MYO: Orange Vinegar Cleaner

A couple weeks ago, a friend on Facebook (I don't remember who) posted a picture of a mason jar full of orange peels (I don't remember from where) with instructions on how to make Homemade Orange Vinegar Cleaner. 

Just the day before a friend (I actually remember who) had given me a gigantic mason jar that I had high hopes of doing something cool with. We also had a huge bag of oranges in the refrigerator, so I knew that Homemade Orange Vinegar Cleaner and I were meant to be. 

The instructions were simple: 1) Place orange peels in a jar. 2) Fill jar with white vinegar. 3) Put lid on jar. 4) Let jar sit for 20 days. 5) Pour liquid into bottle. 6) Clean with it. 

So...that's just what I did. 

 I'm no stranger to cleaning with vinegar. I've been using it for years for a variety of things (Mental Note: Write post about the many uses of vinegar.). But this, adding orange peels to vinegar, was completely new to me.


20 days later I am pleased to report that my Homemade Orange Vinegar Cleaner is marvelous. It smells fantastic and works really, really well. I'm loving it!

We had a bunch of grapefruits that had been hanging out in the fridge for longer than I care to admit, so after I bottled my cleaner, I cleaned out my giant mason jar, filled it with grapefruit peels and vinegar and it's sitting on top of my kitchen cabinets waiting for it's day to come (which is April 11th, in case I forget).

MYO: Playdough

If you've never made homemade playdough with your kids, you're missing out on a good time. You can use your friend Google to find one of a million recipes to do so. The no cook methods are the easiest. We've tried several recipes and this one is my absolute favorite. It's super easy, you can your kids can whip up a batch in a few minutes and it will provide hours of entertainment. It also smells divine and is the perfect dough consistency. 

Here's what you need: 

1 cup of flour
1/2 cup of salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
1 or 2 packets of Kool-Aid drink mic
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil 
1 cup boiling water

Here's what you do:

Combine all of your dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.  Next add the oil and boiling water and mix it with a spoon until it gets nice and firm. Once the dough cools down (it only takes a few minutes), you can dig in and mix it with your hands. If it comes out feeling a little too sticky, you can roll it out on wax paper and add a little more flour.

That's it! Super easy and so much fun!

Fun & Functional - Make Yourself Some New Magnets from your Craft Stash

We need some crafting up in here! This is a quick and easy project that you can do even if you think there's no crafty blood running through your veins.

I have a huge collection of assorted crafty crap includes a bunch of old, gaudy costume jewelry and buttons. I have big, cool plans for them, but have never gotten around to making them a reality. While I had the glue gun out for something else, I decided to turn some of them into fun and functional magnets for the fridge.


You'll need:

• Old and preferably fairly ugly costume jewelry, big buttons or really anything lying around you'd like to make into a magnet

• A hot glue gun and glue sticks

• Magnets 

Simply squirt a little hot glue onto your magnet-to-be and stick a magnet in the glue.

See that? You ARE crafty!

Tuity Fruity Bananas

We struggle with breakfast at our house. The boys want toast every. single. day. I'm about to have a "Mommy Moment" with you, that moment where you bare your farfromperfect mommy soul to another mother, a mother you know (or at least hope) will understand.

There have been days, several of them if I'm being honest, where I've sent Sean off to school with as many as 6 pieces of toast in his belly. That's so much bread. Too, too much bread. Plus bread at lunch most days and almost always a starch with dinner. Somethings got to give with the damn toast.

My kids are hard to feed. In the morning anyway.

They both despise eggs, which throws a lot of traditional breakfast options out the window. Sean has always hated eggs. Sine the first time I tried to feed him scrambled eggs when he was just a little guy. He won't even eat homemade french toast because he knows the bread is dipped in egg. Daniel previously LOVED eggs, like really loved them...which was super exciting given that my first born wanted nothing to do with them. About a year ago, he suddenly decided he would no longer eat eggs under any circumstances. And that's been that.

Pancakes, waffles, french toast and anything else that would require the accompaniment of syrup is out on school days as we get our baths/showers in the evening before bed and my kids require soaking and scrubbing after consuming syrup.

They eat cereal, but only dry cereal in a bowl - no milk - and they only eat specific parts of different cereal. Only the marshmallows in Lucky Charms, only the certain colored squares in a box of Chex.

You get the idea. It's rough.

