" usually don't go well together because of two time-consuming tasks: making the crust, and simmering the pizza sauce. So here's what I used: for the crust, the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes recipe; and for the sauce, ingredients (with TONS of spices) that I threw together about thirty seconds before slathering it on the pizza.

Here's what you do: turn the oven to a very high temperature. I turned mine to around 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray, and then sprinkle liberally with cornmeal.

Cut a chunk from the Artisan bread dough and shape it however you want on the cookie sheet- round, square, rhomboid- whatever your fancy! Just make sure that it's thin.

Now, for a super-delicious touch! Mix a few tablespoons of olive oil with a couple teaspoons of basil. With a pastry brush, brush the mixture all around the edge of the crust. Voila, you now have a delicious breadstick-like crust! I keep meaning to try this with Parmesan cheese, but I'm pretty sure the pizza would explode from sheer awesomeness.

Now, for the sauce! Here is approximately what I used:

6 oz tomato paste
6 oz tomato sauce
1 T olive oil
1 T Italian spice mix
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. onion powder
1/2 t. black pepper (I'm a pepper lover, so you may want to use less or skip it altogether)
Dash of salt (depending on your toppings, you may want to add more)
Water, to your desired consistency (don't make it too thin!)

Mix it all together, and put your desired amount on the pizza. Top with mozzarella.

For toppings, I used pepperoni, sliced Roma tomatoes, and sliced garlic. I wasn't entirely sure how the garlic would work, but it ended up being a most delicious addition!

Now, stick that puppy in the oven until the cheese is nicely browned. It took mine about 10-15 minutes.

I wish I had some pictures, but we inhaled it before I even thought of blogging about this. This pizza was even approved by a four-year-old-- the normally picky little guy ate two whole slices! Pretty good, considering that I stuck a cup or so of whole wheat flour into the bread dough. ;-) We ended up with a bunch of extra sauce, so I'm thinking of assembling and freezing some more. Eat your heart out, Red Baron!

And as you can see, cooking is definitely an art to me! How about you? Is cooking more of an art or a science to you?

A Great Giveaway!

There are lots of giveaways flying around in the blogosphere, but the majority of the products fall into my "Sure, that looks nice, but it's nothing I couldn't live without" category. Well, folks, I would like to point you towards one giveaway that I am wildly enthusiastic about!

Kitchen Stewardship is offering two books from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes series! Be still my beating heart! The reason this is so exciting to me is because after a lifetime of botched batches of bread, I discovered a nearly foolproof (and quick! and easy!) method of baking delicious loaves. And that, dear readers, was Artisan Bread.

There are a zillion ways to enter, so go ahead and check it out here!

My First Real Meal-- An Easy Recipe

Today, I cooked a meal for the first time in nearly two months. I am not proud to admit this, but I have eaten a vast amount of fast food since becoming pregnant, due to two unfortunate reasons:

1. Going to the grocery store made me sick.

2. Going into the kitchen made me sick.

So what do you do when you haven't gone grocery shopping for weeks, and you don't feel like cooking it anyways? I'm thinking Arby's!

But there is a point when too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing, and for the past week, I've been tired of eating out. I was hankering for a real, home-cooked meal. So today, I made one of my favorite No-Food-In-The-House meals.

For a couple servings, you'll need:

• Dry pasta
• Several cloves of garlic
• Olive oil
• Parmesan cheese

Start the pasta cooking. Meanwhile, slice the garlic cloves. Toss into a pan with plenty of olive oil and saute until it's just barely brown. You don't want to overcook the garlic, or else it's not as good. When the pasta is done, drain and toss with the garlic (and the extra oil) and parmesan cheese to taste. Enjoy!

For more useful bits of information, visit We Are THAT Family.

Works For Me Wednesday: Microwave Mug Brownies

Some days, my sweet tooth slaps me in the face and demands to be fed right now. If you're like me, though, you really don't want to make a whole batch of cookies or an entire pan of brownies. Because... well... this happens.

  

Gotta keep that girlish figure, right? ;-)

Allow me to introduce you to a dessert that will revolutionize those sweet cravings! Reader, meet Microwave Mug Brownies. Microwave Mug Brownies, meet Reader. All right, now that we've got introductions out of the way, you're ready for the recipe!

1/4 cup flour

2 Tbsp. sugar*

2 Tbsp. cocoa powder

1 Tbsp. canola oil

2 Tbsp. water (or more, if it's too dry)

Mix all ingredients together in a microwave-safe mug. Try not to eat all the batter before it makes it to the microwave! Nuke for 1-3 minutes (depending on how fudgy you want your brownie). 

*The original recipe calls for 1/4 cup of sugar, but even I can't voluntary eat that much in one sitting. It seems to be fine with half the sugar.

You can also add chocolate chips for extra chocolatey goodness.

Last time, in a half-hearted effort to redeem this nutritionless dessert, I used half whole wheat flour. My husband actually liked it better that way! Feel free to experiment with the recipe.

Eating a rich dessert with controlled portions Works for Me! Check out all the other great tips at We Are THAT Family!