16 Bean and Bacon Soup

Does the soup really have 16 beans? I have no idea. But this was modified from a soup my dad serves at his restaurant. He never counted the exact number of different types of beans so neither do I. It probably has less fat and ultimately slightly less flavor than his but is much healthier and still satisfying. This soup can be made with ham, smoked tofu or omitting the meat and adding liquid smoke or aminos.

Ingredients:

• Dried bean soup mix
• Dried butter beans
• Dried lentils
• 1/2 cup red onion
  
• 3 pieces of thick cut bacon
• 1 ham bouillon
• Cilantro
• Garlic
• Salt
• Pepper
• Vegetable flakes
• Bay leaves
• Water

Directions:

• Soak beans for 2 hours (omit lentils)
• Sautee diced onions and bacon in bacon fat
• Cut bacon into small squares
• Add soaked beans, water, ham bouillon and seasonings to crock pot
• Cook on high for 2 hours
• Add lentils
• Add additional water if necessary
• Cook until all beans are done and soup base becomes thicker

Enjoy!

Spicy Pork and Eggplant Stir fry

This is another good left over dish. I used rib meat and japanese eggplant. The dish gets it's spicyness from hot sauce, red pepper flakes and charred poblano peppers and the sweetness from the left over bbq sauce that marinated the ribs. Because I used left overs, everything was already cooked, which cut done prep time and frying time to about 15 minutes. I felt there was enough protein in this to skip adding an egg. Which gave a nice Mexican themed stir fry as opposed to an Asian one. The vegetables are a nice addition to this dish. Feel free to add/substitute other beans or types of meat that you already have on hand.

Ingredients:

• Pulled pork or rib meat taken off from bones
• Steamed eggplant
• Grilled and charred poblano pepper
• Left over rice and red beans or spanish rice mix
• Roma tomato
• Scallions
• Cilantro
• Red Pepper Flakes
• Hot sauce

Directions:

• Heat ribs and remove meat from bones, ligaments and fat
• Heat oil in frying pan
• Add cold rice, beans, eggplant
• Chop tomato, pepper, scallion and cilantro
• Add red pepper flakes
• Stir fry until all ingredients start to brown and are hot
• Serve with a drizzle of hot sauce on top

Enjoy!

Blueberry Oatmeal Bread

This bread is everything you want in a breakfast or quick snack. It's dense, chewy, moist, sweet, and aromatic. The bread gets its nice color from a tablespoon of black strap molasses which also adds a decent amount of nutrients. Feel free to substitute any berry into this bread or omit it completely for a banana oat bread.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 2 cup instant oats
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/8-1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup blueberries
• 2 medium over ripe bananas
• 2-3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon black strap molasses

Directions:

• Cream eggs, butter and sugar in mixer
• Mix liquid ingredients
• Add mashed bananas
• Start to add dry ingredients
• Add baking soda/powder and salt
• Mix in flour
• Mix in oats
• Mix in blueberries
• Grease bread pan
• Add mixture to pan
• Bake at 350-375 until done

Enjoy!

Tostones aka Fried Plantains

Usually when I make plaintains they are the ripe and sweet kind, however I decided to try making tostones with the unripe green ones that are also sold at the store. These are really easy to make and are great with a bit of salt and served with a black bean dip or salsa. The trick to getting these the right texture is to fry them twice.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 green plantains
• vegetable oil
• salt
• dipping sauce

Directions:

• Peel and slice plantains into circles
• Heat oil in a frying pan
• Fry plantains on both sides
• Remove with tongs or slotted spoon
• Let cool for 1-2 minutes
• Smash plantains flat with a fork or spatula
• Put plantains back in oil until a crispy brown coating occurs
• Remove and let dry on paper towels

Enjoy!

Blueberry Coconut Milk Rice Desserts

Left over coconut rice can be used to make amazing desserts!! Two simple desserts are rice pudding and a Himalayan rice dessert called dresil. When the tea house near me closed, I had to recreate this wonderful dish. It can be made with any sort of sweet berry, coconut, butter, sugar and nut. I chose to add little cubes of cream cheese to give this rice pudding a blueberry cheesecake twist.

