Slow Cooker Vegetarian Chili

 A meatless chili made with four kinds of beans, zucchini, and a mixed pepper puree.

Chili is one of those foods that I can eat for days and never get tired of it.  So, with me on my own, I decided to make a big pot of chili to eat for a week.  I didn't have any ground beef (or other meat) in the house and I didn't feel like going to the store to get any so I made this chili vegetarian.  It turned out great.  It is very healthy too, with four kinds of beans this chili has plenty of fiber, and it is low in calories yet very filling.  I like to experiment every time I make chili so I rarely make it the same way twice.  Here is what I did this time.

Ingredients:

Pepper Puree:

2 bell peppers (red or yellow)
3-4 jalapenos
1 pound mild green chillies
1 dried habanero, reconstituted
1 tsp cumin powder
1 Tbsp chili powder
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp coriander powder
1 Tbsp garlic powder

Cut the bell peppers into smaller pieces, split the jalapenos in half and remove the seeds (or leave them in if you want more heat), and cut the stems off the smaller green chillies (I do not know what kind of chillies these are, the skinny long green ones in the picture, but they are mild with a very good chilli flavor, there is no need to remove the seeds).  Rinse all the peppers, toss in olive oil and spread on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle with some salt and pepper then bake at 400F for about 15-20 minutes until they start to brown and become soft.  Meanwhile, soak the habanero (I also used 2 dried jalapenos I happened to have) in boiling hot water until it becomes soft (cut the top off and remove seeds by squeezing, or leave them in for more heat).  Place the peppers in a blender, add the spices and about 1/4 cup of the water the habanero was reconstituted in and puree.  You may need to add a bit more pepper water until you reach the desired consistency.  The puree should be smooth and thick, but not so thick you can't pour it out of the blender.  Makes about 2 cups puree.

2 very large zucchinis, diced
1 large onion, diced
(about 5-6 cups total)

Saute the zucchini and onions together over medium heat until they become soft and translucent.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

6 cups beans
1/4 cup ketchup
Worcestershire sauce

Place 6 cups of mixed beans into a large slow cooker.  I used a combination of garbanzo beans, kidney beans, pigeon peas, and black beans (they can be cooked from dry or from a can, whatever you have.  I cook my beans from dry and freeze them in 1 cup portions so I always have easy beans on hand, just thaw over night in the refrigerator and use as you would canned beans.  It is easy to control the salt this way.).  Add the zucchini and onion, then pour on the pepper puree and add 1/4 cup of ketchup and a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce.  Stir until thoroughly mixed.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours.  Give it a taste at the end and add more salt and pepper if needed. Makes 6-8 servings. 

This recipe is very versatile you can use any kinds of beans and any kinds of peppers.  I've made the pepper puree with all reconstituted, dried peppers before, they were some kind of large Mexican chilli and it was very good.  You can use spicier chillies or milder chillies, the combinations are endless.  If you want meat, just add some cooked ground beef or chicken to the mix.  I served my chili topped with cheese with corn chips on the side, veggies on the side would be good too.  Be creative and enjoy.

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Stuffed French Toast Bread Pudding

Bread pudding lightly sweetened with maple syrup with cream cheese and raisins.  Great breakfast.

What to do with sandwich bread that didn't turn out as soft and fluffy as preferred?  French toast is always an option, but an even better one is bread pudding.  I wanted my bread pudding to be more of a breakfast instead of a dessert so I didn't sweeten it as much as usual.  I added some cream cheese to the mix to make it reminiscent of stuffed french toast and that was a great idea.  The cream cheese added a bit of cheesiness to the pudding with out being overwhelming and cut the sweetness a bit.  I planned on eating this for breakfast all week, but as I was putting the dish in the refrigerator it slipped from my grasp to shatter on my kitchen floor (I really need a rubber floor in my kitchen, anything that gets dropped shatters).  I said some very un-ladylike words and had to throw it all away.  At least I had one serving and it was great.  When I get over the pain of my loss maybe I will try to make this again.

