MAIN DISHES

Ham and Navy Bean Soup aka "US Senate Bean Soup"

1 lb dry navy beans

1 Ham Bone

1 Large Onion chopped

3 Stalks of Celery chopped (include the leaves)

1 Large Potato peeled and chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Put your beans in a pot and cover with water.  Add your salt, and the ham bone.  Bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes.  Turn down to a simmer and simmer for about an hour.  Remove the ham bone to cool.  Add the rest of your ingredients.  Remove any meat on the ham bone and add it back to your pot.  Save the bone for the dogs.  They will love you forever.  Add just enough water to cover everything.  Continue cooking on low for another hour or until your beans are tender and all the veggies and potatoes are soft.  Turn the soup into a blender.  You may need to do this in Batches; probably two.  Blend until smooth.  Return to the pan and heat thru.  Serve with toast, crackers, or bread sticks.  

"Hmmm I Wonder"  Enchilada Casserole:

1 lb ground beef (or chicken or turkey)
1 cup grated zucchini
1 can cream corn
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 ts salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 ts chili powder
1/4 ts garlic powder
1 ts cumin
dash oregano
1 cup shredded cheese (I used a mixture of pepper jack and mozzarella)
2 oz cream cheese
Tortilla chips

I know, bear with me.  Brown the ground beef.  Add the rest of the ingredients with the exception of the shredded cheese and the tortilla chips.  Heat everything through to let the flavors meld a bit.  About 10 min.  Remove from heat.  Spread a layer of tortilla chips into the bottom of a 9X9 baking pan.  Spread about a third over the chips.  Sprinkle with 1/3 of the cheese.  Repeat layers using everything up.  Top with a couple of crushed tortilla chips and the remaining cheese.  Back at 350 for 20-25 minutes.  Serve with salsa, and sour cream (Or plain yogurt).


Easy Curried Pork (rice separate)

1/2 pound raw weight lean pork loin cut into 1 inch pieces
2 cups water
1/2 medium onion chopped
2 medium carrots chopped
3 stalks celery chopped
1 green bell pepper chopped (really any color is fine)
1 cup tomato sauce
1-1.5 tsp season salt
1 TBS Curry Powder
1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour (can use bleached, I don't)
1/3 cup whole milk

Place pork, carrots, onion, celery, and bell pepper in a pan.  Mix it up.  Add Season Salt.  Cover and cook on medium low heat.  The lid will trap moisture to keep things from sticking as it cooks.  Once the pork is browned, pour in the 2 cups water, tomato sauce, and Curry powder.  Replace the lid and let simmer about 20 minutes.  Once the carrots are soft, mix the milk into the flour to make a thick liquid.  Bring the soup to a boil and add the milk mixture all at once.  Stir well as the soup thickens.  Lower temp and simmer about 20 minutes  Taste to see if the level of salt and curry is to your liking and add more if necessary.  We served this over rice ( I didn't have rice with mine, but the family did), but it can be served over baked potatoes, pasta, biscuits, etc.

Serving size is 1/3 of the recipe- Calories- 245, Fat-5 gm, Carbs- 21 gms, Protein-27 gms



Chicken pot pie

10 oz pkg frozen veggies or more (or fresh equivalent )

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 stalks celery chopped

2 cups white meat chicken

1/3 cup flour

3/4 cup of half whole milk half water

2 cups chicken broth (de fatted)

1/2-1 tsp salt (start with the 1/2 tsp and add from there)

1/4 tsp sage

1/8 tsp pepper

2 tbs dried parsley

Pastry for single crust pie.

Place broth, veggies, cooked white meat chicken, and spices into a pot and simmer till veggies are soft but not mushy.  Whisk milk into the flour.  Bring the veggie mixture to boil and add the milk flour mixture all at once stirring well.  Once thickened, remove from heat.  Might want to taste and make sure it's to your liking.  Now would be the time to make any adjustments.  Pour into a 9 X 13 casserole dish and top with single crust.  Bake 350 for 15 min or until crust is golden brown.

