Honduran "Reprochetas"

For extra credit in her Spanish class, our daughter made these reprochetas one night for dinner. They were a bit labor intensive, and because she fried just one at a time, it took a while to make enough for the whole family. But they were really, really good! They are a traditional meat-less Honduran dish.


Ingredients

corn tortillas (we prefer flour, but bought corn ones for this in order to be "authentic"!)
tomatoes
onions
lemon juice
salt to taste
oil
Queso fresco, a soft white cheese similar to mozzarella (we found this with no problem at our large local grocery store)


Chop tomatoes and onion, mix with a bit of lemon juice (sorry no measurement!) and salt to taste. Set aside.


Heat just enough oil to cover the bottom of a frying pan. Slice the cheese and put between two corn tortillas.




Lay the tortilla stack in the hot oil and fry on one side until lightly browned. Flip over and fry on other side until equally done.




Remove from pan, drain, and pat excess oil dry with paper towels. Top with the tomato/onion mixture and eat like a tostada.


Enjoy!

Linguine in Clam Sauce

This is a yummy recipe my family has enjoyed for a long time, from the cookbook The Gradual Vegetarian by Lisa Tracy. Easy to prepare, and takes about the same time as spaghetti, but with a delightful clam and garlic flavor! The original recipe as listed below serves 2 very generously. I add slightly more of everything for our family and we usually even have leftovers for one lunch the next day.

Linguine in Clam Sauce

2 T olive oil
1 can chopped clams (I use 3 cans for our family of 7)
2 garlic cloves, minced
Large pinch of oregano
1 T fresh chopped parsley (I usually don't have fresh so I use dried)
2 T lemon juice (whenever I don't have this ingredient I just leave out and it still turns out great!)
1 T yogurt (I add a bit more since I am using more clams and more clam juice)
1/2 pound linguine noodles, cooked
1 T butter (I usually leave out this step)
Grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in a skillet. Drain clams and reserve liquid. Saute garlic in olive oil for one minute. Add clams, oregano, and parsley. Saute for one minute more. Add lemon juice and juice from clams. Simmer for a few minutes and then add yogurt. Stir in and remove pan from heat.

After linguine noodles are cooked, toss with butter. Serve topped with clam sauce and parmesan cheese.

Our whole family loves this and it's a nice variation on an Italian dinner!

Ham, Black Bean, and Potato Soup

I originally found this recipe on my friend Jennifer's blog. She was trying it for some variety in using up ham. It was delicious! You could easily leave out the ham for a vegetarian soup.


Ham, Black Bean, and Potato Soup

6 cups broth (I used homemade chicken broth - leftover water from boiling a chicken carcass. Use vegetable broth if making this a vegetarian meal)
1 can black beans, drained
2 potatoes, diced
1/2 pound cooked ham, diced
can of stewed or diced tomatoes (the kind with green chili peppers if you want more zing)
1/3 cup onion, chopped (I just used half an onion)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
1/8 tsp ground cloves

Sour cream, chopped olives, grated cheese, tortilla chips, etc for garnish.

Add all ingredients except garnish items to crockpot and cook on low for 8-1o hours, or high for 4-5 hours. Serve with garnish ingredients.

This was a hit and I will definitely make it again!

Taco Soup

This was super easy to make, and everyone liked it. A winner! It's another one from the Happy Housewife.

Taco Soup

1 lb ground beef (or turkey, or can go meatless for the vegetarian version)
1 packet taco seasoning
1 can diced tomatoes, or about 3 fresh ones chopped up with 1 T Italian seasoning mixed in
1 15 oz can tomato sauce (I used a 32 oz jar)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn or 1 small pkg frozen corn (which is what I used)

shredded cheddar cheese - as much or as little as you like
plain yogurt or sour cream - again, as much or as little as you like
avocado, chopped - optional
Frito Lay corn chips

Brown the meat, drain fat and add taco seasoning. Add all other ingredients and cook til heated through. Let simmer for 15 minutes. You can add water if you want to stretch it a bit further. If you add water, it will look more like soup, without the water it looks like thick stew.