I've been trying to come up with new and healthier breakfast options for them and this one has been a big hit. 

It makes a great breakfast or after-school snack. It's fast, it's fun, it's nutritious and it's so easy that your kids can do it themselves.

Step 1: Pour cereal (we've been working with a big bag of imitation Fruity Pebbles) into a small plastic bag and seal. Let your child use their hands to crush up the cereal. Pour contents of bag onto a plate or in a bowl.

You can use any type of cereal you like.

Step 2: Have your child peel a banana and use a butter knife to cut it up into chunks. Dip banana chunks into cereal and get your breakfast on. You have the goodness and nutrition of a banana and the hint of sugary cereal deliciousness.

My Taco Noodle Casserole Recipe

Yesterday I shared my recipe for how to make your own taco seasoning. I use taco seasoning in my kitchen quite often and for way more than just plain old tacos. This recipe is one of my favorite uses for taco seasoning, it's a family favorite for sure.

TACO NOODLE CASSEROLE

Here's what you need:

1 package of egg noodles
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 cup milk
2-3 tablespoons of homemade taco seasoning OR1 packet taco seasoning mix
Shredded Mexican cheese blend
Corn chips (like Tostito's), crushed up


Here's what you do:


1) Cook noodles to al dente, whatever the package says, usually 7 or 8 minutes. Drain, dump in large bowl.

2) While you're waiting for the water to boil, season ground beef with salt and pepper and brown, add onion a few minutes before beef is done. Drain excess grease, return to frying pan.

3) Add taco seasoning, tomato sauce and milk to ground beef and onion, stir, bring to a boil and cook 2 minutes.

4) Pour meat mixture into bowl with noodles and mix it all up. Pour a layer of noodles/meat into a casserole dish sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, spread evenly, top with cheese. Spread remaining noodles/meat into casserole and top with more cheese. You can never have enough cheese, right? Right.

5) Put crushed up corn chips all over the top and bake uncovered for 20 -30 minutes at 350.

Serve with salad or corn. You can use additional taco seasoning to give it a stronger taco flavor. I use a little less than I might otherwise like so doesn't have too much bite for the kids. 

Tomorrow's Cinco De Mayo! - Make Your Own: Taco Seasoning

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo and White Moms all over America will be making tacos for dinner because tacos are the only Mexican food we know how to make.

It doesn't get much easier than browning ground meat in a pan, draining the grease from the pan, opening a packet of taco seasoning mix, sprinkling it on the meat, adding water and heating it up. 

What's in that taco seasoning mix? It's just spices and herbs, right? Wrong. Here is the list of ingredients from a packet of Old El Paso Taco Seasoning Mix:

*Maltodextrin
Salt
Chili Pepper
Onion Powder
**Spice
*Monosodium Glutamate
Corn Starch
Yellow Corn Flour 
Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil
*Silicone Dioxide (anticaking agent)
**Natural Flavor
*Ethoxyquin (preservative)

*=Say what?
**=Can you be more specific? 


Are you ready to make your own taco seasoning and never spend $1.00 on one of those sodium stocked, preservative filled packets again?

Here's what you need (and you probably already have all of it in your kitchen):

4 Tablespoons Chili Powder
2 Tablespoons Cumin
2 Tablespoons Paprika
2 TBS. Garlic Powder
1 TBS. Onion Powder
2 TBS. Dried Minced Onions
1/2 TBS. Cayenne (red) Pepper
1 teaspoon Oregano or Cilantro
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 teaspoon Salt 

Here's what you do:

Dump all ingredients into a jar. Put lid on jar. Shake vigorously. Voila, homemade taco seasoning mix. Store in an airtight container (I use an empty spice bottle). Add 2-3 tablespoons of seasoning per 1 pound of ground meat and 3/4 cup of water.

Italian Trail Mix?

If you happen to be my friend on Facebook, you may have seen this photo that I uploaded the other night of my latest recipe creation. I call it "Italian Trail Mix". Everyone was all gung-ho for it until I said it was pasta with tomatoes, nuts and raisins.

If you decide to make it, take a picture of it and I'll send you a dollar. It takes some courage to put nuts and raisins in a red sauce with pasta. People always think I'm Italian and I think this dish speaks pretty clearly that I'm actually not. :) But it's good, I promise.