Serving size 1/8th of the pie- Calories- 264, Fat 10 gm, Carbs- 30 gms, Protein- 14 gms

Breakfast Sausage

1 lb ground meat (I use pork)

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp minced onion

1 tsp basil

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp sage

1/2 tsp parsley

1/4 tsp salt

Take all your spices and mix together in a bowl.  Add the ground meat and mix well with your fingers til everything is blended well.  You can either do this ahead of time and let sit in the fridge covered til morning, or you can do this in a pinch like I did this morning.  I like to do it a head of time, but forgot to lay out the ground pork to thaw.  Oops! A serving is 4 oz pre-cooked.  I measure it out into 2 oz patties to fry.

Calories- 140, Carbs- 0, Fat- 4 gm, Protein- 23 grams

Sausage and Blackeyed Peas ( would be Great at New Years!

Sausage

8 oz ground pork

1/2 tsp dried minced onion

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp ground sage

1/4 tsp dried parsley

1/8 tsp salt

I toss everything into the freezer bag the now thawed ground pork resides, but you can toss everything into a bowl.  Mix everything together well (better to use your hands, hence the reason I use a freezer bag cause I can mix it and not get it on my hands).  Let sit in the fridge a while.  You could make this in the morning and let it sit in the fridge til the beans are ready.  This would also make great breakfast sausage.  FYI

The great thing about black eyed peas is they tend to cook faster than many other dried beans.  No need to soak.  Yay!

What you need:

8 oz ground sausage (you can use store bought) or the above recipe.

1 lb black-eyed peas  covered in water and cooked with 2 1/2 tsp salt.  Once finished cooking, don't drain!

2 TBS Olive Oil

1 cup chopped carrots

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped celery

1 tsp Thyme

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 can of diced tomatoes (plain or with chilies if you like it spicy)

Saute the onion, carrots, and celery in the olive oil til the onion is soft.  Add the ground sausage and brown it along with the veggies.  Take the sausage/veggie mixture and add all of it to the un-drained cooked black-eyed peas.  Add your spices and the can of tomatoes. Simmer on low about a hour til the carrots are soft and the flavors have had time to meld. Serve with a crusty bread or cornbread.

Serving size is 1/6th of recipe- Calories-195, Fat- 2 gms, Carbs- 40 gms, Protein- 22 gms

Hope you enjoy!

Have a blessed day!

Ham and Corn Stew

2 cans navy beans(or you can cook dried to make 3 cups)

3 cups water

2 decent sized potatoes, diced

2 cups whole kernel corn (or cream is fine)

2 stalks celery

8 oz ham

1 med onion chopped

1 tbs butter

1 regular sized tomato chopped

1 pinch dried parsley

 salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet, melt the butter and put your onion and ham in to cook.  While that is cooking, put your beans, water, and potatoes.  Bring to a boil, then let simmer for about 15 minutes.  Then add your celery, the onion and ham, and the tomato.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Add pinch of parsley.  Let cook 30 minutes. Taste again to make sure you have enough salt and pepper.  Add more if needed.

We are having this tonight with some corn bread made from stone ground corn meal ground in my new(to me) grinder!  Tea to drink.  Enjoy.


TOMATO SOUP NO FUNNY BUSINESS

1 6 oz can tomato paste

1 6 oz can water

Put those two things in a sauce pan on med/low heat

Add: 1/2 tsp baking soda, a bay leaf, a pinch of ground cloves, a pinch of celery seed, a pinch of minced onion, 1/2 tsp dry parsley, and salt to taste.

Stir that around until the tomato paste, water and spices are mixed together well.

Add 2 6 oz cans whole milk.

Mix well and heat thru.

Makes about what a can of Campbells soup will. Since the can of soup would require milk to be added as well, we will just compare the cost of a can of soup to a can of tomato paste.

Can of soup-.59 at aldi

Can of tomato paste- .33 at Aldi.