I didn't have any chips so left that ingredient out, but my family would have loved it if I'd put corn chips in! The other 3 of the last 4 ingredients I added directly to the soup, but you can use them as a garnish if you'd prefer, or if anyone in your family has dairy allergies (add to individual bowls instead). This was a winner with everyone - will definitely make again!

Crispy Cajun Chickpea Cakes and Creamy Cajun Rice

I got both these recipes from vegandad and decided to try them because my husband will love anything with the word "cajun" in it! I made them both on the same day and we had cajun night. Vegan dad had made them very mild so his children wouldn't revolt, and both recipes were very tasty but a bit bland. Next time I will add a bit more spice for us all, and alot more for my husband and I.

Crispy Cajun Chickpea Cakes

1 T oil
1/4 cup diced onion
1/4 cup diced green pepper
1 celery stalk, diced
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp paprika
pinch of cayenne pepper (should have used more than a pinch)
1 tsp hot sauce (should have used a bit more)
2 T chopped fresh parsley
2 T flour
1 T cornstarch
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Saute onion, green pepper and celery for 5-7 minutes until softened. Remove from heat.



Place chickpeas in a food processor along with the onion mixture from the stove and pulse until chickpeas are no longer whole, but don't process them too much. I don't have a food processor (well, just a one cup size one) so I used my blender instead. This proved to be difficult because the blender could only pulse what was on the very bottom, leaving everything whole on top. I ended up scooping everything out of the blender and trying again with very small amounts each time. In this way I was finally able to pulse the entire mixture.


Place processed chickpea/onion mixture in a bowl and add spices, hot sauce, and parsley. Mix well. Add flour and cornstarch and mix well again. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes.


Heat oil in frying pan (or spray with non stick spray) over medium high heat. Shape chickpea mixture into patties and fry until crispy and browned, flipping a few times. If you have trouble forming the patties, add a bit more cornstarch to hold it all together.


Creamy Cajun Rice

2 T oil
2 T margarine (I skipped this and just used oil)
2 T flour
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, seeded and diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 bay leaves
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp paprika
cayenne pepper to taste
3 cups water
1 cup long grain rice (I used brown)
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups chopped seitan (optional and since I had no idea what this was, I skipped it)
1 cup soy (I skipped this also since I wasn't using seitan)
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (I used dried)

Heat oil and margarine in large pot over medium heat. Add flour and stir constantly for a minute or so, until flour becomes a nice golden brown and has a nutty smell. Add onion, green pepper, celery and bay leaves. Fry for another minute. Add water and rice and mix well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to bubbling, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until rice is cooked (about 15 minutes). Stir frequently. Add seitan, if using, and soy. Cook until liquid thickens a bit. Stir in green onions and chopped parsley. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Cost of chickpea cakes:

can of chickpeas 79 cents
pepper $1
onion 50 cents
celery $1
spices (?? less than $1)

approximately $2.59 divided by 7 people = 37 cents per person

Cost of creamy cajun rice:

pepper $1
onion 50 cents
celery $1
rice ~$1
spices ~$1

$4.50 divided by 7 people = 64 cents per person

Inexpensive, delicious and filling!

Verdict: Will definitely make again. The children all liked the chickpea cakes but really loved the rice, except for the diced pepper. Next time I'll chop those smaller. :-) My husband loved the meal and asked for more cayenne pepper next time!

Pronto Pasta Bake

My friend Beth sent me this recipe to try and it was very good! It's similar to lasagna only with different noodles. I need to apologize to Beth right up front, as I kindof mutilated the recipe (misread the part about the cheeses) and used different noodles (the kind I had on hand), but it turned out well anyway and was devoured by my family!

Pronto Pasta Bake

12 oz rotini pasta, cook according to package directions (I didn't have rotini so used a mixture of macaroni and bowtie pasta instead). Drain.


