I know, that is not sexy food at all! But what is it? It is a crock pot full of pinto beans! Pinto beans are super easy to make! A key thing is to rinse and pick through you beans! Occasionally there is a rock and that doesn’t make tasty eats! Then I put beans and water in the crockpot at a ratio of 1:4. I usually make 4 cups of beans at a time. To that I add about 3 tablespoons of beef bullion, 1 tablespoon of pepper, 1/4 cup of dehydrated onions, a sprinkling of cumin and 1/2 tablespoon of kosher salt. Then turn the crock pot on low for 6+ hours.
Now I use dehydrated onions and only a sprinkling of cumin due to NerdDad’s preference. If I was making them for someone else I would use 1 onion and 2 tablespoons of cumin;).
The first meal with my pinto beans is my Bean Bowls! I make up some seasoned Jasmine Rice in my rice maker and then put some of that in the bottom of the bowl. Then I add broccoli, beans, cheese and some taco sauce. Then stir! And NerdDad is not a fan of the veggie meal so I usually add some cut up chicken or steak.
I love snickerdoodles! Not only and they yummy, they are a perfect recipe to make with your kids. Even if you don’t have them actually mix up the dough, they can roll the balls to shape them and roll them in cinnamon sugar!
Ingredients:
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
cinnamon and sugar (in a 1/2 ratio)
Process:
1. Mix shortening, sugar and eggs. Then blend in the dry ingredients.
2. Roll into balls the size of walnuts and then roll in the mixture of cinnamon and sugar.
3. Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
Homemade Chocolate Whipped Cream. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it. This is an easy accompaniment that wows whoever sees it. I always feel a little guilty how impressed people get;). Here I just have a dollop of Chocolate Whipped Cream on top of a Sweet Wonton Crisp with 3 raspberries. (I could take it a notch further with a sprinkling of sweet cocoa or powdered sugar.)
Very Sweet Version (NerdDad likes it very sweet and chocolaty)
1 cup heavy whipped cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
3 tablespoons sweet cocoa powdered (I use Ghiradelli’s)
Start whipping your heavy cream (I have a stand mixer that I use) on high. Then sprinkle in the powdered sugar and continue whipping. 30 seconds later add the cocoa powder. Continue whipping until it is in stiff peaks.
For a slightly less sweet version (how I prefer it) only add 2 tablespoons of cocoa.
Which ever version you make it will rival anything you have seen in a fancy restaurant’s dessert;).
My kids love breakfast rice! Then I found out that many people have never heard of a sweet rice or a breakfast rice so I decided to share mine! It uses one of my secret weapons, my rice maker! So I just dump everything in and turn it on! You can adjust the types and amounts. This is just a base.
Ingredients:
3 cups of jasmine rice (any rice will work)
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup raisins
1/4 cup silvered almonds
Process:
Just put the rice in the cooker and fill with water up to the line. Then add everything else and give it a little bit of a stir. Then turn on the cooker and leave it alone! It is that simple.
Yummy looking, right? It was super easy too! The longest thing was boiling the water!
All I did was cook 3 packages of gnocchi (hey, they are small packages and there are 6 of us;). Then I heated up 2 cups of cooked, sliced steak (I had in the freezer) and 1 package of chopped spinach (thawed and squeezed out). I melted 1 stick of butter and then sauteed 2 teaspoons of prechopped garlic. I added 1 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 tsp pepper and 1/2 tsp of paprika. Mix it together and eat up!
An added note: I often put in chopped chicken instead of steak. It really is that simple!
The Nerdster wanted a Batman cake for his 5th birthday this last week. And as you see, he got one;). But it was a bit of a process to get there. Now, as usually, I started with a box cake mix. But, I had planned on using homemade butter cream. Genius me forgot to get powdered sugar (which I thought I had) but I had 2 tubs of chocolate icing with chocolate chips and 1 tub of white cream cheese frosting.
So I started by frosting in between the layers and the edges of the cake with the chocolate chip frosting. Then I took a bat image that NerdDad found online. I cut it out.
Then I buttered the edges lightly with chocolate frosting so it would stick to my cake top. Then I mixed yellow gel food coloring into my white cream cheese. I frosted the top of the cake with yellow frosting but was careful to stay off the Batman image.
Then I used 2 strips of duct tape to remove the Bat symbol. Then I filled in the image with more of the chocolate frosting!
So there you have how I made fully custom cake using totally non-custom ingredients! Just a box mix, canned frosting and picture of a bat!
As many of you may know, June is a huge birthday month here in the NerdFamily! The challenge is that I have to keep coming up with cakes;). NerdBug turned 9 on the 30th and he loves all things super heroes or Star Wars. Since we had just given him a Thor comic book, NerdDad had the idea for me to make Thor’s Hammer!
What was the most challenging thing is that I thought I had black color but I didn’t. All you have to do is make a cake in a loaf pan. I added a touch of blue color into my white butter frosting. Then I inserted a rolled brown bag with a handle loop into the bottom. To make the knob on the top I just frosted an Oreo and stuck a toothpick in the bottom of it. Then I shoved the toothpick into the top!
So I was bored today and wanted to do something different for the kids at lunch. So I went through the frig and came out with some crescent roll dough, pizza sauce, cooked sausage and mozzarella. I thought about those hot dog rolls that I used to see people make and if you can put those into crescent rolls why not pizza? I just layered everything on each triangle and then rolled it up like traditional crescent rolls. It is so easy that next time I will put out different fillings and let all the kids help! I cooked it at 375 degrees for 12 minutes.
They were so yummy and the kids loved them! So much that my 6 year old daughter just asked for them at her birthday dinner;)!
One of my favorite things I love is bread! My 2 specific favorites are Costco rolls and those buttery rolls they used to have in the public school cafeteria (one of the few things I miss about public school;). Well, I found a recipe over at Money Saving Mom (thanks Crystal!) that is almost hit the spot! I tweaked it a bit and while it isn’t healthy, it is yummy!!!! I don’t know if they freeze because they are so easy and never last more than 2 days (and that is only with self discipline;)!
Ingredients:
1 cup warm milk (70-80 degrees) – I microwaved it a bit and used an instant read thermometer 1/2 cup butter, softened 1/3 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon salt 4 cups ap flour 2 teaspoon instant yeast
Add ingredients from top to bottom to your bread machine. Run on dough cycle. Make sure you check the machine when it almost done mixing to make sure that all the flour is mixed in. You can add a little water if you need it (my machine always does). When dough is complete, divide into 20-24 portions and shape into balls or some sort of ball like shape. Cover with a light towel and let rise for 15 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 13-15 minutes until golden brown.
So I made yet another bacon wrapped treat! It is super easy and super yummy! All I did was wrap 1-2 pieces of asparagus in 1/2 a piece of bacon. Then I put them on a lined baking sheet and roasted it at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. That is it!!!!