Italian Trail Mix was born out of desire to use up some of the stuff that's been sitting in my kitchen cabinets taking up space for Godonlyknowshowlong. Like a huge unopened box of raisins that I'm sure I bought for a specific purpose at some point, less than half a bag each of walnuts and almond slivers and a lonely can of chickpeas.

Here's what I used:

(1) box of bow-tie pasta (you could use whatever pasta you have on hand)
2 or 3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
3 or 4 tablespoons of chopped garlic
1/2 cup of chopped nuts (I used about a 1/4 cup each of walnuts and almond slivers, you could use whatever nuts you have sitting around or omit them all together) 
(1) can of crushed tomatoes
(1) can of chickpeas, (rinse and drain)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Anywhere from 1/4 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (depends on your preference for heat, I probably used about a 1/2 teaspoon and it had just enough of a kick without being super hot)
1 cup raisins
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Some parsley to give it a little color, it definitely lacked color

Here's what I did:

1. Put a big pot of water on the stove and bring it to a boil. Once it starts to boil, add salt as recommended on the pasta box, bring the water back to a full boil and then add pasta. Cook as per directions, 10 or 12 minutes. While you're waiting for the water to boil, put 2 or 3 tablespoons of oil in a skillet and warm on low heat. Then add 3 or 4 tablespoons of chopped garlic, cook and stir 3 or 4 minutes, until it starts to smell really yummy and gets darker in color. Then add chopped nuts, stir and give the garlic and nuts a few minutes to get jiggy. I had never cooked garlic and nuts together before, and let me tell you, it looks and smells divine.

2. Next add a can of crushed tomatoes, chickpeas, salt and red pepper flakes. Stir it all up and let it simmer about 15 minutes. Before you drain your pasta, dip a measuring cup in scoop out a cup of the starchy water. You'll probably need it to thin out the dish when it's done. Drain pasta.

3. Add raisins and cinnamon to skillet, stir and continue to cook for a few minutes, just long enough for the raisins for soften and the flavors to blend. Turn off the heat and add pasta to skillet. Stir it up to combine, add pasta water as needed to thin out the sauce. I used about a half a cup. Top with parsley to give it a little color. Next time I think I'll use tri-color pasta and maybe throw some spinach in to give it some color.

Recycled Water Bottle Flowers

Mary, Mary, quite contrary...how does your garden grow?

With recycled water bottles, popsicle sticks and nail polish all in a row. 







Here's what you need to make this quick & cute craft project with your kids:

The bottoms of water bottles
Old nail polish
Popsicle sticks
Hot Glue Gun (or good tacky craft glue)
And of course, nail polish remover :) 

 




This is our friend Jamie, with the recycled water bottle flowers she made. 

All you need to do to make these cute flowers is choose two colors of nail polish, use one to paint the center of the bottom of the water bottle and one to paint the rest to make the petals of the flower. We painted popsicle sticks green for the stems and hot glued the flowers to the top when they dried. They look adorable stuck in the garden among the real flowers.

We glued magnets on the back of some of our flowers too.

 








( Be sure to do this project outside or in a well ventilated area. )

Beat Spring Break Boredom: Cardboard Tube Bunny Craft

This project, making cute little bunnies from cardboard tubes, is one the whole family can have fun with. Big kids can do most of this project on their own, for little kids you might want to do some of the prep for them before hand. 

Here's what you need (most of which you probably have laying around your house right now):

Cardboard tubes (Paper towel and toilet paper rolls work well, you can cut them down to different sizes to make different sized bunnies. The purple bunny above was made from a duct tape roll.)

Acrylic Craft Paint - These are often on sale at Michael's 2/$1.00. They're super cheap, you can use them on anything and clean up is a breeze. I use them for all projects I do with my kids.

Paint brushes

Scissors

Glue

A paint marker or Sharpie marker

Pom-Poms for the bunnies nose (If you don't have Pom-Poms, you can paint or draw a little nose with marker.)

Wiggly Eyes (Again, a dab of paint or a marker will work just fine if you don't have these.)

Anything else you might want to embellish your bunny with!

Gather all of your supplies, lay some newspaper down and you're ready to roll!

(Pun intended.) 

The first step is to paint your cardboard tubes. In the interest of time, I didn't paint the inside of the tubes. If you're kids are making these to give as Easter gifts or you'll be using them as a centerpiece on a table, then you'll want to paint the inside of the tube too. 

The cardboard tubes are the body of your bunnies. The next step is to make your bunnies ears by cutting strips of cardboard tubes. 

