Spicing up what you have

I'm sharing with you today something I've enjoyed knowing that has brought so much happiness and joy to my life.  I'll admit, it's kindof a weird post, mostly because it's about beans, but really it's about taking what you have, and making an effort to make it better - even enjoyable. 

So, a few months ago, my mom gave me an opened can of food storage that they had tried but didn't like. 
Dehydrated Refried Beans, ever heard of them?

Here's an inside look:

Just little dry flakes.  You're supposed to add water and let them sit for a minute.  We tried them once and they were kindof bland, and so they sat there for a little bit.  Then we figured out the magic missing ingredients: Chili powder, Cumin and Coriander.  They're what are generally added to Mexican type dishes, so we tried them once and they were delicious. 

My husband is the spice expert, so I let him mess with proportions, but he just adds a little of each to the dry beans before adding the water and then the beans are really tasty.  We enjoy using the dehydrated because we can make as little or as much as you want.  So, if you want some tasty food storage, try these. 

Now, we need to take this a step further.  We ate the rest of the other can awhile ago and I just recently got this new one, but I needed another way to get some refried beans, and I didn't want to go back to the canned variety.  Luckily I had these lying around. 

 A lifetime supply of dry beans eh?  WIC tends to do this to cupboards... they just take some time, but they too can be delicious.  I didn't photograph my own endeavors, but if you have dry beans lying around, grab a bag a pinto beans and make your own refried beans!  There's a great tutorial here and they are delicious. 

I love having refried beans handy without having to open a whole can.  They make for an easy snack with chips, or cheese and a tortilla.  And they're good for you.  Yummy.

Creating in the Kitchen-- Delicious Dinners (& Dessert!)

I confess, I have an addiction to recipe blogs. I think it started because I never collected my favorite recipes that my mom made, so I had to keep looking for new things to make for dinner online. Now I've acquired a bunch of my favorites, but I still love finding and trying new recipes to add to my collection. Now that I've found so many tasty things out there, I hate re-making something that I've made already. I want to try all of them!

Here's a few that I've made in the last little while that I love. I had to include both pizzas because they were both so good!
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Garlic-Ranch Chicken Pizza

(recipe from Favorite Family Recipes)

1 large pizza dough, uncooked (fresh, frozen, or whatever you like best)
3/4 c. ranch dressing (*see recipe below or the homemade ranch dressing recipe)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 c. Mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 c. bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 c. chicken, cooked and cut into strips (**I like to rub the chicken with olive oil and generously sprinkle with Montreal Chicken Seasoning on both sides. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.)
2-3 tomatoes, sliced

Mix ranch dressing and crushed garlic together then spread evenly on the pizza dough. Sprinkle a little cheese over the ranch dressing then add chicken and bacon. Sprinkle more of the cheese over that, add the tomatoes, then add the remaining cheese. Put in the oven at 350 degrees for about 12-15 minutes (or until crust is a nice golden-brown). Top with parsley flakes to make it look fancy and serve!

*Ranch Dressing:

1 packet TRADITIONAL Hidden Valley Ranch mix (not BUTTERMILK)
1 c. mayonnaise
1 c. buttermilk

Whisk ranch mix and mayo together, slowly add buttermilk. When well blended, cover and refrigerate.

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The Best Spinach Alfredo Pizza Ever

(from RecipeZaar)

• 2/3-1 cup classico alfredo sauce
• 25 leaves spinach
• 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
• pizza dough (enough for one 12-inch pizza)

1. Roll out the fresh pizza dough into a 12 inch circle, and place onto your stone or sheet.
2. Spread the alfredo sauce around and out to the edges and then lay the spinach on top of that, making sure not to overlap pieces of spinach.
3. Then sprinkle cheeses on top and bake at 475 for 10-13 minutes, or whatever you normally bake your pizza pie at.
   
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Cheesy Baked Mexi-Rigatoni

(recipe by picky-palate.com)

1 lb dry Rigatoni pasta or any other pasta of choice
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 Anaheim green chili’s finely chopped
1 lb lean ground beef
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon Lawry’s garlic salt
1 can cheddar cheese soup
½ Cup milk or half and half
1 Cup sour cream
2 15 oz cans fire roasted tomatoes
Heaping ½ Cup fresh chopped cilantro leaves (add more if you love cilantro)
2 Cups Mexican blend shredded cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook pasta according to package directions, making sure it’s not overcooked. Drain and set aside.

2. Place olive oil into a large skillet or pan over medium heat. Saute onions and chilies until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in beef, salt, pepper and garlic salt; cook and crumble until browned. Stir in soup, milk, sour cream and tomatoes. Stir until well combined. Reduce heat to low. Stir in cilantro and cooked pasta.

