Easy Rice & Beans

Meatless Monday!

I don't know if I'm actually going to post a vegetarian meal every Monday or not, but a lot of blogs and cooking shows do it, so I decided to post this meal today.

I used to nanny for a vegetarian family. The mom had this dish at a restaurant in Minneapolis and loved it so much that she asked them how to make it and couldn't believe how easy it was.

Ingredients:

1 cup of rice (white or brown)

1 can black beans

1 can diced tomatoes

whatever seasonings you'd like

(I used Italian seasoning, salt & black pepper)

Cook your rice.

Dump your beans and tomatoes in a saucepan.

When rice is cooked, add to pot and heat long enough to heat tomatoes and beans through. Add seasonings, stir until combined.

This is a meal I make when we're in a hurry but still want something healthier than fast food.

It's satisfying enough to be a main dish, or simple enough for a side dish.

Coconut Chicken

Does anyone else love Pinterest as much as I do?

Since I discovered that website, my "to-do" list has become enormous.

I can finally cross of making "Coconut Chicken" off of the list.

Someone pinned it on pinterest from Budget Bytes blog.

While I'm sure it'd be amazing with the sweet chili sauce that Budget Bytes recommended, we just used katsu sauce because it's our favorite dipping sauce in the whole wide world!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs skinless boneless chicken breasts

2 large eggs

1/4 cup coconut milk (optional - I didn't have any, but I want to try it with the coconut milk next time)

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup panko bread crumbs

1 cup shredded coconut

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup vegetable oil divided

Here's Budget Bytes recipe. I followed it almost exactly, except I didn't measure ingredients. I forget that I need to do that now that I'm blogging! :o)

STEP 1:

Cut off any extra fat globules from your chicken breasts. Cut each breast into strips, diagonally to prevent the end strips from being really short.

STEP 2:

Prepare your breading station by gathering three bowls. In the first bowl combine the flour and salt. In the second bowl, combine the eggs and coconut milk. Whisk together until well combined. In the third bowl, stir together the panko bread crumbs and shredded coconut.

STEP 3:

Place 1/2 cup of vegetable oil in a large heavy duty skillet and heat over medium/high heat until it is just below smoking. You can test the heat by throwing in a little bit of flour. When it is hot enough, the flour will sizzle and create a lot of bubbles.

STEP 4:

While the oil is heating, dredge the chicken strips. First, coat each strip in the flour and salt mixture. Then dip each into the eggs/coconut milk and finally coat each in panko and shredded coconut. I find it easiest to coat all of them in the flour then go back and then do the egg wash and panko/coconut for each before moving onto the next.

STEP 5:

After breading the strips, the oil should be hot enough. Place about 4 strips in the pan at once. There should only be one layer in the pan and there should be about an inch between each strip. If you over crowd the pan it will get too cold and the strips will soak up a lot of oil instead of frying. Fry the strips for 2-3 minutes on each side or until they are golden brown and crispy. Place them on a plate with paper towel to drain and move on to the next batch. After a couple of batches you may need more oil so you can add the second 1/2 cup to the pan. Allow the oil to come up to temperature before frying the next batch (2-3 minutes). Because the strips are thin, they should be cooked through by the time both sides are browned. You can tell by the texture of the chicken; it should be stiff when pressed. If you cut your strips thicker, you will need to bake off the chicken after frying to make sure the insides are cooked through.

[ I actually had to dump the oil every couple of batches because the coconut shreds that fell off the chicken blackened in the oil and stuck to the chicken. You can see it in one of my pictures. So if your chicken is starting to have blackened shreds, using new oil will fix that.

STEP 6:

When all of the strips are done frying, serve immediately with your favorite sauce!

I served this with rice and my husband and I both loved it! It's a pretty inexpensive meal, which is very important to us newlyweds. :o)

Yummy, EASY guacamole!

The first time I made this was in 2009 for my friend's bridal shower and I can't count how many times since then I've made it, or how often I've passed along this surprisingly simple recipe.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 4 avocados - peeled, pitted, and mashed
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (I'm in love with cilantro, so I like, triple that!)
• 2 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 pinch ground cayenne pepper
• 
  
• Directions:
• 
  
• 

In a medium bowl, mash together the avocados, lime juice, and salt.

• 
Mix in onion, cilantro, tomatoes, and garlic.

• Stir in cayenne pepper.

• Refrigerate 1 hour for best flavor.

Could this BE any easier???

Sweet Potato Pie

I'm going to give credit for this recipe to my fabulous brother-in-law, Jason.