 Fold the strips in half and run a line of glue between the two sides. Squeeze to flatten it. 

 For some reason I thought that super glue would do a super job of this and work much better and quicker than any other glue in my collection. Not so much. And this is why I should never use super glue...

I'll be chewing super glue off my fingers for the next three days.

Moving right along...

Next you are going to paint the ears in pairs to match the cardboard tubes you've already painted. 

Then paint a strip of pink paint down the center of each ear and snip off the sides on the top of each ear to make them look more like bunny ears. My ears could definitely look more like ears.

Now glue the ears to the top inside of each cardboard tube body.

 Starting to actually look like bunnies, right? All that's left to do is give your bunny a face. You can use a paint or sharpie marker to draw your bunnies faces or use wiggly eyes, pom-poms or buttons. 

 You're not allowed to see the white bunny's face. Something went very wrong with the white bunny's face. 

Some ideas as to what to do with your completed Cardboard Tube Bunnies:

Slip your fingers inside the tube and use your bunnies as puppets to act out an Easter skit.

Have your kids give them as Easter gifts to friends and loved ones or as a favor to take home from Easter dinner.

Make a family of bunnies and use them as the centerpiece on your table at Easter dinner.

Make one for each guest at Easter dinner, write their name on the front and use them as seating place markers.

I'd love to hear about your experience and/or see photos if you decide to make these Cardboard Tube Bunnies with your kids!

Crock Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage

St. Patrick's Day is just three days away. Here's an easy crock pot recipe for a traditional Irish feast, Corned Beef and Cabbage.

Here's the stats:

Prep. Time: Not bad at all.


Cook Time: 8 hours and 30 minutes


Feeds: At least 5 or 6


Cost per person: Right around $2.50

Here's What You Need:

1 1/2 lbs. small red potatoes
4 cloves of garlic, chopped up
1 3-4 lb. corned beef brisket, rinsed and trimmed (Make sure you get one that comes with the little seasoning packet, most do.)
Apple juice
4 whole cloves
1 small yellow onion, quartered
24 baby carrots
1 small white cabbage, cut into 8 wedges

Here's What You Do:

1) Plop your potatoes and garlic in the bottom of your crock pot. I don't peel my red potatoes, you can if you want. I think it gives the meal a little more color. To each her own. :)  Place corned beef brisket on top of potatoes and garlic. (Trim most of the fat off the meat before you put it in the crock pot. The apple juice will serve as a broth for the vegetables and will flavor both the veggies and the meat itself. If you leave too much fat on, it'll get greasy and gross.)

2)  Quarter onion, stick a clove in each quarter, place onions in rock pot. Pour in just enough apple juice to cover the meat. If you think apple juice is weird, you can use water, but I promise you it's delicious with the apple juice. Cover and cook on Low until nice and tender, usually around 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 hours. 

3) Once the meat has cooked, remove it from the crock pot, plop it on a cutting board and cover it with foil to keep it warm. Scoop potatoes out of the crock pot, put them in a bowl and cover with foil to keep them warm also.  Add cabbage and carrots to crock pot, put the lid back on and put that baby on High. Cook until the cabbage and carrots have softened, anywhere from 1/2 hour to an hour depending on your crock pot. 

4) You can throw the potatoes and corned beef back in towards the end of cooking (10-15 minutes before the cabbage and carrots are done) to heat them back up if you like.Be sure to cut the corned beef across the grain when it's ready to be served. 


May those who love us, love us. 
And for those who don't love us, 
May God turn their hearts.
And if he cannot turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles,
So we may know them by their limping.  


Believe it or not, this is the music I grew up on: 

Slow Cooked Bolognese Sauce

This rich, slow cooked sauce makes for a hearty supper. It's what we had for dinner last night and it's always a crowd pleaser. It requires a little more prep. than your average crock pot recipe, but the results are worth it. You can save yourself a little time in the kitchen by chopping up your veggies the night before. The prep. time is about a half an hour, the cook time is 8 1/2 hours, the recipe serves 8. The best part is that it's about $1.50 a serving.