3. Pour mixture into a large 9 x 13 inch baking dish or individual size baking dishes of choice, see my link above. Sprinkle with shredded cheese and bake until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 20-25 minutes.

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And, since I made it last night, I figured I'd include a favorite that we used to make a lot in my college apartments. Everyone need to try this recipe at least once in their life!

Better Than *Anything* Cake

1 box Devils Food cake
1 jar caramel topping
1 jar sweetened condensed milk
1 8 oz tub of whipped topping
1 toffee bar (like Skor or Heath), crumbled or chopped - or a few Fun Size from Halloween





Bake the cake as directed on the box in a 9 x 13 pan. When cooled, use a knife to cut and "drill" holes all over the cake. The more the better! And make sure you get around the edges. It will something look like this: (I made this in two separate pans so I could bring 1/2 of it somewhere and keep me from eating it all...)
Pour the sweetened condensed milk and caramel topping over the holes in the cake, making sure to get in all the holes. We used to use the entire can/jar, but I usually can't make myself put it all in anymore. Put a lot of it on it though :)
Now cover it with the tub of whipped topping and sprinkle with your toffee bars. (If your cake isn't cooled complete the topping melts easily, so be patient before applying!)
And it's complete!

Mmmm. (I recommend waiting a little while before eating it because it's always much better the next day.) Just don't let yourself eat it out of the pan, because you will want to eat the whole thing.
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My challenge to you: Browse some new recipes and try something new this week!

Some of my favorite places are:

Favorite Family Recipes
My Kitchen Cafe
Picky Palate
The Sisters Cafe
Allrecipes.com

Enjoy!

Making Fall

Yay it's fall! I keep hearing people in other places comment about how cold or how hot it is right now, but it is PERFECT here! I love getting to pull on a jacket or wear long sleeves, but still not be cold or hot. If only it lasted for longer than a month...

Well I've been pouring over my lists of crafts I want to make trying to get my apartment dressed for the season. I barely have any decorations! We really don't have any room to store things, so last year this was the grand total of my fall decor: (excluding the leaves even)

I filled a small goblet with candy and added a ribbon that I scrounged off a gift I received. The pumpkin I grabbed during the after-Halloween sales, and that was it!

We'll just have to throw out a few more things to make room to store them, because I feel it's in the best interest of all involved to feel fully immersed in the seasons. I can't go around feeling like it's still summer...

So, my new addition to my home is this:

Sorry about the glare, but isn't it cute?

I made it from a tutorial here from Make It and Love It. Check it out there for more pics and details!

Basic steps:
Cut about 10 feet of thin floral wire, poke it through the bottom of a few leaves and push them to the end. After each leaf, twist the wire to keep it in place. Keep twisting & adding leaves, spacing the leaves out an inch or so apart. Wrap the strand of leaves around the wreath and keep going all the way around. Make a bow (check out the link above) and tie at the top of the wreath, and you're done! I love it so much more because I made it. It took maybe an hour and cost $6 to buy everything.

Here was my cost:

Grapevine wreath: $3 Walmart

Leaves: $1 Dollar Tree

Ribbon: $1 Dollar Tree
Floral Wire: $1 Walmart

A few tips I learned:

To avoid seeing a lot of the floral line, try to keep the wire as close to the edge of the leaf as possible. Then tweak the leaves to have them cover up the wire in between the leaves to get an effect like this:

Also, with the thin wire, it's hard to stab it through the leaf so it helps to pre-poke them with something stronger like a nail/screw/ice pick etc. (You can do a bunch at a time)

Another great thing about fall is....new recipes to try!

I was in the mood for crunchy caramel corn last night, so I made this recipe from Allrecipes to enjoy while watching The Office! It takes about 10 minutes to make, and is microwavable and delicious. Just learn from my mistake and make sure you use a big enough bowl for the sugar/butter mixture because it grows a lot and will overflow. :)

[Image from Skidoo.com; I was too eager to eat and forgot to take a pic :) ]

Enjoy!

Switch it up

I want my kids to be creative. I know my first one is because he colors and makes books and asked me how to do all kinds of things like how to make sand. He wanted to build his own BEACH but sometimes when we see something the same way over and over again we start to think that is HAS to be that way or it is SUPPOSED to be that way so switch it up a little.

I decided I really wanted SCONES especially since I am not pregnant so I can eat honey. That is the hardest part of being pregnant for me - not being able to eat honey. So now I want scones and cornbread all the time because they are so SO much better with HONEY.

We used cookie cutters to cut the dough into different shapes. The boys loved it. I did too.