Black Bean Soup

This recipe is an alteration of one I found in a Southern Living Cookbook. I happen to believe in pressure cookers, and this alteration takes a fraction of the time.

1 lb dried black beans
1T salt
1/2 onion, sliced
3 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth
1.5 c chopped onions
.75 T minced garlic
2 T olive oil
1 (10oz) can diced tomatoes and green chilies
1/3 c lemon juice
1/2 t pepper
1 t hot sauce
sour cream

Sort and rinse beans. Place in a 1.5 quart casserole dish and add 1 T salt and 1/2 sliced onion and fill the rest of the way with water. Cover and microwave for 20 minutes. Pour out water and onion and put beans in pressure cooker with chicken broth. Bring to pressure and cook 10 minutes. Beans should be tender. Saute chopped onion and garlic in hot oil in a large skillet until tender. Stir in tomatoes and next three ingredients. Cook 5 more minutes. Process tomato mixture and 2 cups beans in a food processor, pulsing just until mixture is chopped but not smooth and pasty. Stir remaining beans and just enough bean juice to make a nice mixture, but not too brothy, into processed mixture. Ladle into soup bowls, and top each serving with sour cream. Yum!

I have to get this going!!

OK, so I am REALLY struggling with menus!! And I need to do them especially now that we're down to a paycheck every other week, so I need to plan better. So I think this will make me do it!! I'm trying to just eat oatmeal for breakfast and lunch is just insane to plan, for me. So, I'll start with just dinner and then go from there when I get better !!

Here it goes:

Monday:

(already I draw a blank!!!)

Italian Chicken

peas

bread (homemade)

Tuesday:

Meatloaf

Baked potatoes

corn

Wednesday:

Left over Italian Chicken

(we always have way to much)

Thursday:

(blank, blank ,blank)

Pork Chops

(never made them, sad I know!!)

Bread

Potato side

(I'm going to try a new one, I'll tell you how it goes)

Friday:

Waffles

( I never do breakfast for dinner, I think Madison will like it!!)

Saturday:

Pizza

(I made it last week and the dough didn't' raise so I'm trying again!!)

OK, so see this is why I need help!! BORING food!! SO I need easy CHEAP ideas!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

My most favorite thing to bake is chocolate chip cookies, so I thought I would share my recipe. It is an alteration of a Betty Crocker recipe and it goes like this:

3/4c granulated sugar
3/4c brown sugar
1 c stick margarine, softened
1 egg
2 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375. Mix sugars, margarine and egg. Stir in flour, soda and salt (batter will be stiff.) Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonful (you know, the ones you eat with - I actually use my handy-dandy Pampered Chef little melon baller scooper thing so they are uniform and really nice sized) onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 7 minutes - they should not quite be brown on the edges, but another minute would brown them. Take them out before they brown. Put a dish towel on your counter and drop your cookie sheet from a height of 6". Do this a couple times. This makes them better. Because they are a little doughy, wait until they cool a bit before eating.

These are SUPER soft and tasty. Hope you enjoy!

Week 2

I obviously didn't get to this on-time this week. The problem for me in meal planning is that I often overplan. We didn't finish all the meals from last week, so this week we are finishing up. I will try to post more tomorrow.

Tin-Foil Dinners Aren't Just For Camping!

While looking for some healthy recipes, I found this cool video. There aren't specific recipes, but I have decided to try it this week. In fact, I may even use it with my box oven!

Week 1

Monday -

• Breakfast - Yogurt Drink and scrambled eggs
• Lunch - Bacon 'n Egg Salad Sandwiches & carrot slices
• Dinner - Chicken Barley Soup and Flatbread

Tuesday -

• Breakfast - French Toast
• Lunch - l/o soup
• Dinner - Barbecued Beef Sandwiches, Apple Salad, Chips

Wednesday -

• Breakfast - Cranberry Muffins & Boiled Eggs
• Lunch - Tuna Sandwiches, apples
• Dinner - Bacon-Stuffed burgers, fries and dill potato salad

Thursday -

• Breakfast - Pancakes
• Lunch - PBJ and fruit
• Dinner - Lime Chicken Chili, tortilla chips

Friday -

• Breakfast - Oatmeal/Cream of Wheat
• Lunch - Grilled Cheese and fresh veggie
• Dinner - go for the grains casserole, steamed squash

Saturday -

• Breakfast -Blueberry Oatmeal muffins (provided we pick blueberries this week!)
• Lunch - L/O lime chili, casserole wraps
• Dinner - Foil Packet Chicken and Veggies in a box oven

Sunday -

• Breakfast - Cold cereal
• Lunch - PBJ
• Dinner - Italian Artichoke Chicken, some kind of bread