Seriously Simple Black Bean Burgers

1 15 oz can of black beans; drained

1/3 cup finely chopped onion

2 oz bread made into crumbs

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Worcestershire sauce

So I take my bread and put it in a food processor to make the crumbs.  Add your onion and run it thru the processor as well to finely chop it.  Add your drained beans, salt, and pepper (you can add more salt and pepper if you like) and pulse the processor until the whole thing is mixed together.  It is cool if your beans get mushed up.  You want this.  Some beans will be intact.  You want that too.  It will be really thick. Spray your pan with cooking spray.  Take 1/4 of the mixture and shape it into a patty like you would ground beef.  Place in the pan and dribble a little Worcestershire sauce on it.  Brown each patty until good and brown on each side.  Remove when brown and let cool on a wire rack. 

That's it!  And Guess what!  Only 144 calories per patty.

Re-fried Beans 

1 quart of cooked pinto beans with the broth

1 quarter of a large onion, finely chopped

2 tsp minced garlic

Olive oil or Lard

Heat a little oil or lard in a skillet,  I use a cast iron skillet, but any will be fine.  Once oil is hot, add your onion and garlic.  Saute until they start to brown.  Then add your pinto beans with the broth.  Add a little water if you need to in order to make it soupy.  Let it simmer for a bit.  I've let mine simmer about a hour.  The beans should thicken up as they simmer and the water cooks off.  

Now I just mash mine up in the pan and don't use additional oil for frying, but if you want to, you can heat another skillet, add some oil, and mash your beans up as they fry in the skillet.   

I just mash mine in the skillet where they are.  This keeps some of the fat and calories out, and also keeps dishes used down to a minimum

Flour Tortillas

4 cups all purpose flour

1 ts salt

1/4 ts baking powder

1.4 Cup of lard or softened butter

1 cup ( plus up to 2 TBS ) warm water

Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder.  Cut in the lard/butter (I used Lard).  Add the water little by little, tossing to mix.  If you need to add the extra 2 TBS of warm water, you can, but do it a little at a time.  You want the dough to stick together, but not be real sticky.  You'll add water, toss, add water, toss, until the dough forms a ball.  Just until the dough forms a ball.  Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces and shape them into a ball.  Cover them and let rest for 15 minutes.  Once 15 minutes have past, take each ball and, on a floured work surface;  flatten it with the palm of your hand.  It should be about 3 inches in diameter.  Once you've flattened each ball, start with the first ball you flattened and roll it thin, about 1/8th inch thick. Repeat this process with all 16 tortillas.  I stacked mine loosely on a plate.  Heat a skillet well on low-med heat.  Add a little oil or lard.  You should only have to do this once.  Fry each tortilla 1-2 minutes each side.  When you see little brown spots on the cooking side, it will be time to flip it to cook the next.  As each tortilla is completed, remove and put on a plate and keep covered by a towel.  Makes 16 tortillas.

Bacon and Cheddar potato soup

6-8 slices of bacon

6 cups chunked raw potatos

1 large onion chopped

4 cups water

1 cup celery

1 can evaporated milk (or you can use the equivalent in whole milk)

1-1.5 cups cheddar cheese

1.5-2 tsp salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Fry your bacon up in a pan.  Remove the bacon from the pan, but leave the drippings.  If you're leery about the amount of bacon fat in the pan, you can pour some off, but keep at least 4 TBS.  Add the chopped onion and celery to the drippings in the pan.  Cook until soft.  While that's cooking the bacon should have cooled.  Crumble it up til it looks like bacon bits.  Once the onion/celery mixture is soft, add the water.  Get a spatula and stir, scraping the pan to get all the bits from the drippings.  Add your potatoes.  If you need to add a little water, you can, just to cover.  Add salt.  The lesser amount first.  You can adjust the seasons to taste once everything is together and simmering.  Let the potatoes and everything cook until the potatoes are soft.  Run it all thru a blender.  I added my milk in the blender to help it blend well.  It took two blenders full.  Return all to the pan and add whatever milk you have left.  If it is still thick, you can add water til it is the consistency you want.  Add the cheese and stir.  Keep an eye on it as it simmers to make sure it doesn't stick.  Now is the time to adjust the seasonings.  Taste it and add what you want.  We topped with sour cream and had with toast.  I know,  CARBS!  But it was filling and good.  

Variations:  You can add hot sauce as a topping.  This would have been my choice, but I was out.  I did opt to not have sour cream on mine.  Also, top with chives, red pepper flakes, or whatever else strikes your fancy.