2 medium zucchini, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, pressed (I minced)
1 jar spaghetti sauce (I used 32 oz)
1 tsp basil
1/2 cup fresh Parmesan cheese, grated (I used Kraft, not fresh)
2 cups (8 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese
1 lb hamburger, browned (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. Combine garlic, zucchini, spaghetti sauce, and basil (and hamburger if using). In 9"x13" casserole pan layer noodles, spaghetti mixture, and then half of each of the cheeses. I messed up here and I mixed all the parmesan cheese in with my spaghetti sauce mixture and had just the mozzarella to layer with. It still turned out great!

Repeat layers with the remaining pasta, sauce, and cheeses. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and continue baking for 5 more minutes.



Verdict: My family really liked this! Two of the boys were not thrilled with the zucchini being in there, so I probably should have chopped them smaller. Next time I'll use my one cup food processor to make really small chunks. My husband loved it, and he ate the leftovers for lunch the next day. Will definitely make again. Thanks Beth!

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burgers

This is a recipe I'd been wanting to try for a long time, and I finally got the chance this past week! I'm not sure where it's from originally, but I got it from my friend Susan's food blog. These turned out well and tasted quite good, but they were a bit more labor intensive than I normally like for a week night meal. I baked the sweet potatoes the day before so they'd be ready, but the entire process on the day I made them still took nearly 2 hours. The good news is that the mixture yields a LOT of hamburgers! We have quite a few in the freezer for another time.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burgers

2 T oil
2 onions, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots, grated finely
2 cups black beans, cooked
2 baked sweet potatoes, scooped out of skin
2 cups quinoa, cooked (red is best because it blends in with the other colors, but I only have white so that's what I used)
1 1/2 cup bread crumbs (or if you're me, Pepperidge Farm Herb Stuffing Mix!)
2 T caraway seeds
1 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp adobo sauce (didn't have any so left this out)

Saute onions and garlic in oil until lightly browned. Add carrots and black beans and cook an additional 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat. Mash slightly in pan, until beans are half crushed.


Meanwhile, cook your quinoa. This was my first time to cook quinoa, and I figured it should be cooked similarly to rice. Well, I googled "how to cook quinoa" AFTER I'd started cooking it (when will I learn?) and the good news is that I figured correctly. The bad news is that I was supposed to soak and rinse it first, to remove the outer hull which can give quinoa a slightly bitter taste. Next time!


In large bowl (VERY large bowl) add remaining ingredients and add the cooked onion/garlic/carrot/black bean mixture from the stove. Mix thoroughly. If mixture is too moist, add more bread crumbs. Form into patties and cook as desired.


We were on our way to an evening soccer game, so in the interest of time I fried them. I think I'll try baking them next time.


Here they are, ready to go to the soccer game!

Mmmmm!

Little Man was reluctant to try them, but after his brother C (pictured above) had eaten his, he told Little Man, "they're not as bad as they look!" High praise indeed. We had a 12 year old houseguest this week, and he asked me if there was any meat in the burgers at all, and was surprised when I said no. "Wow! They're good anyway," he said. And he ate two. It took 3 to fill my husband up, but that could partly be due to the fact that he'd skipped lunch.

Verdict: Very tasty. Would like to try again with adobo sauce and now that I know how to cook quinoa. Not a fast meal though, so I may wait a while before making.

Italian Pinto Bean Soup

This dish needs a fancier name because it was really good. I mean, REALLY good! Italian Pinto Bean Soup just doesn't do it justice. At the very least I think I would call it "Italian Sausage and Bean Soup". The sausage gave it a really yummy flavor and added some "oomph" to the soup. The entire family loved it and I found myself wishing that I'd doubled the recipe. It is another one from Crystal at the Family Homestead.

