The Magical Fruit - Beans

I can bake and cook a lot of things, but beans has never been one of them.  Thanks to my WONDERFUL neighbor, Angie, I now know how to prepare beans.  Her recipe, below, was a big hit...

2 bags of beans (or a couple cans)
1 onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 can tomato sauce (or make your own - I use Roma tomatoes to make my own)
1 bunch cilantro
Water

Brown the chopped onion and garlic.  Remove from heat and put in blender with Cilantro.  Blend until smooth.  Place blended mixture, tomato sauce and beans in crockpot and add just enough water to cover.  Cook on low heat for 8 - 9 hours.

I made this, froze what I thought I wasn't going to use this week and had to go get more out!  My boys ate them up after I informed them that beans make them fart.  They think farting is was the best thing ever, so they kept asking for more!  Gotta love boys - well, at least I do, because I have 4 of them now, sigh! ;) 

Things to take from this week - neighbors and friends are always a great source of information and if you inform your young male children their vegetables will make them fart, they will eat them!  LOL!!!

Summer Veggies

It has been a little while since I last blogged.  As you all can tell from my "announcements" that I posted, I had a baby.  That left little time for blogging.  Mason is two months old now, so although we are still sleepless, we are falling into a little bit more of a normal routine.

Now that it's summer, there are so many WONDERFUL VEGGIES, which is great, because I've decided to go vegetarian.  As much as I love the taste of meat, I think I felt better not eating it.  I don't want to "torture" (that's what my husband calls it) the rest of my family by not including meat at dinner time, but I am determined to add more vegetables to everyone's diet - especially the kid's.

One of my favorite summer vegetables is yellow squash.  Thus far, I have breaded and fried them, but a healthier option is to make Squash Tots.  The best part about Squash Tots is they are kid approved.

This basically is a twist on my zucchini pancakes, and it compliments barbeque dishes very well.

Squash Tots

1 squash, grated
1 potato grated
1 egg
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup bread crumbs
Salt and pepper to taste (I also add a little garlic and onion powder)

Preheat oven to 400F.  Grate the zucchini and potato then place in a dish towel to squeeze out the excess water.  In a bowl combine, the egg, onion, cheese, bread crumbs, zucchini, potato, salt and pepper. Grease a mini muffin pan.  Fill the muffin cups to the top. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the top is brown.

Mission Hidden Veggies = Success!

So, last night for dinner, I serverd Paremsan Crusted chicken as our main dish. For a side, I decided to hide our vegetable, zucchini, in an ever so comforting starch (at least for my family), potatoes. The mission was a huge SUCCESS!

Below is our recipe for Zucchini Pancakes:

Ingredients

2 cups coarsely grated peeled potatoes
2 coarsely grated zucchini
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
3/4 teaspoons sea salt or kosher salt
Olive Oil

Directions

Wrap grated veggies in a large, clean dish towel and squeeze excess moisture from them. Combine grated veggies in a bowl with eggs, flour, onion, parmesan cheese, and salt. In a large skillet over medium high heat, heat enough vegetable oil to coat the pan. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the oil and flatten into pancakes. Fry until browned on the bottom, flip, and continue cooking until the other side is browned.