Category Archives: things we like to eat

Throwback: Navy Bean Soup with Ham

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My Daughter and I- Navy Bean Soup with Ham

I made this delicious soup the other day with the leftover ham bone and ham from Christmas. I was so excited to make it and then we had a sudden change in weather so we were enjoying bean soup after a chilly winter 89* day degrees! Crazy!

What I really liked about this soup was how creamy it tasted – but there wasn’t anything creamy in it. I’m not sure if it was just the beans or how they were cooked or what, but it was amazing and so easy!

My Daughter and I- Navy Bean Soup with Ham 1

Navy Bean Soup with Ham 

Ingredients and directions:

2 lb of dried white beans, I used navy beans
6-8 cups of water

1-2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
4 -5 carrots, peeled and diced in large pieces
5 stalks of celery, diced
2 -3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 ham hock, extra fat remove from the outside of the hock
4 cups of chicken stock, low sodium
2- 4 cups of water
Italian seasoning
Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS:
Overnight Soak: Rinse and sort the beans. Add 6-8 cups of cold water to dried beans. Let stand overnight or at least 8 hours. Drain and rinse the beans. Side Note: If you don’t have time to do an overnight soak, try the quick soak method: Rinse and sort the beans. Add 6-8 cups of water to dried beans. Bring water to a boil, boil for 2 minutes, remove from heat; cover and let stand for 1 hour. Drain and rinse the beans.

I did the quick soak method and I didn’t let the beans stand for an hour – maybe 30 minutes while I got the rest of the ingredients ready.

Heat the olive oil in the pot you soaked the beans in – why make extra dishes? Add onions, carrots, & celery. Cook for 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for a bit. Now it’s time to get everything into the crockpot. Start with the ham hock, I would recommend removing any visible fat. Then pour the soaked and drained beans in. Next add the veggies that you had cooking, pour in the chicken broth, Italian seasoning, sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste. Finally add a bit more water to make sure everything is covered. I completely filled my big crockpot. Cover and cook on high for several hours to get everything bubbling along. I turned it down to low after about 4 hours. It’s better to not open the crockpot a lot while cooking, since all the heat escapes, but I would suggest stirring from time to time and try to remove the ham bits from the bone while stirring. About an hour before serving I removed the entire ham bone from the soup and let it cool a bit and removed any additional meat from the bone. I then removed the excess fat from the top of the soup, there was just a bit that I ladled off. I fished around in the soup for any excess bone bits, large pieces of meat, fat etc. Finally I added some cut up leftover ham to the soup and tasted it to see if it needed any additional seasoning. Let ham pieces heat through. We served our soup with bread and salad.

It sounds a bit labor intensive, but I promise it’s not! The soup would have been hearty and delicious without the extra ham pieces, but I had the leftovers and wanted to make it extra chunky. I’m not sure why I felt the need to sauté the veggies first. I’m sure it would have been delicious if everything was just dumped into the crockpot.

 

Cindy 

Throwback: Homemade Dark Chocolate Dipped Peppermint Jo-Jo’s

Posted in sweets, things we like to eat by

 

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So a sad turn of events happened around here. First the happy part. Jordan was gifted with a box of dark chocolate covered peppermint Jo-Jo’s from Trader Joe’s. Have you tried them? They are worth driving 45 minutes to get to the closest Trader Joe’s to buy them. So here is the sad part – we went to Trader Joe’s for these amazing cookies only to find that they were sold out. What?! How could they be sold out already? The poor guy working there seemed like he had explained this unfortunate situation to many people. Remember the movie The Little Mermaid where Ursula sings that song, “You Poor Unfortunate Soul”? I felt like that. In case you don’t remember Ursula sings, “You poor unfortunate souls, in pain, in need.” I was truly in pain, in need.

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^^^I may be a bit biased, but aren’t ours so much prettier?

So what’s a girl to do? Make her own. So here they are. We bought Cool Mint Oreos and dipped them in melted semi-sweet chocolate and then sprinkled a few crushed peppermint candy canes on top. Delicious!

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Homemade Dark Chocolate Dipped Peppermint Jo-Jo’s
1 package Cool Mint Oreos
1 package semi -sweet chocolate chips
Crushed candy canes

Melt chocolate chips in microwave. I did mine in a two cup measuring cup. Melt at 50% power in 45 second increments, stirring in between. Dip Oreos in melted chocolate. This part is really messy and takes some persistence to get the cookie fully covered in chocolate. Place dipped cookie onto a cookie sheet covered in wax paper. Sprinkle with crushed candy cane pieces, pressing in a bit to be sure that they stick. Place cookie sheet in refrigerator until chocolate firms up. Try to not eat the whole tray by yourself! I was able to make 20 dipped cookies, more had I not completely covered my hands with melted chocolate.

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Cindy

Flashback: Christmas Morning Breakfast Casserole

Posted in breakfast, the important stuff, things we like to eat by

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In case you are planning your Christmas menu, I thought now would be a great time to share this recipe with you.  I started making this recipe for our family probably 15 years ago.  With three small children wanting to open gifts and play with toys and two hungry adults wanting to enjoy a nice breakfast, this was the perfect solution.  I’m really not sure where I got the recipe, but we all love it.