Italian Pinto Bean Soup

4 cups dry pinto beans (or about 3-4 cans of prepared beans from the store)
water for soaking (if you start with dry beans)
8 cups water for cooking
1 T salt
1/2 to 1 pound sausage (leave out for a vegetarian meal. I used bratwurst from the freezer and just squeezed the sausage out of their little bratwurst casings)
olive oil (if not using sausage)
1 small or medium onion, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic (I used 1 tsp garlic powder instead - I need to buy a new garlic press!)
1 green pepper, chopped (optional)
1 T Italian seasoning
1 can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

If you start with dry beans:

The night before, put the beans in a large pot and cover well with water. Let them soak overnight. In the morning, drain the water that they soaked in and then add the 8 cups of fresh water you will cook them in. Add salt to the beans and cook until soft. Once the beans are cooked you can drain the water, cool and then freeze them for later use, or set them aside still in the water to make the soup that same day.

If you start with canned beans:

Cook sausage along with onion, garlic, and optional green pepper. If you are not using sausage, cook the onion, garlic and green pepper in a bit of olive oil until soft. Then add the sausage/veggie mixture to the cooked beans in a soup pot. Add the remaining ingredients and heat until the cheese is melted and the flavors are blended. In individual bowls, garnish with a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese on top.

Verdict: Absolutely delicious! A couple of the children picked out the green peppers, but that was it. It had my husband and I craving more. Will definitely make again!

Crockpot Beans and Rice

This is another recipe from Stephanie at crockpot365. It looked pretty good on her blog, and since we have lots of beans and brown rice in the house, I decided to give it a try. No offense to Stephanie, but it was a flop at my house. Not bad tasting, just really, really bland. My sweet husband and children, however, are totally on board with my experimentation and with eating whatever is set before them, so they all bravely ate it. C was the only one who LOVED it, telling me enthusiastically, "Mommy! You should make this again!" (well sweetie, you are welcome to all the leftovers!) I share it in hopes that you will get better mileage from it at your house, and because I said in my sidebar that I'd share flops too. :-)

Crockpot Beans and Rice

1 can black beans
1 can pinto beans
1 cup brown rice
1 T olive oil
1/2 tsp salt (I would add more)
1 tsp Italian seasoning (I would add more)
1/2 T dried onion flakes (I would add a full T)

Put the 1 T olive oil in the bottom of your crockpot and add the rice. Swirl the rice around in the olive oil until it is coated nicely. Drain and rinse the beans, then add them. Drain the tomatoes, saving the juice. Add them to your pot. You will need 2 cups of liquid, so add water to whatever amount of tomato juice you reserved so that you have 2 cups total of liquid. Add to pot. Add seasonings, stir well, and cover. Cook on low for about 6 hours or on high for 3-4. If you use white rice rather than brown it will be done faster, so be sure to check.

Verdict: If I am desperate for a meal sometime I will venture to make this again with LOTS more seasonings!

Moroccan Lentil Soup

This is a crockpot recipe from Stephanie at crockpot365. I will tell you right up front to click on the link and go to her blog and see the way it is supposed to look, because I had to substitute a few key ingredients and mine looks like some slightly soggy kidney beans and veggies. But I will also tell you right up front that man was this good! It had quite a kick to it, which my husband LOVED. He has lived all our married life with slightly toned down food, bless his heart, and this was a chance for his taste buds to really have a party! I was not aware that Moroccan food, like Thai food, is generally quite spicey hot (as opposed to temperature hot, a distinction our children like to make). The leftovers were even better the next day!

Morrocan Lentil Soup

1 cup dried lentils (I used red)
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed (I didn't have so left this out)
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed (I didn't have pinto so used kidney)
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 chopped carrots
28 oz can of diced tomatoes, with juice
4 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 tsp garam masala (had no idea what this was so left it out)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 inch ginger, peeled and grated (I used 1 tsp ground ginger instead)

Use at least a 5 qt crockpot for this, it makes alot. Chop up all veggies and put them in the crockpot first. Drain and rinse beans, add them to the pot. Add spices and then broth and tomatoes. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours (I cooked on high for 6 hours). Soup tastes best the longer you cook it. Stephanie suggests taking an immersible blender and pulsing to blend the veggies and beans together before serving. I don't have an immersible blender so did not do this, and it was great without it.



