Cuban Style Black Beans and Cilantro Lime Rice

     A few weeks ago I was in search of some meatless recipes to add to our meal list in order to reduce the amount of meat we were eating- mainly due to cost. I asked on Facebook for suggestions and my friend Kate suggested this recipe upon others. I added in zucchini, left out scallions (forgot to grab some), left out bay leaf, and used a whole small onion. I also went light on the spices because my family is not crazy about spicy food.

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Cuban Style Black Beans
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 scallions, chopped
2 tbsp red pepper flakes
3 tbsp cilantro
15 oz can black beans, do not drain
~ 1/2 cup water
pinch cumin and oregano
1 tsp. red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Add chopped veggies to hot oil in a skillet or large pot. Saute until soft. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Lower heat and cover. Simmer about 15 minutes, stirring. Serve over rice.

Cilantro Lime Rice
4 c. cooked rice
1/2 juice of a lime ( or 1 tbsp lime juice)
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp fresh chopped cilantro

Mix and serve

My son and husband added soy sauce to theirs and I tried it both ways- very good and adding it to our meal list!

Do you Roux?

     When I initially started cooking more from scratch, I had no idea what a roux, or white sauce, was. Turns out I had been doing it for awhile and simply forgot that it was a white sauce I was making. I primarily did it to make creamed peas, but now I use it to make my cheese sauce.

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup of milk

Melt butter over medium low heat. Mix in flour once butter is melted. Add in milk and turn up on high. Let it boil for about a minute and then turn it back down to a simmer. I try to stir periodically as I do this. It should thicken and become a white sauce. I will also add a pinch of sugar for the creamed peas along with salt and pepper.

Now when I make the cheese sauce, I double the the ingredients and I will leave it on high and toss in the cheese. The amount of cheese I use varies now because I no longer measure it out, but about half a block to 3/4 block. I'm a frugalnista so I don't buy pre-shredded cheese. I guess you could use 1/2-1 cup of cheese. I cut it up into small cubes before adding it to the roux so it melts down faster. After it starts to melt down, I turn it down to medium heat and continue to whisk occasionally until all the cheese is melted. Then turn it to warm until you are ready to add it to whatever you are making. Enjoy!

PW's My Favorite Meatloaf

I love The Pioneer Woman and her blog. This is the recipe I have been using for meatloaf: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/09/my-favorite-meatloaf. Now the first few times I made it I ran into the issue of it not being done at 60 minutes. Bacon was still limp and the meatloaf pink in the middle. Decided to read further into the comments and a few mentioned taking two hours to cook which is more accurate. Tonight I decided to split it in half and freeze half which should bring the cooking time to the time listed. Because I split it in half, I only made half the sauce mixture.

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Ingredients

• Meatloaf:
• 1 cup Whole Milk
• 6 slices White Bread
• 2 pounds Ground Beef
• 1 cup (heaping) Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon Seasoned Salt
• 3/4 teaspoons Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 1/3 cup Minced Flat-leaf Parsley
• 4 whole Eggs, Beaten
• 10 slices Thin/regular Bacon
• Sauce:
• 1-1/2 cup Ketchup
• 1/3 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Dry Mustard
• Tabasco To Taste

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour milk over the bread slices. Allow it to soak in for several minutes.

Place the ground beef, milk-soaked bread, Parmesan, seasoned salt, salt, black pepper, and parsley in a large mixing bowl. Pour in beaten eggs.

With clean hands, mix the ingredients until well combined. Form the mixture into a loaf shape on a broiler pan, which will allow the fat to drain. (Line the bottom of the pan with foil to avoid a big mess!)

Lay bacon slices over the top, tucking them underneath the meatloaf.

Make the sauce: add ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, and hot sauce in a mixing bowl. Stir together. Pour 1/3 of the mixture over the top of the bacon. Spread with a spoon.

Bake for 45 minutes, then pour another 1/3 of the sauce over the top. Bake for another 15 minutes. Slice and serve with remaining sauce.

Yummy, Easy Baked Chicken

     I pretty much winged this recipe. I knew I was going to do baked chicken for dinner tonight, but did not have a plan in mind until I went into the kitchen to start dinner tonight. I got a little creative and use your creative mind as well because I utilized a few ingredients I normally don't have in the house. Turned out moist and delicious.

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1/3 can evaporated milk (leftover from loaded mashed potato casserole- will share that another time)

heavy cream (I had a little left from when I made perfect au gratin potatoes- a Pioneer Woman recipe)
bread crumbs
lemon pepper rub (or whatever you want spice-wise)
grated parmesan cheese
parsley flakes

chicken breasts (as many as you'd like)

Now I don't have measurements at all for you. I find that depending on the size of your chicken breasts you might need more milk mixture and dry mixture or less. The main part of the dry mix is bread crumbs. Just eyeball it- you can't really go wrong.

Mix together heavy cream and evaporated milk (regular milk would probably work as well- I just don't like wasting ingredients). Dip chicken breasts into milk mixture. Combine bread crumbs, parsley flakes grated parm cheese, and lemon pepper rub into a bowl. Coat chicken in mixture. Put into a baking dish and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until chicken is done.