I’ve been experimenting with beans in my pressure cooker and through some trial and error I have made wonderful pinto beans with various meat. I first made some with peppered bacon and the latest I created included ham.
First, I soak the beans overnight. Then, using a hot mason jar, add beans to a little over half way. Then this is where you can mix it up. In the pic below, it includes ham, onion, garlic, jalapeños and black pepper and I do not add salt. When I go to use the beans that’s when I add salt. Once you have your raw ingredients in, fill up the rest of the jar with boiling water leaving 1″ head space. I’ve also tried it with peppered bacon as well as vegetarian and so far the bacon is the house favorite.
Pressure can for 75 minutes at 11 pounds.
Raw ingredients loaded into the jar:
After being pressure canned:
We had these on Christmas Eve as a little snack and they were tasty!
Take a pizza dough and roll it out, then cut it into 10-12 squares depending how big the dough is and how much you are going to fill it. Once cut up, add your favorite toppings but no marinara sauce! That will be used on the side for dipping. I didn’t have much in the house, so this was pretty simple – pepperoni, cheese and onion with some seasonings, but you can really use anything.
Once you have your insides on the dough, fold the corners over and tuck in. In a sprayed, round pan, lay the folded side down. Once you have them all in place, sprinkle some Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese on the top and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
I had a bunch of leftover veggies from our Bountiful Basket one week, including these gorgeous rainbow carrots. I got some stew beef at the market and put that in the crock pot with some flour and made sure the meat was lightly coated in flour. I cooked the meat a bit then added in broccoli, rainbow carrots, white potatoes, chunks of corn on the cob, onion, celery, garlic, kosher salt, black pepper and two cans of beef broth. I then just let it cook all day long in the slow cooker. You may have to add more liquid throughout the day, I just use water at that point. The meat fell apart in the stew it was so tender. I was able to store the leftovers for another quick, easy meal.
This past weekend, I made this again and used up the veggies from my basket which included brussel sprouts and fresh green beans. My kids and husband had no clue they were eating brussel sprouts, loved it!
Simple, quicky, yummy!
1 1/2 c. sour cream
1 1/2 c. mayo
2 tbsp. parsley
2 tsp. dill seed
2 tbsp. diced onion
1 package of dried beef, cut into pieces
Bread for dipping – rye or breadbowl
Mix together well, refrigerate for one hour before serving.
You can hallow out a breadbowl and place the dip there and use the bread for dipping or cut up pieces of rye bread. Rye tastes quite good with this dip.
Tonight I made Pizza Sauce I and I added a few things and this turned out to be the best pizza sauce I’ve ever made. My husband claims the best he’s ever had and that’s huge. This makes a couple of servings, so use what you need and store the rest.
4 tbsp. olive oil
Several cloves of minced garlic (I use about six or seven)
1/2 c. diced onion
Several fresh peppers diced
1 12 oz. can of tomato sauce
2 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. parsley
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
4 tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. Italian vinegar
In saucepan, saute garlic, peppers, and onion until tender. Add tomato sauce and then stir in seasonings. I find using a whisk lightly works the best to ensure everything is stirred in completely.
My kids have found the joy in Egg Salad Sandwiches and I have found the joy in them as well because of their cost and how filling they are! 18 large eggs cost me $1.49 at the grocery store yesterday, that’s a lot of salad.
Hard boiled eggs
Celery
Onions
Salt & Pepper
Mayo
Peel the eggs and cut into pieces, add in celery, onions, salt and pepper and mayo to taste.
Pizza Crust
Pizza Sauce I or II
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
Onion, diced
Green bell pepper, diced
Mushrooms, sliced
Jalapenos, sliced
Minced garlic
Chopped olives
1 Italian sausage link
Pepperoni
First you want to prep the pizza dough. I tend to have several pizza doughs stored in my freezer for that just in case time. Prep whichever pizza sauce you want to use as well. I find that making one batch of the pizza sauce makes about three pizzas worth. So don’t hesitate to store it in the fridge and use at a later time.
While making the sauce, do that multi-tasking thing people talk about, and take the sausage and poke fork holes in it. Place it in water on the stove, heat can be medium-high. This will just help cook the sausage and drain the grease out of it. You can put the raw sausage directly on the pizza and it will cook, however it creates a grease that runs off and can make the crust soggy, so I suggest pre-cooking it. The sausage does not need to be all the way cooked through, once you remove it from heat, remove the casing and using your hands break up the sausage into pieces.
Turn your over on to 425 degrees and have the pizza stone in the oven while it’s warming up. Roll your pizza dough out, once you are done pull out the pizza stone and rub some oil on it. Place the crust on the stone and spread out pizza sauce. Add minced garlic and then the cheese. Put the rest on in this order: Pepperoni, Mushroom, Italian Sausage, Onion and Green pepper, Jalapenos and then the Olives. Sprinkle some Italian Seasoning and slide into the oven for about 15 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.
Preheat Oven to 375
1/2 c. bread crumbs
2 tbsp. parmesan cheese
1 tsp. basil
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
2/3 c. melted butter
1/4 c. white wine
1/4 c. onion
1/4 c. parsley
Combine first five ingredients and coat chicken. (Roll breasts in butter and then coat with mixture. For a healthier option, you can use skim milk in place of butter). Spray baking pan and put chicken breasts in oven. Bake for 50-60 minutes.
In separate pan, saute onion in butter, add wine and parsley. Cook until onion is tender. In the last five minutes of the chicken cooking, pull out and add onion topping.
The smell this creates is wonderful!