Rice Pudding:

• 1/2 cup steamed rice
  
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup vanilla soy milk or reg milk with vanilla extract
  
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup blueberries
• 3 tbsp cream cheese
  
• cinnamon to taste

Dresil:

• 1/2 cup steamed rice (prepare the rice with half water and half coconut milk)
  
• 1/8 cup melted butter
• 1/8 cup white sugar
  
• 1/4 cup dried coconut flakes
• 1/4 cup chopped toasted pistachios or cashews
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries or blueberries

Rice Pudding Directions:

• Prepare rice
• Mix all ingredients
• Bake until liquid absorbs into rice and creates a creamy glutinous texture
• Top with cinnamon

Dresil Directions:

• Prepare rice
• Melt butter and sugar
• Toast nuts in frying pan
• Coat nuts and dried fruit with butter/sugar
• Mix into steamed coconut rice
• Serve warm

Enjoy!

Open Faced Smoked Ham and Gouda Sandwich

This sandwich is really easy to prepare and looks fantastic if you are serving small plates. If you want to make it more appetizer sized opposed to a first course portion simply cut the bread, meat and cheese into smaller portions. You can use any sort of meat/cheese combo but I chose a smoked gouda and honey ham. The sprouts stick to the sandwich with a generous portion of spicy mustard. If you are trying this sandwich with turkey and brie, I would suggest a plum or sweet jelly and top the sandwich with sprouts or a tart apple. Make sure to grill the bread on both sides first to give a variation in textures. Serve warm.

Ingredients:

• Crusty bread in slices
• Smoked gouda
• Honey ham slices
• Spicy mustard
• Clover sprouts

Directions:

• Grill bread on both sides
• Grill ham and cheese on broiler
• Top bread with ham and cheese
• Cover with spicy mustard
• Top with sprouts

Enjoy!

Pepper Steak

This is a no fail slow cooker recipe which can be prepared and then seperated into portions to create various meals. Pepper steak is great over steamed rice, but can also be used as filling in tacos, enchiladas, tamales, chile rellenos, chili, or ground up and made into meatballs/meat pasta sauce. This is the bare minimum you need to make great pepper steak. With about ten minutes preparation and 5 hours in the slow cooker you will have tender juicy pepper steak.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb bone in chuck steak
• 1 green pepper
• 1 red onion
• cilantro
• green onion
  
• teriyaki sauce
• sesame oil
• worcestershire sauce
• water
• pepper
• salt
• garlic

Directions:

• White slow cooker is heating up add 1/2 cup water and seasonings
• Brown steak on both sides
• Saute peppers and onions
• Place steak in slow cooker
• Top steak with cilantro, peppers, onions, teriyaki and worcestershire sauce
• Cook on high for 1 hour and then reduce to low for 4 hours
• Drain/remove any excess fat from the mixture
• Serve over steamed rice

Enjoy!

Creamy Yogurt Corn

This is a nice change of pace for corn. It takes advantage of corns sweet nature and creates a healthier version of creamed corn. This can also be used as a topping over corn bread/spoon bread!

Ingredients:

• Strained plain yogurt
• 2 cups corn
• 2 tbsp sugar
• salt
• pepper

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients
• Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees

Fresh Sausage and Sauerkraut

For this recipe I used sweet Italian sausage, canned sauerkraut and red onion. I think it's difficult finding enough versatility in many foods to make different meals for one or two people instead of reheating lots of left overs. For this recipe I chose to do a standard sausage preparation of boiling the sausage and then frying it with the sauerkraut. Regular spicy mustard is fine, however if you have mustard seed, definitely add it to the mixture! I don't like the texture of natural casing and always remove it after boiling.