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You make this dish the day/night before and put it in the refrigerator.  It is cooked the next day, so it is simple if you’re expecting guests or you are busy opening presents! We serve ours with cinnamon rolls and fruit.  This year I am going to make these shortcut cinnamon rolls.

I love to set the table for Christmas morning during the day on Christmas Eve, so everything is all set and looking festive on Christmas morning.

This past weekend we were going on a family hike before church on Sunday, so on Saturday I decided to make this dish.  It was weird because I normally ONLY make this dish on Christmas.  It was delicious and perfect to have ready when we got home from our hike and it made me wonder why I don’t make this recipe more often.

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Christmas Morning Breakfast Casserole

4 cups of shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed
10 eggs
8 pieces of cooked bacon,chopped
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/3 milk
4or 5 green onions, chopped
Hot sauce to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup of additional shredded cheese for top of casserole

Mix all the ingredients together except the 1/2 cup of cheese. Pour into a greased 9×13″ pan. Top with the shredded cheese. Cover and put into refrigerator overnight. Let sit on counter for 5 to 10 minutes and then bake uncovered at 325* for about 45 minutes or until the eggs are cooked.

Cindy

Flashback: Crockpot Beef Stew

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Well, it’s 80* in November again, so it seemed very fitting to repost this delicious beef stew recipe! My Daughter and I- Crockpot Beef Stew

Everyone is talking about comfort food, snow and seriously, Christmas decorations! While it may be like the arctic in 50% of the U.S. – we are having Santa Ana’s in Southern California right now. When it is 75-85 degrees during the day, it’s hard to get excited about making a hot and hearty meal. But I persevered with a fall recipe and I’m so glad I did. Jordan and I visited the farmer’s market on Saturday and got a beautiful bunch of rainbow colored carrots. I remembered that I had some stew meat in the freezer along with some red potatoes and sweet potatoes in the pantry. I looked online for beef stew recipes that I could throw in the crockpot and then I modified it a bit. So in record time, we had a delicious and hearty meal. I loved the addition of the sweet potatoes. It was so colorful and flavorful. I also loved how everything just got dumped in- it truly was a one pot meal. No browning the meat before. Yay! The meat was tender and the beef stew had a rich flavor.

We made a batch of our delicious one hour cast iron focaccia to go with it. Who cares if we ate the stew in our shorts and tank tops – it was delicious!

My Daughter and I- Crockpot Beef Stew 1

The Best Crockpot Beef Stew
Ingredients
2 pounds beef stew meat, (cut into bite-sized pieces), I used a bit less
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp pepper
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 T minced garlic
6 oz can tomato paste
32 oz beef broth
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 cups carrots, diced
5 – 6 small red potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces (about 3 cups)
2 medium sweet potatoes, diced
1 tablespoon dried Italian seasoning

1 cups frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup water

1. Combine the first 12 ingredients in the crock pot and mix well. Cook on LOW for 10 hours or on HIGH for 6-7 hours.

2. About 30 minutes before serving, mix the flour and the water together in a small dish and pour into the crockpot. Mix until well combined. This will add a nice thickness to the stew. Next add in your frozen peas and corn. Continue cooking covered for 30 minutes.

Recipe found on familyfreshmeals.com and adapted slightly.

Cindy

{Flashback} Zucchini Nut Bread

Posted in breakfast, sweets, things we like to eat by

 

We’ve been dreaming of zucchini bread around here, so we decided to go ahead and repost our favorite recipe for using up a bountiful harvest. zucchini bread 1 editedThis time of year it is all about the zucchini. How to use up the surplus of the lovely, green vegetable that grows so prolifically. I think people actually avoid me when they see me coming at them with bags of squash!

Today we decided to just go for the tried and true zucchini bread. We have made several different recipes, but I love the lemon zest in this one and also the cinnamon and nutmeg. Mmmmm, the house smells so good right now – I can’t wait for it to come out of the oven.

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The original recipe from The Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook only makes one loaf. I figure if I am going to get everything dirty, I may as well make at least two loaves, so I doubled the recipe and modified it slightly.

Preheat oven to 350*. In mixing bowl beat together sugar, zucchini, and egg.

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Add oil and lemon zest and mix well.

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Add in the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and baking powder…zucchini bread 6

and mix well.

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Gently fold in chopped nuts. Turn batter into a greased loaf pan, I sprinkle a bit of cinnamon sugar into the pan after spaying in a bit of oil.

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I also sprinkle a bit more of the cinnamon sugar onto the batter before putting it into the oven. Bake at 350* for 50 to 60 minutes or till a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan, and cool on a rack.

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Psych is definitely going to be an “Obsessions”  post sometime in the near future- we love that show! In fact, we just finished watching the Season 7 finale- it’s a sad day in our household.

Zucchini Nut Bread

(makes two loaves)

Preheat oven to 350*
3 cups flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

In mixing bowl beat together sugar, zucchini, and egg. Add oil and lemon zest and mix well. Add in the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and baking powder, and mix well. Gently fold in chopped nuts. Turn batter into a greased loaf pan, i sprinkle a bit of cinnamon sugar into the pan after spaying in a it of oil. I also sprinkle a bit more of the cinnamon sugar onto the batter before putting it into the oven. Bake at 350* for 50 to 60 minutes or till a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan, and cool on a rack.

Cindy & Jordan