Biscuit and Bean Bake

As promised last week here is a totally easy and yummy recipe using canned or fresh biscuits and canned or homemade baked beans. The kids LOVE this one, and it is so easy it's laughable. I can't vouch for it being very healthy, but it is sure yummy!

The first thing you need is some baked beans. I will be honest and say I opt for Bush's Vegetarian Baked Beans, as I have yet to come up with a successful homemade vegetarian variety. If any of you have a recipe for some, feel free to share here!

Just pour them in a casserole dish and top with biscuits. You can use canned if you're in a hurry but I prefer these:

1 3/4 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tbls butter or margarine

3/4- 1 cup butter milk(you can add 1tbs vinegar to regular milk to make your own version of buttermilk)

2 tsp honey

mix baking powder and flour into large bowl. Cut in butter using pastry blender or fork until it resembles coarse meal. Combine honey and milk and stir into the flour mixture. Knead lightly in bowl for three minutes until no longer sticky. Turn onto lightly floured board and roll out and cut into biscuits.

So, top your beans with these and sprinkle with a little cheese and bake until biscuits are golden brown(about 20 minutes at 375)

The kids think this is great, and it couldn't be easier! I would love to share a photo, but we ate it up so quick we forgot! I'll add one later, next time we make these.

A Neat Recipe Resource

I have been trying to get back to eating healthier again, whole grains, less processed foods, etc... I came across this link recently and thought I'd share it with you. They have all sorts of healthy recipes broken down into categories such as "Vegetarian" "Kid Friendly" and more.

Check it out and see what you think. I have learned from similar recipes many items can easily be replaced with similar ones based on your preferences or availability. For example many of the snack recipes call or "Organic" Chocolate or Carob, which I prefer either, but right now my budget doesn't allow for that, so I just substitute with good ol Hershey's. But to be sure we are making some improvements to our diet, I make every effort to use whole grains or Sucanut rather than sugar.

There are lots of great recipes there, many of them are fairly easy to make and quite affordable if you buy grains and such in bulk or know when and how to substitute the more expensive items.

Cheap and Healthy....Beans!(yummy too!)

With food prices continuing to rise it seems more and more of us are "beans and ricing" it. I don't mind in the least as beans are pretty common fare for us being vegetarians. You can't go wrong with dried beans at $.59 to $1.00 or so a pound you can really make them stretch!

One of my favorite Bean and Rice recipes is this one:

Red Beans and Rice

2 cups dried small red beans(or regular dried kidney's)

4 cups boiling water

6 cups veggie broth or chicken broth

1 bay leaf

1 large onion diced

2 stalks celery diced

2 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp olive oil

1 can diced tomatoes with juice

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

I soak the beans in the morning in the crockpot. In the evening I drain and rinse and add back to the crockpot adding the water and broth. I cook on low overnight. In the morning I saute the onion and garlic in olive oil and add to the beans. I also add the remaining ingredients and cook on low all day.

This even taste better the next day as left overs after all the flavor of the seasonings mix in!

If you're a meat eating family, you could add in some ham for a nice flavor!

When ready to eat just serve with white or brown rice in bowls. A good crusty bread or corn bread goes great with this. I like to round it out with a salad on the side.

These freeze well if you have left overs!

Next time I will share a quick and easy recipe for a casserole dish using canned beans!

Chewy Chocolate Cookies

I didn't realize in my last post that I gave a recipe for the muffins that I had already given a recipe for just in the previous post! Oops!

So to make up for it, here's one of my other very favorite cookie recipes:

Chewy Chocolate Cookies

1 1/2 cups melted butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour( I use bread flour in all my cookie recipes, but you can use regular)

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

I mix the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla together first, then add dry ingrediants. Drop by spoonfulls onto cookie sheets(I spray with olive spray or pam)

cook for 8-10 minutes in preheated oven at 350.

Like the peanut butter cookies in the previous recipe, the secret to these is timing. If you overcook they will be crispy. They should look undercooked when you take them out, just starting to brown at the edges. They puff while baking and flatten as they cool. Store in ziplock bags or wrap with plastic wrap immediatly after cooling or they will get crispy. These are chewy like fudge brownies, and oh so yummy!

Cookies and Muffins

These are actually recipes I posted on my other blog some time back, but they are family favorites so I thought I would share them here as well. The only drawback to these is that it is summer, and these require the oven, but they are so good it is just about worth working up a sweat to have them! If it weren't from these cookies, I'd still be a size 2!!

Peanut Butter Cookies

INGREDIENTS:1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened1/2 cup chunky or smooth peanut butter1/2 cup granulated sugar1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed1 egg1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour1/2 teaspoon baking powder1/2 teaspoon baking soda1/4 teaspoon salt

PREPARATION:Preheat oven to 375°.Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugars until light. Add the egg and mix until fluffy.Blend the flour, baking powder, soda and salt together well. Add these dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Drop cookie dough by teaspoonfuls onto lightly greased baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 375°.
The secret to these is the timing. If you cook them even minutes too long they end up crispy rather than chewy, yet if you don't cook long enough they fall apart. Ten minutes seems just about right. When the edges just start to turn golden, pull them out! YUMMY!!!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 cup canned pumkin
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup canola oil
2 tbls ground flaxseed
1 tsp vanilla
1 2/3 cup flour
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 cup chocolate chips
mix together and pour batter into grease muffin pan. Top with cinnamon/sugar mixture(3/4 cup sugar and 2tsp Cinnamon, save left overs for the next few times!)
Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Delicious!