Pinto Beans

A good pinto bean experiment, I do believe.

1 bag of pinto beans (about $1.20 at the grocery store - serves 10)
1 can of tomato paste
some frozen jalapeño peppers from last summer
some indian chili peppers frozen from last summer :)
some "cowboy candy" sweet pickled Jalapeño paste
"7spice" powder I found in the cupboard
cumin seeds
a shallot
1 can of veggie broth

soak and cook the beans as per the instructions on the bag
I added a can of veggie broth to the cooking liquid.
When beans are done, drain and reserve cooking liquid

fry shallot with peppers, cumin seed, spices and add a little cooking liquid and tomato paste.  Make a little paste out of it, then add beans. Cook until flavors are blended and beans are a bit softer (30-40minutes)

Beer Bread

Do you love beer? (Yes!)
Do you love bread? (YES!)
Do you have flour? Do you have an hour? (and a loaf pan?)
Well, my friend!  You've come to the right post :)

Beer Bread - easy, quick and a non-rising bread (no kneeding, yeast or waiting to rise)  Its also vegan, yet carnivores love it - great for all :)

Serves 12  - if you can tell me how much 3 cups of flour, 1 bottle of beer and a little baking powder cost, then I'll tell you the per-serving cost.  We'll call it a dime :)

1 Cup all purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (the brand I have is Clabber Girl)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 (12 fluid oz.) can or bottle of beer (it won't hurt the bread any if you take a few sips... just to test for poison... you know...)

Directions!
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C) lightly grease 9x5 loaf pan
2. In large mixing bowl combine all dry ingredients
3. pour in beer - not all at once, but slowly while stirring to allow proper mixing
4. bake in a preheated oven for 50-60min (until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean)

Lentils and Barley

The mysterious paper bag held sugar-snap peas.  The parsley is barely usable.

(Huh... I just realized that barely and barley are quite easily mixed up by me.)

Lentils:
*mustard (dijon from trader joes)
*Shallots
*olive oil
*cumin seed
*veggie broth
*Maggi hot sauce (yes, its a brand)
*1 bag of lentils (serves 19)
*water (good rule for lentils is 4/1 or 3/1 depending on how thick you like them-- if you add too much, just keep cooking them and the water will cook off)
Cook it all up :)  (fry shallots and cumin seed first in olive oil, add sauce/mustard, add lentils, broth and water... cook for about 30-ish minutes)

Why I love lentils:
*they are cheap! (roughly a dollar a bag) - I suppose that this pot of lentils would even out to something like 10 cents a serving (counting in the cost of the broth, shallot, mustard and spices)
*they are filling (12g protein per serving - almost no fat)
*I cook them vegan so they're great for bagged lunch - nothing to spoil
*You can make them spicy, savory, buttery, vegetable-y. Very versatile

I will try to cook barley after I'm done teaching for the day.  I know nothing about barley.  It was just next to the lentils at the store, so I thought I would try it.
***

I *love* barley!  Yum-o!

Baked barley
Pour 2 1/2 cups water or veggie broth in a covered saucepan. Add 1 Tablespoon of fat (such as butter or oil).
Meanwhile, place 1 cup pre-soaked barley (or pearled barley - no need to soak) into a one-and-a-half quart glass baking dish.  When water (or broth) comes to a boil, add to the dish, stirring to combine. Cover the dish tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil. (Instead of a glass baking dish, I used a cast-iron skillet with its lid) Bake on the middle oven rack at 375 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
When the barley is tender to your liking, remove the cover and fluff the barley with a fork.
(If you prefer to use pearled barley instead of hulled, reduce cooking time by at least half.)

This is the first method I used - I used about 1/2pound of Barley (4 servings) and I just put the other half in the oven right now.  To this batch, I added carrots, dried basil and black pepper.
Cost of Barley bag: $1.50 - serves 8
Cost of carrots: about $1.00-1.50 (1 pound normal carrots) - but I used half-pound so we'll call it 75-cents
Cost of veggie broth: $1
Total: $3.25
about 40-cents a serving :)


SO!  Lentils & Barley dinner for about 50cents.  Serve with steamed veggie of your choice and/or maybe a salad!  And of course, there's chocolate for dessert :)

Healthy & cheap!

Random act of April

Welcome!  What better to do on a horrible and rainy Friday morning than create this page!  The weather has yet to permit me to jog consistently outside and in this kind of weather, baking and cooking always feels great!  I will admit to being a lazy cook: I dislike recipes that have more than 5 or so steps, though for baking I will make an exception.  My goal is to learn how to make and decorate a wedding cake this summer...  it could either prove to be a lucrative hobby or huge cost-saver in the future. Or both.

But most of all, I enjoy looking in the fridge and seeing nothing but somehow managing to create a meal.  Today will be easy as the fridge is not yet starving. 
Things it contains:
Asparagus
Lettuce
something in a paper bag that I forgot what it is
Parsley that may/may not be good
mustard
hummus
and in the pantry there are always lentils and rice


Let's see what transpires...
Recipes are merely skeletons.  Cooking is always an experiment.