Ingredients:

• Fresh Italian sausage
• Sauerkraut
• Onion
• Peppers
• Mustard Seed
• Garlic
• Maple syrup, sugar, honey or some other sweetener

Directions:

• Boil sausage in water for about 15 minutes
• Drain and remove casings if desired
• Brown sausages
  
• Sautee sauerkraut, pepper and onions in pan
• Add seasonings
• Add sweetener
• Cook until browned
• Serve with bread, spicy mustard and extra maple syrup

Enjoy!

Berry Ricotta Cakes

This is a really easy recipe, and a great solution to your left over ricotta from Italian pasta dishes. The photos reflect the cakes just out of the oven before any topping has been placed. Notice the caramelized sugar in the cakes! These can be made in individual cups or in one large cake. Top with any sort of fruit and sauce that you desire. I recommend using frozen berries if you want a stronger sauce base, if you want more texture use the fresh and boil them down.I used fresh blackberries and then also pureed about half the berries to thicken the sauce. With fresh berries you will need to boil in water first to start creating a sauce, and then you only need to add sweetener and cornstarch to the fruit once its heated.

Ingredients:
Cake:

• 1 cup ricotta
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg

Sauce:

• 1 cup frozen blackberries (or fresh boiled with some water)
  
• Sugar to sweeten
• Cornstarch to thicken (if necessary)

Directions:

• Whisk together ingredients
• Pour into small baking dishes
• Bake at 375 until mixture rises and solidifies in the center
• Allow to cool in oven
• For sauce, heat berries on stove and add sugar to taste
• If sauce is too watery slowly whisk in small amount of cornstarch to thicken
  
• Serve with a drizzle of warm berry sauce

Enjoy!

Spinach Ricotta Stuffed Manicotti

These are fantastic to serve to a larger group and when the spinach is substituted for half the cheese filling, actually come out as a well rounded meal! The manicotti shells should be cooked 3/4 before they are stuffed and then baked to absorb the remaining liquid from the sauce. You can see what they look like before the toppings are added. Make sure the pasta is stuffed with the filling so they don't sink when baked. This can be vegetarian if the meat is omitted from the sauce or completely vegan if tofu is used instead of ricotta. Serve with a vegetable side dish!

Ingredients:

• 6 manicotti shells
• 1 cup ricotta
• 1 package frozen spinach
• garlic
• onion
• basil
• 1--1 1/2 cups sauce
• shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

• Mix ricotta, thawed spinach, spices and 1/2 cup sauce together, reserve for filling
• Cook shells until semi soft but still have some rigidity
• Spread a thin layer of sauce in a baking dish
• Fill manicotti shells with filling and arrange in pan
• Cover with remaining sauce
• Bake for 15-20 minutes at 375 degrees
• Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top of as dish as it is baking

Enjoy!

Thai Coconut Soup

This is traditionally made with chicken, but I use whatever ingredients I have on hand. Tofu or mushrooms are good accompaniments or replaces for the meat in this soup. Shrimp would be a nice ingredient too. The base of this soup is lime juice, chicken broth and coconut milk. If you want to keep it vegetarian use vegetable broth. This soup takes only minutes to prepare but tastes best if it sits overnight.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup chick broth or 1 bouillon and equivalent water
• 1 cup coconut milk
• lime juice to taste
• diced green or red bell peppers
• diced red onion
• red pepper flakes
• chopped cilantro
• salt
• pepper
• green onion
• diced tofu, chicken, mushrooms and/or shrimp

Directions:

• Heat chicken broth and coconut milk in a pot
• Sautee diced peppers and onions
• Lightly grill chicken/tofu/mushrooms
• Add lime juice, vegetables, and seasonings to pot
• Simmer for 5-10 mins
• Ideal if it sits overnight

Enjoy!

Sweet Italian Sausage Spaghetti Sauce

I used rotini, however this sauce is great over spaghetti, stuffed manicotti, shells, lasagna, or a stuffed cabbage or pepper. It's pretty universal, and depending on how much meat you want for the dish can be doubled. I used two links of italian sausage. The best way to cook the sausage is to cut open the casing and fry the sausage after you have crumbled it. Adding sugar helps bring out the intensity of the tomatoes and balances the acidity. Once you fry the peppers, onions and sausage, everything can be put in a crockpot to cook for several hours. I topped the pasta with ricotta cheese. Feel free to omit if trying to keep the calories and fat lower.

