Cooking Dried Beans

The Presoak: Soak your beans in cold water over night, without salt. In the morning give them a rinse and put fresh water in the pot for cooking.

The Salting: Wait until your beans are completely tender before adding salt. Salt can make the tenderizing process not happen.

The Water: If you have hard water, your beans may not soften. Used bottled water if that is the case, or add some baking soda (1 tsp per quart).

The Age: Old beans mean tough beans. Make sure you buy your beans fresh and that they're from a market with a good turnover. Otherwise those beans may stay as hard as granit- even if you diligently apply all these fine steps.

I cook 2 pounds of beans at a time and then separate about 2 cups into each bag and freeze them. Just pull them out the night before you need them and put them in the fridge. Or you can quick thaw it in cold water for 15 minutes.

Veggie Chili

Time 14 min or less

2 Tbl oil
2 lg onions diced
1-3 cloves garlic crushed
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1 lg can kidney beans (not drained)
2 carrots diced
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup frozen diced green peppers
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
2 Tbl water
2 cups cooked pasta (elbow, little shells, etc.)

Put pasta water on to boil and cook pasta as soon as it boils. It can sit and wait for the chili if necessary.

In a big skillet or soup pot, fry onion and garlic in oil. Add carrots, tomatoes and some of the liquid from the beans, cook 2-3 min to get carrots softening, add beans and cook until carrots are just soft... a little firm is fine. Add everything else and heat to bubbling hot- watch it now, this is when it is likely to stick! Lower heat if necessary but try not to add any more liquid.

Put the drained pasta in a bowl and add chili to liked proportions (we like 1/3 pasta, 2/3 chili). The rest of the chili can be used as leftovers. Can add cheese, sour cream, green onions, etc for topping.

Serve with salad and a handful of tortilla chips if you have them on hand.

Happy Family Sesame Chicken

This took me 40 minutes from start to clean up to make two, one for dinner and one for the freezer. Just double the recipe for Now and Later dinners.

Serves 4

3 Tbl honey
1 Tbl sesame seeds
2 Tbl soy sauce
1 clove pressed garlic
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2 inch pieces

REMINDER: Start your rice!

In a small bowl, combine honey, sesame seeds, soy sauce and garlic; set aside.

TO ASSEMBLE FREEZER KIT

In a sandwich bag place the honey mixture, scraping it all out of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Now squeeze out as much air as possible and seal the bag.

In a gallon-sized bag, place the chicken. Squeeze out as much air as possible and seal the bag.

In a gallon-sized freezer bag, mark with sharpie HAPPY FAMILY SESAME CHICKEN and the date. Place the chicken bag in first then the honey bag. Squeeze out air, seal and freeze.

BEFORE YOU COOK

Defrost your freezer meal the night before in your fridge. If it isn't fully thawed at cooking time put it in a sink of cold water (NOT HOT!) for 15 minutes.

COOKING DAY INGREDIENTS AND DIRECTIONS

2 Tbl oil
4 green onions, sliced
1 Tbl sesame seeds

In a skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat and cook the chicken, turning as it browns. Squeeze all the honey mixture over the cooked chicken, coating all the pieces. Add chopped green onions, give another toll and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

SERVING SUGGESTION
Serve with rice, steamed snow peas, and julienne carrots.


This recipe is one from SavingDinner.com

PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps

Put rice on to cook

Special Sauce (make first)
2 Tbl sugar
1/4 c water
1 Tbl soy sauce
1 Tbl rice wine vinegar
1 Tbl ketchup
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp hot mustard
1 tsp hot water
1-2 tsp garlic and red chile paste

Dissolve sugar in water in a small bowl. Add soy sauce, rice whine vinegar, ketchup and lemon juice. Mix well and refrigerate until rest is ready. Then compine hot water with hot mustard and add to rest. Serve garlic and red chile paste next to it to be added to individual desired spiceyness.

Ingredients (make second)
3 Tbl oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup water chestnuts
2/3 cup mushrooms
3 Tbl chopped onions
1 tsp minced garlic
4-5 leaves lettuce

Bring 1 Tbl oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan. Saute chicken breasts for 4-5 min per side or done. Remove chicken from pan and cool. Keep oil in pan.
As chicken cools, chop water chestnuts and mushrooms to about the sice of small peas. Prepare stir fry sauce.

Stir Fry Sauce
2 Tbl soy sauce
2 Tbl brown sugar
1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar

Mix soy sauce, brown sugar and rice vinegar together in a small bowl. When chicken is cool, chop it same as mushrooms. Heat pan again. Add another Tbl of oil. Add chicken, garlic, onions. water chestnuts and mushrooms to pan. Add stir fry sauce to pand and saute for a couple minutes and serve with lettuce leaves. Top with Special Sauce.

June 12 "Magic Day"

So today is national Magic Day. My kids love magic. Grace asked to go to the magic shop every day we were at Disneyland. We even bought her one of those small magic tricks sets, that I promptly put up so the peices wouldn't get lost and we have never gotten it back down for her. I think I will do that today.

Here is a recipe for Magic Slime if you want to try it out with your kids, it's super easy.

Magic Slime

What You Need

Bowl
Measuring cups
Water
Cornstarch
Food coloring (optional)
Resealable plastic bag

What You Do

Pour ⅓ cup of water into the bowl. If you want to add food coloring, drip five drops into the water.

Measure ¾ cup of cornstarch and begin sprinkling it into the water, a little at a time, until the measuring cup is empty.

Let the concoction stand for three or four minutes.

Now reach a hand (or both!) into the concoction and press the slime into a hard ball. Open your hand and watch and feel the ball return to its liquid state!

Store your slime in a resealable bag. (Never pour slime down the drain. If you need to discard it, put it in the trash.)

National day and trailmix recipe

Today is National Write to Your Father Day.

If you haven't had your kids make a card for their dad, today is a good day to do it. Also, if you are anything like me you haven't talked to your dad much lately. It's always good to be reminded to take the time to tell someone you love them.

I did hear a good idea for a father's day card. It said to do an invitation for dad on the outside it says "You are invited..." and the inside they write an activity like
On one evening walk with me.
To go camping in the back yard with me.
To go on a bike/hike with me.
To go to the park for a picnic with me.
or any other activity you kid would love to do just with dad. Then they can decorate it and put it in with some homemade snack and then wrap it.

Daddy Snack
Spread 4 cups bite-sized shredded wheat on a cookie sheet. Cover with 1/3 c melted butter and bake at 350 for 15 min. Add 1 1/2 c pretzel sticks, 1/2 c peanuts, and 1/2 c dried fruit. Mix well. Bag in individual portions for each child to give for a gift.

Activity
Make homemade wrapping paper. Cut a potato in half and write "bAb" on the flat part. (has to be mirror immage so it says dAd on the paper) Carve out the writing and use the potato as a stamp to decorate butcher paper.

Casserole tip

I always double my casserole recipes so I can throw one in the freezer. That way you get two meals and only have to prepare one. It's easiest to use the aluminum foil pans for it that come with lids. Then you just move it from you freezer to your fridge the night before you want it so it's thawed in time to throw it in. However, I am horrible at planning ahead and I often just throw the frozen one in the oven. You just cook it for about double the time and they turn out fine.