No, he didn't give me the recipe, BUT, if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have it. In fact, I wouldn't even LIKE these pies filled with amazingness.

Let me explain.

A couple years ago on a holiday, either Thanksgiving or Christmas, Jason requested I make a sweet potato pie. I was hesitant, because my whole life I "didn't like sweet potatoes."

I was a weird kid. I had a problem with textured food. I didn't like mashed potatoes, the insides of baked potatoes, Jell-o, pudding, etc.

So when Jason requested one I immediately thought of the weird texture, but soon decided it didn't matter, it wasn't for me.

So I searched for a recipe and made it and OH MY SOUL I HAD BEEN MISSING OUT ALL OF MY LIFE!!!!

Sweet potato pie is now tied with pumpkin pie as my favorite. After the piece I had last night, it might even bump pumpkin aside. Just sayin'.

I don't even remember what recipe I used then, but I've tweaked and changed and adjusted so many times, it's not even close anymore. So this, my friends, is my sweet potato pie recipe.

What You Need:

There are only two sweet potatoes pictured here, but I recommend three.

So here's the third one.

3 sweet potatoes

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

3/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp ground cinnamon

a dash of ground cloves

(cloves aren't usually in sweet potato pie, but I love the hint of "fall" it adds)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 9 in. unbaked pie crust

(I used my "Easier Than Pie Homemade Pie Crust")

Mini marshmallows

(optional)

What to do:

Poke holes in your sweet potatoes and toss in the oven at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes or until potatoes are tender to the touch. Turn oven down to 350.

Some people boil them, but I recommend baking. The flavor is SO much better! I've used canned too, while that's great in a pinch, it doesn't compare to the taste of baked.

(Remember, use 3. Here's a visual for you.)

Let cool and then peel. The skin should come off pretty easily, but if not run them under cold water and that should help loosen to skin.

Cut them into chunks, put them in a bowl and mash. Or just let your stand mixer do the job for you.

Add butter and mix well.

Add in brown sugar, eggs, milk, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and vanilla.

Beat on medium (or give your arm a workout) until mixture is smooth.

I've used a stand mixer, a hand mixer, and my arm to make this pie.

If you don't have a stand mixer, I'd recommend a hand mixer. When you use your arm it's hard to get all the lumps from the potatoes out. Or maybe I'm just weak.

Pour into unbaked pie crust.

(Cute, yeah? I just cut my extra dough into small strips and twisted it and edged the pie with it. Is "edged" a word?)

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes. Center should still be goopy. (Is "goopy" a word?)

Place mini marshmallows all over top of pie.

Place back in oven for about 7 minutes or until marshmallows are starting to brown and are puffed up.

Let cool completely then refrigerate.

I made this for Thanksgiving, I made it again two days ago, and I'm going to make it for Christmas!

Stuffed Green Peppers

This is an easy dinner I make when I don't have time to make a "full meal" so to speak. Your protein and carb is all stuffed into your vegetable. This is one of my mine and my husband's favorite meals.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 green bell peppers

1/2 onion chopped

1 clove garlic chopped

Half a pound of ground beef (or ground turkey)

16 oz of pasta sauce

1/2 cup of rice (white or brown)

1 cup mozzarella cheese

(not pictured)

Dried Italian seasoning

Parsley flakes

Black pepper

Crushed red pepper flakes

Franks Red Hot Sauce (optional)

First

Get your rice going. I use my rice cooker(s) all the time. I can never get it perfect on the stove! It's either too hard or too mushy or burnt.

If you have perfected stove top rice, you're my hero.

Sautee your garlic and onion for a few minutes, add ground beef and cook until browned throughout.

While your meat is cooking, prepare your peppers.

But first, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Now cut each pepper down the middle.

Scoop out the innards with a spoon.

Lightly spray oven safe dish.

Arrange peppers on greased dish.

Add sauce.

Add spices

Add rice to sauce mixture.

Ooh, I forgot I added some shredded parmesan cheese I had left over.

Stir until all ingredients are combined.

Spoon into each pepper half.

Stuff them with as much as you can.

Bake at 400 F for about 40 minutes or until peppers are tender.

Top with cheese and put in oven for 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

If you think your plate it too bare with only the stuffed peppers on them, serve them with bread of some sort.

I love this meal because it's gluten free (double check the sauce you use is GF if you're not using homemade sauce( and pretty healthy. I've heard of some people substituting dried quick cooking oats for the rice. I haven't tried it, but I will someday.