Ingredients:

• 1 32 oz can crushed tomatoes with basil
• 4 oz tomato paste
• 1/4-1/2 cup water
• 3 tsp sugar
• 2 sweet italian sausage links
• 1/2 red onion
• 1 green pepper
• red pepper flakes
• salt
• pepper
• garlic
• onion flakes
• pasta
• ricotta cheese
  

Directions:

• Brown peppers, onions, and meat in pan
• Pour all ingredients into the crock pot
• Add spices and salt
• Cook on high for 2-3 hours

Serve hot with pasta
Stuff shells or manicotti with ricotta and spinach
Bake until cheese is melted

Enjoy!!

Borscht

I love this soup because the only consistent ingredient needs to be beets. You can add whatever else you have on hand. My staples for this soup usually include chicken broth, beets, and potatoes. Dill adds a flavor, and I usually add a bit of egg and flour mixture to thicken the soup base. If the beets are already roasted or if you are using canned, this can be put together in minutes. I like to chop my beets into matchstick shape and grate the potatoes to hashbrown consistency.

Ingredients:

• 1 freshly roasted and matchsticked beet
• chicken broth
• 1 idaho potato
• 1 green onion
• handful of dill
• dried onion
• 1 small beaten egg
• 2 tsp flour
• salt
• pepper
• garlic
• grated potatoes
• lemon juice

Directions:

• Heat chicken broth
• Add beets, potato, and onion
• Add spices
• Add flour/egg to thicken
• Stir constantly to avoid lumps
• Add additional seasonings if necessary

Enjoy!

Braided Yeast Bread

This bread is really simple to make, and looks great. You can bring this to any party or as an appetizer/dessert. It is a basic sweet bread that takes about thirty seconds to braid. The coloring is created by a big of melted butter, sugar and cinnamon on top before the bread is done in the oven. You can make several mini loaves or one large loaf. The top one is a full loaf and the bottom one one shown is a mini loaf.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 c flour
• 2 tsp yeast
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/4 c butter
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 c vanilla milk
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp almond extract
• sugar and cinnamon for dusting

Directions:

• Add ingredients to bread maker
• Use bread maker to punch down/rise bread for approximately 1 hour 30 minutes
• Flour surface and hands
• Roll sticky dough into three equal cylinders
• Braid dough and smush ends together
• Grease baking sheet
• Add dough to baking sheet
• Bake in oven at 375 until almost done
• Remove bread and brush melted butter over top
• Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar
• Bake until top is lightly browned

Enjoy!

Coconut Peanut Stir Fry with Scallops

I love this dish because it's a cross between pad thai and stir fry. Ingredients are pretty basic, whatever vegetables you have to add, some sort of meat, and noodles or rice. I prefer rice noodles but any sort of lo mein or spaghetti can work. The sauce can be used as a salad dressing as well.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb of fresh sea scallops
• vegetable oil
• salt
• pepper
• garlic
• noodles
• baby corn
• baby bok choy
• fresh broccoli
• green onion
• cilantro
• egg

Sauce:

• crunchy peanut butter
• coconut milk
• soy sauce
• rice vinegar
• lime juice
• red pepper flakes
• garlic
• brown sugar
• salt
• pepper

Directions:

For sauce:

• Melt peanut butter and coconut milk over heat
• Add sugar and other flavorings
• Thin with water if necessary

For stir fry:

• Boil water for pasta
• Chop vegetables into 1" pieces
• Heat the oil in a non stick pan
• Sautee vegetables
• Add soy sauce as necessary to vegetables
• Rinse scallops
• Salt, pepper and garlic scallops
• In a separate pan heat oil
• Cook until translucent
• Toss drained pasta in sauce and serve with vegetables and scallops

Enjoy!