Here's what you need:

1 Tbsp. unsalted butter (The recipe calls for unsalted butter.If you don't have unsalted butter on hand, don't run out and buy it. A seasoned chef could probably give you a long list of reasons why unsalted butter is required...I am not a seasoned chef, I'm just a Mom and I use what I have. I've used plain old salty butter in this recipe a number of times and it's worked out just fine.)
1 small onion, chopped
1 celery rib, finely chopped (I generally use 3 or 4)
1 carrot, finely chopped (Again, I generally use 3 or 4)
2 lbs. lean ground beef (You'll want the leanest beef your budget can afford since you're not draining the grease after the meat is cooked.)
Salt and pepper as per your taste buds
Pinch or two of nutmeg
1 cup whole milk
1 cup white wine
2  28 oz. cans crushed tomatoes 

Here's what you do:

1) Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, celery and carrots. Saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Crank the heat up to high and add ground beef. Cook until no longer pink. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

2) Pour milk and wine in and bring to a boil. Lower heat and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 15 minutes.

3) Transfer to crock pot. Stir in crushed tomatoes, cover and cook on Low for 8 hours. Remove lid, stir and continue to cook an additional half hour with the lid off to let the sauce thicken a bit. 

Serve sauce over pasta with grated Parmesan cheese. I made Perciatelli for the first time last night with this sauce. Think a drinking straw come to life as spaghetti. It's fun to eat. And by all means, dinner time should be fun. :)

What can I do with a can of black beans?

Last night I assigned myself the task of cleaning out and organizing the cabinets in our kitchen that house our pantry items, cans and dry goods. Not what the average person decides to do at 9 o'clock at night, no. I do weird shit at weird times. It's all part of my charm. Or so I'm told. Or so I tell myself...

I digress. 


At any rate, I found many hidden gems in the cabinets, including (7) cans of black beans. Yes, really. I know what you're thinking: What white girl in their right mind has that many cans of black beans in their pantry?

Black beans are really versatile and can be used in so many ways. They're very inexpensive (I've paid as little as 25 cents a can) and can be used to replace meat in some meals. Not that I've got anything against meat. :)


And here's your quick health lesson for the day: Black beans are also really good for you! Black beans are a great source of dietary fiber which has been shown to naturally help lower cholesterol. Black beans also have a high fiber content which helps keep blood sugar levels from rising too rapidly after a meal, making them a great choice for people with diabetes or hypoglycemia. They're also virtually fat-free and a high quality source of protein. New research proves that black beans are rich in antioxidants as well. Antioxidants destroy free radicals and when eaten regularly, have been shown to offer the body protection against heart disease, cancer and aging. All that from a can of black beans. 

Sooo...if you've got a can or two (or 7) of black beans sitting in your pantry, here's some ideas on what to do with them! 

Photo courtesy of Paul Goyette: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pgoyette/

BEEF AND BLACK BEAN CHILI
You can use this recipe to stretch a cheap pound of ground beef into a big meal for the entire family. 

Here's what you need:

1 Tablespoon oil
1 large onion, chopped (about a cup and a half) 
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 lb. ground beef
1 Tbs. chili powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 can diced tomatoes in juice
1/2 cup sofrito tomato cooking base from a 12 oz. jar (Goya)
1 CAN BLACK BEANS, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups uncooked rice
Optional: Fresh cilantro and tortilla chips

Here's what you do:

1) In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, pepper and garlic. Stir frequently and cook until they've softened and really start smelling fabulous, about 7 or 8 minutes. Add ground beef to pot, break it up and give it a minute to hang out with the onions, pepper and garlic before adding chili powder, salt and cumin. Cook until browned and fully cooked through, about 5 minutes.

2) Next add the tomatoes with their juice and the sofrito to the meat mixture and bring it up to a boil. Stir in black beans and turn the heat down from medium to low. Put a lid on it and give it a stir every now and again until the tomatoes have softened and the flavors have all gotten acquainted, about 25-30 minutes. 

3) In the mean time, cook your rice according the package directions (can't beat Minute Rice). Serve beef and black bean chili over rice and garnish with cilantro and/or tortilla chips if you so choose.  

CROCK POT BLACK BEAN STUFFED PEPPERS
Delicious, healthy alternative to traditional Stuffed Peppers.

Here's what you need:

Non-stick cooking spray
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1 CAN BLACK BEANS, drained and rinsed
6 tall green bell peppers, tops removed, seeded and cored
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup salsa
1/2 cup sour cream
Fresh chives, chopped

Here's what you do:

1) Generously spray skillet with non-stick cooking spray. Saute onions until golden. Add cayenne pepper, oregano, cumin and chili powder. Remove from heat.

