Monday, March 21, 2011

Two recipes using your left over Cafe Rio Beans

I love left over beans, I just pop them in the freezer and when I need canned beans, I defrost my beans and they are ready to go in a recipe.
Black Bean Tostadas
This recipe is from the Pennzey catalog, but revised to use in the pressure cooker.
2 cups of black beans
1 16-oz can fat free refried black beans
1 TB. canola oil
1 onion, chopped
1 TB Arizona dreaming, you can make a mixture of cumin, chili pepper, garlic, paprika, chipotie pepper.
1/4 cup water
1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
1 tsp. honey
1/4/ tsp red pepper flakes, or Ancho Chili Pepper or 1 fresh jalapeno.
1 TB fresh cilantro, finely minced
1/4 cup sour cream
1 cup Gruyere or Chihuahua cheese, I didn't have any of these so I used Mozzarella Cheese
Heat the oil in your pressure cooker and brown the onion. After about 3 minutes, when the onion is turning translucent but not brown, add the Arizona Dreaming or other spices and stir.  Then add the rest of the ingredients except the cilantro, sour cream and cheese, pressure cook for 3 minutes, natural release,  Stir in the sour cream.  Use a potato masher to halfway mash up the whole black beans.  Serve on tostado shells topped with cheese, tomatos and cilantro.

The next recipe is from Eating Well magazine, adapted to do in the pressure cooker, we had this yesterday for Sunday dinner and it was delicious.  I put all the ingredients in the pan and stuck in the fridge. Rlynn usually doesn't get home from his last meeting until 5.30 p.m., so we want something fast to fix.

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Soup
1 medium-large sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 TB. chili powder
4 Tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground chipotle chile
1/2 tsp. salt (For me it needed more salt)
1 1/2 cups water
4 cups black beans, rinsed
1 14-oz. diced tomatoes
4 tsp. lime juice
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Put everything in the pressure cooker and pressure for 6 minutes ( that seems to be my magical number 6),
natural release.  We love cheese on top. The sweet potato gives it a nice flavor, a little sweetness with the chili spices.  I halved this recipe for Rlynn and I, and we have enough for another meal. 

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Two great recipes from the South!

Southern cooking is amazing! But if you indulge in it too long, you would be adding a few pounds.  Believe me I know I added a couple of pounds when we were down there.  Anyway these two recipes are really good. I know they are not pressure cooker recipes, but I still wanted to share them with you.

Chicken Salad  (from Gabriels's Restaurant in Georgia, cousin to Paula Deen)
Serves 6
4 cups roasted chicken-besure it is roasted chicken, this makes a difference in the recipe, the ones at Cosco are really good and most of the time they are only $4.99.
2 cups thinly sliced celery.
Mix these together
Mix:
3/4 cup mayo.
1/4 cup whipping cream or I used can milk.
1/4 cup pickle relish
1 tlbsp. lemon juice
Pinch of white pepper.
Pour over chicken.
Add 1 cup red grapes cut in half before serving.  I didn't have any grapes, so I used a can of mandarin oranges and cut the oranges in thirds.
We ate this salad on large lettuce leaves.  So yummy!

Banana Chocolate Chip Bars
This recipe Julia served at Christian's Baptism.
Mix together:
2 smashed ripe bananas
3/4 cup butter-semi soft
2/3 cup white sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
Add:
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
Mix with the banana mixture, then add 1 cup chocolate chips.
Bake 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
So easy, fast and so good!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Pot Roast in the Pressure Cooker is amazing!

This recipe is so amazing and the roast was so tender and good!
Pressure Cooker Pot Roast
Courtesy Chef Bryan Wooley-Connect 2 Utah.com
1-3 pound pot roast
Penzey spices are the best!
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. onion powder
1 tbsp. dried parsley
1 tbsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. dill
1 1/2 cups beef stock
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil to brown roast, (which I didn't even use)
Pat dry the roast using paper towels.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Brown the roast in the pressure cooker on browning, 4 minutes on each side of the roast.
While the roast is browning, mix the herbs with the beef stock, when the roast is brown,
pour the beef stock and herbs over the roast.  Pressure for 50 minutes and let the pressure go down naturally.
I did this before Church, and left it in the pressure cooker until we came home, I repressured it for 6 minutes while the potatoes were pressuring in another pressure cooker. We even have enough roast left over for hot beef sandwiches for tomorrow. I think how I am going to do the hot beef sandwiches is put the gravey mix with the water in the pressure cooker, stir until dissolved, add the thin slices of roast.  Pressure for 5 minutes, natural release.  Serve on whole wheat toast, and with a salad should be good.
Mash Potatoes
1/3 cup water
8 large potatoes
1/2 tsp. salt.
Pressure for 8 minutes.  Release pressure.
Mash with butter and milk or how you do your mashed potatoes.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Split Pea Soup, Southwestern Chunky Chicken Chili and Fried Hoecakes

We went to Kennesaw Georgia for our Grandson's Baptism. Tuesday morning we headed down to Savannah Georgia with Clayton's family.  Deep Fried Chicken, Deep Fried Shrimp, Deep Fried Green Tomatoes, Deep Fried Dill Pickles, (which by the way I really liked), and Hoecakes(which were also really good) at Paula Deen's restaurant was what we tried!
However I really liked Paula Deen's brother's restaurant near Tybee Island called Uncle Bubba's better.
  What was really fun, was walking down to the sweets store and buying DARK CHOCOLATE CARMEL COVERED PECANS-TURTLES.  They were so darn good! Now I have to get back to the real world and lose weight!
Here are a couple of soups you could have with the Hoecakes.  The recipe is on the Food Network.  Type in Hoecakes and Paula Deen's recipe will come up. Cheese Biscuits would also be good with the Split Pea Soup.

This recipe comes from: For Your Kitchen-at the New Gate Mall in Ogden.
Split Pea Soup:
1 tlbsp. Butter
2 cups onions sliced
2 large celery stalks, diced
2 long carrots, sliced
8 cups water
1 pound green split peas (Approx 2 1/2 cups)
1 pound smoked ham (optional) (We sometimes omit this and just add some bacon bits and grated cheese.)
3 large bay leaves
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp to 1 tsp. Dried Thyme, add after cooking.
Add all ingredients into your pressure cooker and stir. Cook on high pressure for 15 minutes.  Allow pressure to release naturally, remove lid and stir well.  Add Thyme, if desired, and stir.  Serve and enjoy.

This  recipe I adapted using the ingredients from cans.   It is fast and you can have these ingredients in your food storage.
Southwestern Chunky Chicken Chili
2 tlbsp. dried minced onion
1-2 tlbsp. taco seasoning
3 tlbsp. ranch dressing mix
You can mix the above 3 ingredients and have in a plastic zip bag, with all the other ingredients for you food storage.
1 can of chicken, shred it with a fork when you put it in the pressure cooker.
1 can of black beans, drained
2 cans tomatoes with cilantro and lime (Can use other tomatoes)
1 can of corn (Cosco now has sweet corn in the can with just corn and sea salt and no sugar added.)
Pressure for 5 minutes, natural release.
Serve with cilantro, sour cream, cheese and tortilla chips.