Verdict: 4 of the children were forced to eat this under duress because of the spicyness. But because my husband loved it so much, I plan to make it again (with the right beans this time!). I will probably use a tad less cayenne pepper for the children's sake, and let my hubby add more to his bowl.

Italian Vegetable Soup

This is a very filling crockpot soup. We serve it over spaghetti noodles and all the children love it. A winner every time!

Italian Vegetable Soup

Layer in crockpot:
3-4 carrots sliced (or several more if they are baby ones)
2 small potatoes, chopped
3 ribs of celery, sliced
1 small onion, chopped
2 T parsley flakes
3-4 tsp beef soup base or beef bouillon cubes (can use vegetable soup base to make this a vegetarian main dish)
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 can red kidney beans
6-8 cups of water (depending on size of your crockpot!)

Do NOT stir. Cook on high for 4 to 4 1/2 hours, or on low for 8 or 9. Add 1 can of stewed tomatoes and ham (optional) for last half hour of cooking. Meanwhile, cook spaghetti noodles and drain. Place some noodles in bottom of bowl and top with soup. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top if desired. Yum!

Macaroni and Not Cheese

This is a recipe I got from my friend Jennifer, and it was really delicious! The children did not see me make this, and I called it mac and cheese, so they had no idea there was actually no cheese in this dish. The cheesy color comes from cooked and pureed carrots and potatoes. I chose to leave meat out this time, but you could easily add ham or pork for a meat flavored variety. The kids loved it! We had it with steamed broccoli and the rocky mountain muffins I made the other day. Yum.

I have to admit, it was a bit labor intensive. It took me an hour to get it in the oven, and then it had to bake for nearly an hour. But that could be due to it being my first time to make it. One redeeming factor is that the recipe for the sauce makes double, so I now have 4 cups of sauce in my freezer ready to go and next time it will just require boiling the noodles and assembling the dish.

Macaroni and Not Cheese Sauce

3+ cups potatoes
3+ cups carrots
1 cup potato water
3 cups milk (or 1 1/2 cups milk and 1 1/2 cups water)
2 T oil
2 tsp salt
1 tsp Lawry's
1 tsp Mrs. Dash - original blend (I did not have either Lawry's or Mrs. Dash, so substituted with 2 tsp of my favorite "Possum" all purpose seasoning, which has no MSG)
4 T lemon juice (I didn't have any so left this out)

Peel, chop and boil potatoes. Cook carrots in steamer. When potatoes are done, reserve 1 cup of potato water. Drain the rest. Mix the milk, water, and oil with the potato water. In blender, alternate batches of veggies (cooked carrots and potatoes) and liquids. When all the veggies and liquids are blended, add the seasonings to complete the sauce. It will be quite orange in color but it tones down considerably in the oven! You will use approximately half of this sauce (3-4 cups) for one batch of this recipe. Freeze the rest for later use.

Macaroni and Not Cheese Assembly

Meanwhile, cook 3-4 cups of macaroni noodles. Drain. In a large bowl combine the cooked noodles, sauce, 2 beaten eggs, and meat if desired. Stir and pour into casserole pan. Cover with bread crumbs (or if you're me, your delicious Pepperidge Farm Herb Stuffing Mix!) and drizzle one stick of melted butter on top. Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes, depending on your oven temp.


Verdict: Fun to make (I love using my blender!) , loved by the children, and a good way to sneak in some veggies. A winner! Thanks Jennifer!

Black Bean Burritos

These tasted much better than black bean quesadillas according to my children (black is not their favorite kind of bean). Easy to make and well liked by all! Yay! This recipe is from Crystal at the Family Homestead. During the month of January, while I was planning and preparing for a small food budget in February, I decided to invest $8 in Crystal's ebook, "How to Cook with Beans." It was $8 well spent! She gives lots of tips for how to soak and cook beans, as well as pages and pages of recipes. I chose this one first because I have lots of cooked black beans in the freezer, and I thought the addition of shredded carrot would be interesting (my family could not find or taste the carrots, but it made me feel good knowing they were in there!).