2) Transfer onions to mixing bowl, add half the black beans to onions and mash using an old fashioned hand masher or a fork. Then stir in the other half of the beans into mixture. Do not mash further.

3) Spoon black bean mixture into bell peppers, then place bell peppers in crock pot. Sprinkle cheese over peppers, then pour salsa over cheese. Cover and cook on Low for 6 - 8 hours or on High for 3-4 hours. Serve each pepper with a dollop of sour cream and chives.

BLACK BEAN BURGERS
A little over 50 cents a burger. Much more cost effective than the frozen black bean burgers found in the grocery store. This recipe makes 4 burgers, it can easily be doubled or tripled. 

Here's what you need:


2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 CAN BLACK BEANS, rinsed and drained
1 Tbsp. cumin
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs (try Panko, it's the bomb)
Salt and pepper to taste


Here's what you do:


1) Preheat oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with foil and mist with non-stick cooking spray. Warm oil in skillet over medium heat. Add celery and onion, cook until softened, 3-5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more.


2) Pour beans into a large bowl and use a potato masher and/or a fork to smush beans into a thick paste. Put veggies from skillet in bowl with bean paste. Stir in egg, cumin and bread crumbs. Season with salt and pepper to your taste. I add a glug or two of hot sauce as well. Use your fingers to form bean mixture into 4 patties. Be careful not to over mix.


3) Place patties on baking sheet and bake until firm and set, about 8-10 minutes on each side. Serve on a bun with lettuce, tomato and red onion.


CROCK POT BLACK BEAN SOUP WITH SAUSAGE 
Cheap, easy and yummy.You can change it up by using a combination of black beans and another type of bean if you like (navy beans, kidney beans, etc.) You can also add a can of whole kernel corn or a can of diced chilies just before the end of cooking time to add some color and flavor and/or a few shots of hot sauce.


Here's what you need:


2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 CANS BLACK BEANS (do not rinse or drain)
1 16 oz. jar salsa
1 cup chicken broth
2-3 hot italian sausage links
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Salt and pepper


Here's what you do:


1) Warm olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, stirring frequently, until onion is softened and translucent, about 5 minutes. Combine onion and garlic mixture, black beans (with their liquid), salsa and chicken broth in crock pot. Stir well, cover and cook on Low for 5 hours.


2) Add sausage and cook for 1 more hour. Use tongs to remove sausage. Slice sausage into bite-sized pieces and return to crock pot. Stir in cilantro and season with salt and pepper. Serve soup hot, garnish with sour cream.


BLACK BEAN FILLING FOR ENCHILADAS 
Throw some extras in with filling before wrapping up your enchiladas, like cheddar cheese or green onions.


Here's what you need: 


2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1 small white onion
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
2 CANS BLACK BEANS, drained but not rinsed
1 tsp. cumin
2 Tbs. tomato paste (look for tomato paste in a tube at the store, it's the greatest invention since sliced bread)
Salt and pepper to taste


Here's what you do:


1) Heat garlic in oil in skillet until it starts to pop around and make a little noise. Use a hand grater and grate onion right into skillet. Add jalapeno pepper, cook for two minutes. Add black beans and use the back of a fork to smash them up. Stir in cumin and tomato paste and season with salt and pepper to taste.  


2) Use filling for enchiladas as you would meat. I'll def. have to do a post devoted to Enchiladas at some point. Remind me. Love them.



Get on out to the kitchen and dig out that can of black beans hiding in the back of the cabinet. Hopefully you've got some new ideas for what to do with it. :) 

RUBBER CHICKEN

 Rubber chicken? It doesn't sound too appealing, does it? I call cooking a whole chicken in a crock pot "rubber chicken" because you're able to cook one chicken and stretch it out into two meals, plus some healthy homemade broth. 


Buying a whole chicken is one of the best ways to get the most bang for your buck and stretch your budget at the grocery store. You'll want to buy the chicken when it is on sale, of course. I like the Extra Meaty Oven Roaster Chickens from Perdue...it really is extra meaty. :) The chicken I cooked last night was just over 6 lbs. and cost $5.98, under a dollar a pound. If you're feeding less mouths (mine is a family of five) or using the chicken for only one meal, you could get a smaller bird and get it even cheaper. I got a smaller chicken a few weeks ago and paid three dollars and some change for it. 