Ingerdients:
Slightly modified from Better Homes cookbook

5 cups of bread pieces (I used a dense multigrain)
4 eggs
2 1/4 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp orange zest (optional)
1 tsp cinnamon 
1/4 cup maple syrup
4 oz cream cheese, softened (1/2 pack)
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350F.  Cut or tear the bread into large chunks and set aside in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl mix the cream cheese, eggs, milk, vanilla, orange zest, cinnamon and maple syrup.  Pour the liquid over the bread and toss to coat every piece with liquid.  Let sit for a few minutes so the bread absorbs some of the liquid.  Then, spoon into a buttered casserole dish while layering in the raisins.  Press down on the bread so that it is packed tightly into the dish and pour over the rest of the liquid.  Allow the casserole to sit for about 10 minutes until much of the liquid is absorbed, then cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes.  Uncover and bake for about 10 minutes longer to form a brown crust (pudding should be set so that a knife inserted in the center comes out clean).  Allow to cool for about 15 minutes before serving.  Makes 6 servings.  Serve with bacon and orange wedges (from the orange that was zested).  Enjoy, and try not to drop it.

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Slow Cooker Carolina Barbecue

Slow cooked pork, shredded, and in a vinegar based sauce.  It reminds me of home.

For those of you who don't know, I grew up in North Carolina.  Everyone in NC has different ideas about what makes great barbecue.  Some like a tomato based sauce, which you find more in the western part of the state, and others only like the vinegar based eastern style.  One thing I think we can all agree on is that it has to be pork.  I grew up in western NC but I did not find a love for barbecue until I went to college in Greenville, NC which is east.  In college I fell in love with the vinegar based sauce that has a spicy kick.  Once again every cook has their own idea of what makes the vinegar sauce taste great.  I usually make it a little different every time trying to develop the flavor I like.  Here is my version, this time, and I think it is the best I've made so far.

Vinegar sauce:

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup bourbon
1/4 cup pickled jalapeno juice
1/4 cup ketchup
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp habanero flakes

Stir all of the ingredients together until combined and place in a sealed container to refrigerate overnight.

Place pork roast (usually called butt but I think it is actually shoulder, I used something called 'pork shoulder country style boneless ribs--because I found it on sale) in the slow cooker.  Season with salt and pepper, then pour on the sauce (I only had a little over 1 pound of meat so I only used half of the sauce).  Add a dash of liquid smoke if you like, and let it cook on low for about 8 hours or until falling apart.

Using a fork pull apart the cooked pork into shreds.  You can lift the pork out of the slow cooker and shred it in a separate container to make it a little less greasy but make sure to reserve some of the vinegar sauce to add to it once it is shredded.  I just added the shredded pork back to the cooking liquid.  It all depends on how much fat was on your roast, it tastes better to leave the fat on while cooking, but you can remove some of the grease by removing the pork from the cooking liquid.  If you do not put the shredded pork back into the cooking liquid, heat the reserved vinegar sauce before pouring it over.

The number of servings depends on how much pork you used, I had about 4 servings with over 1 pound of pork.  Serve with your favorite sides like coleslaw, greens, fried okra, corn, and bread or hushpuppies (just to name a few) or make a sandwich with the pork on a good bun and topped with some coleslaw.  Enjoy.

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Baked Sardine Rangoons

Dumplings stuffed with a cream cheese and sardine mixture, baked until crisp.

I came across the idea of baked rangoons from Tracy's Culinary Adventures blog.  Once I saw this recipe I was hooked, I had to try them.  I like crab but it can be expensive and difficult to obtain so I used something I already had in my pantry, sardines.  Not only are sardines easy to obtain and inexpensive they contain good omega 3 fatty acids.  I keep cream cheese in my freezer so the only thing I needed to make these delicious snacks was wonton wrappers.  I searched and searched in my local store and could not find any so I resorted to making them.  I found an easy recipe on KitchenSimplicity.com and set about making wonton wrappers.  While the ingredient list was very simple the process of rolling them out and stacking them was a bit more difficult.  If I can ever find pre-made wrappers I don't think I will make them by hand again.  It would probably work better if I had more space, but I have a small kitchen with very limited counter/tabletop space.  It was worth the effort but it was time consuming.

Ingredients:

Wonton wrappers
1 pack cream cheese, softened
1 single serving can sardines (filets)
salt and pepper to taste

Mix the sardines and cream cheese together until thoroughly combined (I used a food processor).  Place about 1 tablespoon of cream cheese mixture onto half of a wonton wrapper.  Fold the other half of the wrapper over the cheese and seal by pressing down.  I used a little egg brushed along the  edges to help create the seal.  Lay out in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and bake at 400F until golden and crisp (about 12-15 minutes).  Flip half way through cooking for even browning.  Serve with dipping sauce of your choice.  I made about 12 rangoons and had plenty of cream cheese left over but if you have more wrappers it would make at least 24-30.