Black Bean Burritos

6 cups of cooked black beans
2 cups salsa
1 cup shredded carrots
8 oz cream cheese
6-8 whole wheat tortillas (or white, whatever you have)
shredded cheese

Combine beans, salsa and carrots in pan and simmer for about 15 minutes to allow carrots to soften.


While bean mixture is simmering, layer tortillas in the bottom of casserole pan.


When carrots are soft, add cream cheese.


Stir to combine well, and cook just a few minutes more so that the cream cheese completely melts into the bean mixture.


Layer bean mixture on top of the tortillas, and then a layer of shredded cheese. Continue layering tortillas, bean mixture and cheese until you run out of bean mixture or pan, whichever comes first!


Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until cheese is nicely melted and bubbly. Serve with sour cream and salsa.


Verdict: Well liked by all, loved by some, will definitely make again!

Creamy White Bean and Apple Chili

This was delicious! A different take on chili. We ate it without meat, but if you wanted to add chicken or turkey, they would both work well in this recipe. I got it from the crockpot lady over at crockpot365.


2 cans of white beans, drained and rinsed (I cooked a whole crockpot of black eyed peas last weekend and then froze them in ziploc sandwich bags. If you do this, just pull out one bag full. They can be any kind of white bean, I just happened to have black eyed peas so that's what I used.)
1 onion, chopped
2 apples, cut in tiny chunks, no need to peel
3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
3 T butter (first time I've ever put butter in my crockpot!)
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground thyme
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3 cups vegetable or chicken broth, depending on whether or not you want this to be a vegetarian meal (I used vegetable, and I added a bit more because 3 cups didn't look like enough)
1/2 cup plain non fat yogurt
shredded cheese (optional ~ add after cooking, while serving)

The crockpot lady suggests using any crockpot over 4 quarts. I used a 6 quart crockpot and wish that I had doubled this recipe. It made enough to feed our whole family, but just barely. My husband loved this and was disappointed there were no leftovers to eat for lunch this week.

Put the butter in the bottom of your crockpot. Dump in the drained and rinsed beans. Chop up the onion and apple and add to pot. Add the spices and pour in the broth. Stir in the yogurt (be sure to stir this in well! there were little globs of yogurt floating in my broth because I didn't stir this in good enough. it didn't affect the flavor, but they looked strange). Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4-5 (mine was done in 4). This is done when the onion has reached desired tenderness and the flavors have melded. Stir in the cheddar cheese before serving (I sprinkled a little cheese on the tops of the individual bowls). We ate some of my homemade bread with this chili, but any hearty bread or muffin would work great. The spices gave this just enough "kick" to taste really good, but not too spicy that the kids wouldn't eat it. And the cooked apple pieces were a nice texture. No-one knew they were apples until I told them!

Verdict: My husband, myself, and 3 of the children loved this. Two of the children tolerated it. I will definitely make this again!

Sweet Potato Pancakes

Much of my meal planning right now consists of buying whatever veggies are on sale super cheap and then figuring out later how to cook them. Tonight we had such a meal. It was delicious and a hit with everyone! I LOVE when that happens! I went searching for a way to incorporate sweet potatoes as the main part of our meal, and found this recipe for sweet potato pancakes on allrecipes.com.

3/4 pound sweet potatoes (I cooked 3 large ones)
1 1/2 cups flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter, melted

Put sweet potatoes in a pan of boiling water and cook until tender but firm, about 15 minutes (I found I should have boiled them much longer - they were soft on the outside but very hard to mash). Drain and immediately immerse in cold water to loosen skins. Drain, remove skins, chop, and mash.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Mix mashed sweet potatoes, eggs, milk and butter in a separate medium bowl. Blend sweet potato mixture into the flour mixture to form a batter.