There was a time, a few years back, when I was totally skeeved over the idea of handling a whole chicken. In fact, the first time I cooked a whole chicken I wore plastic gloves and used two sets of tongs to manipulate it when it was raw. Once you do it once, you'll get over it. It's really not bad. Pinky promise.


It takes a whole chicken 2 days to thaw in the fridge, so you're going to want to take it out of the freezer 2 days before you intend to cook it. I double bag mine in plastic grocery store bags before putting it in the fridge. Then when I go to get it ready to put in the crock pot, I untie the bags, cut the top of the plastic the chicken is packaged in and rip it down the sides to get the chicken out. This way all the blood and gross chicken goop is contained in the bags and not all over the sink or counter. 


Don't forget to remove the bag of whatever chicken guts are inside the cavity of the chicken. Drop it right into the plastic bags. I then transfer the chicken to a colander in the sink. It's easier and less messy to rinse and then season the chicken that way. Give the chicken a thorough rinsing. Be sure to "fill and spill" the cavity to rinse that out as well. After you've cleaned the chicken, it's time to season it.


If you're just cooking the chicken to use the meat and not eating it for dinner that night, you can season it with just good old salt and pepper. If you're eating the chicken for dinner that night, you might want to use other seasonings too. Garlic powder and paprika works. I like to use seasoned salt, rosemary and thyme (gives the broth a nice, rich flavor.). 


Set your crock pot up, mist it with non-stick cooking spray (to make clean up easier) and turn it on Low. Place the chicken in the crock pot, put the lid on and forget about it for at least the next 7 hours. There's no need to add water or any other liquid to the crock pot. The chicken has plenty of it's own juices that will keep it moist while it cooks. 


7 hours later you will have a delicious chicken that's ready for eating. If you're not going to serve it for dinner, let it cool down a bit then remove all the meat from the bones. Gotta pick that chicken clean to get the most out of it.(Leave the liquid in the crock pot to make broth.) You can use the meat for anything else you would use cooked chicken for: soups, casseroles, pot pie, etc, etc. 


After you've removed the meat from the bones, put the bones back in the crock pot with the liquid that's there from cooking the chicken and add 5 cups of water to the crock pot. We don't eat the chicken skin so I throw that in there too to add flavor. Put the lid on the crock pot, set it on Low and cook the broth overnight. I throw a splash of vinegar in as well. It helps draw the minerals and nutrients from the bones. When you wake up, your house will smell like a combination of Boston Market and a Chinese Buffet. It's all good, spray some Febreze. Use a slotted spoon to strain out the bones and other little bits that may be floating around. 


You now have homemade chicken broth! Not only did it not cost you anything, it doesn't have the preservatives and crazy crap that store bought chicken broth has. Pour the broth into tall containers. Leave an inch or two of space at the top of the containers. Put the containers in the fridge to cool. When the broth has cooled completely, there will be a big layer of fat at the top of the containers. Scrape it off with a spoon and you're broth is ready to go. You can use it right away or freeze it for up to 6 months. I got roughly 70 ounces of broth from the chicken I cooked last night. 


Here's what last night's dinner cost:


I'm going to use 4 people instead of the 5 in my family since the average family is 4....and since my two year hasn't eaten dinner in a year, so he really doesn't count. :)


The chicken was $5.98, so we'll say $6.00. Divided by 4 people that's $1.50 a person.


I served the chicken with Stove Top Chicken Stuffing that I got on sale when it was 10/$1.00. I bought 5 boxes and used a $3.00 off when you buy 5 coupon, so I paid $2.00 for 5 boxes of stuffing. That's 40 cents a box 1 box divided by 4 people is 10 cents per serving. (You have to stock up on Stove Top when it goes on sale 10/$1.00 in the summer. They don't put it on sale that low during the colder months when people are more likely to want to buy it.)


We also had corn, which was 40 cents from Shop Rite's Can Can Sale, which is also 10 cents a serving.


That's a $1.70 a person for dinner. $6.80 for dinner for a family of 4. It doesn't get much cheaper than that. Plus I got 70 ounces of broth from it and 1 1/2 cups of left over chicken. I'll be using half the broth and all of the chicken to make chicken and rice soup tonight for tomorrow's lunch and then I'll freeze the remaining broth to use later. 


6 bucks for one whole chicken and I'm getting a dinner, a lunch and leftover broth to freeze out of it. :)