This was my first time making dumplings of any kind so they are not the prettiest, but they tasted very good.  If you want to make these fancier I'm sure you could add garlic, shallots, ginger and all kinds of flavors.  Enjoy.

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How to Make Ricotta Cheese at Home

Making ricotta cheese at home is simply delicious and uses very few ingredients.  It's much easier than you might think.

I came across this recipe on pintrest.  Once I read through the ingredients and instructions I was amazed at how simple it seemed.  So I had to try it on my own.  Turns out it is simple and it worked using skim milk and kefir.  All I had to do was boil them together and spoon out the curds that floated to the top.  I was nervous because the recipe called for using whole milk and cream but I only had skim milk so that is what I used and it worked. I'm still excited about how cool and easy it was that I had to share.  I will definitely be making this again.

How to Make Ricotta Cheese at Home

Ingredients:

4 cups skim milk (or any milk)
1 cup kefir (or buttermilk) or 1-2 Tbsp lemon juice or vinegar

Pour the milk and kefir into a large sauce pan and heat over medium high heat (stirring constantly).

Let heat until it starts to boil (185F if you use a thermometer) and you will see curds float to the top, around 10 minutes.

Be patient, the curds are very noticeable.  Take off the heat and, using a slotted spoon, scoop out the curds and drain in a cloth lined strainer.

Let drain for about 15 minutes or until desired consistency.  Add some salt and place in a seal-able container, refrigerate until ready to use.  Makes 3/4-1 cup.

If you need ideas on how to use your fresh ricotta try these recipes:

Simple Lasagna
Ricotta Bread
Pepper and Onion Breakfast Pizza

Enjoy.

*updated 2/10/14

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Whole Wheat and Seed Pumpkin Muffins

Soft and delicious mini muffins made with whole wheat flour, ground sunflower seeds, ground flax seeds, and pumpkin.  Quite filling.

Happy Super Bowl everybody.  It seems like everywhere I look people are posting dip and appetizer recipes for your Super Bowl party.  I'm not having a Super Bowl party, I'll be watching (and Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl) but I'm watching alone.  I'm kind of a loner and when my husband is away I sometimes go weeks with out talking to anyone (other than myself).  Don't get me wrong, I like people and when my husband's around (he is much more extroverted than me) I enjoy having people over and I love making food for people.  But if there isn't someone around to invite people over I am perfectly happy being by myself...I guess I'm just weird.  So that means I am not making anything special for the Super Bowl today.  I wanted to post something, so I decided to post my recipe for Pumpkin Muffins.  I made these a while ago and froze half of them and for breakfast this morning I pulled a few out of the freezer, microwaved them for 1 minute, and they were as good as when they were fresh from the oven.

My thought process when I originally made these was that I wanted them to be healthy and filling.  I had about 3/4 cup of pureed pumpkin, leftover from another recipe, so I used this and decided to omit added oil or butter.  I also wanted to make these a bit more filling by using ground seeds to add some protein.  The end result was great, they are not too sweet, have a mild pumpkin and sunflower seed flavor, and are tender.  Here is my recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup ground sunflower seeds (1/2 cup whole sunflower seed kernels ground in a blender)
1/4 cup flax seed meal (ground flax seeds)
4 Tbsp pumpkin pie spiced sugar (or brown sugar)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
3/4 cup pumpkin
1 cup kefir (or buttermilk)

Preheat oven to 375F with the rack in the middle.  In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients until thoroughly combined.  In a separate bowl mix together wet ingredients.  Meanwhile prepare muffin tin(s) for baking by either lining them with paper cups or greasing them. When ready to bake the muffins, add the liquid to the dry ingredients and stir until combined.  Put into the prepared muffin tins and bake for about 15 minutes for mini muffins or 25 for regular sized muffins (check for doneness by inserting a wooden toothpick into the center, if it comes out clean they should be done).  Remove from pan and let cool for a few minutes before eating.  Makes 34 mini muffins.  Enjoy.

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