Cook pancakes in whatever method you normally use.



Here's what I did differently and what I would do differently next time:

I didn't cook the sweet potatoes long enough to be easily mashed, so the pancake batter turned out to be fairly lumpy with small chunks of sweet potato clearly visible. This visual was not a happy thing for my children.



Once they were flipped it was a little better, because the chunks were not visible. They loved the taste, just not the chunks. So I will cook longer and mash better next time.


Also, I doubled the recipe to make sure we had enough for our larger sized family. This would have meant 3 cups of flour. Instead I added 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of oats (I used regular oats, but you could use quick cook or whatever you have). In addition to all the ingredients listed above, I also added 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1 tsp of pure vanilla extract. I also added the milk slowly, stopping when I felt the batter was the right consistency. This turned out to be less then the called for amount of milk.

They were thick and "hearty" (as my hubby said) and very, very good. Definitely a keeper!

Black Bean Quesadillas

We had these for dinner while watching the Super Bowl tonight. Our 8 year old son remarked halfway through the game, "we usually have chips and snack food during the Super Bowl. But we probably had no money and you were sick, so you couldn't go to the store for that stuff, right?" Right honey. :-)

These were not as popular with the whole family as the taco style lentils and rice. My husband, daughter G and son L loved them. Sons G and C liked them "a little" (their words). Little Man did not like them at all, and ate most of one quesadilla under duress.

This is Sabra's recipe from Sleeplesssabra.

Approximately 1 cup dry black beans - or 2 cans from the store

1/2 jar mild salsa (you can use a stronger salsa but they have quite a bit of flavor already)

Ground cumin (1 - 2 Tbsp)

Fresh cilantro (one bunch)

Shredded cheddar cheese

Tortillas

Sour Cream

Simmer the dried black beans for a few hours until they're just soft. If you use canned beans just drain and rinse them to remove the excess sodium.

Once your beans are cooked place them in a large bowl. Add a tablespoon of ground cumin and also a little salt to taste. Then, add in half of a jar of salsa. I prefer to leave my beans whole but you can also mash them a little if you want to change the consistency for your kids (that can also help keep the beans from rolling out of the tortillas). Then, chop and add the fresh cilantro and mix it all through.

For the last step, take a tortilla and place a layer of the bean mixture over one half of it (you are going to fold it over) and cover the beans with cheese. Fold the other side of the tortilla over it so it makes a half-circle and place it in a skillet over med-high heat. Toast it and flip it to toast the other side (just enough to heat it through and melt the cheese). Place it on a plate and top with sour cream.

The cumin and the cilantro really make this dish. It's just full of fresh flavor.

After we cooked a few in the skillet, we added them to a pan kept warm in the oven, so they would all be ready at the same time.


Inside you can clearly see the beans, cilantro, and salsa, with melted cheese on top.


A filling, delicious, and inexpensive vegetarian meal!

Zucchini Pot Pie from Italy

This was our "official" vegetarian dinner this week. It is one I have made many times before, but I added yellow squash to it this time because yellow squash was one of the veggies I picked up super cheap last week. It has lots of yummy spices in it, tastes very Italian, and has the consistency of queche. The entire pie added up to less than $4 and since it's already a family favorite I knew it would be a winner.


4 cups zucchini thinly sliced (I don't measure, I just use 3 or 4 of the store sized ones)
1 cup onion, chopped
(yellow squash - not in original recipe)

Saute the above ingredients in olive oil until soft. Add the following and stir well:

1/2 tsp salt
2 T parsley flakes
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp basil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp oregano

In separate bowl, combine 8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese and 2 eggs, beaten. Stir this into the zucchini mixture. Pour into a lined pie pan and bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until center is set. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. For the pie crust you can use your favorite pie crust recipe, or for an easier (though more processed) option, separate all the triangles from a can of crescent rolls and flatten them into the bottom of the pie pan.