This bean pasta is just a slow cooker goulash with extra protein with black beans. This dish can easily be made vegetarian by omitting beef and beef broth, cooking the onion in the slow cooker. If you want, you can also cook the pasta separately, and rinse with cold water before adding it to the slow-cooker. Doing this will give you more control over how the noodles cook, and will prevent the noodles from taking on the flavor of the sauce. Finally, use whatever spices you like. I used the ones listed below, but you can add as much or as little of any spices you like. This recipe makes 8 adult sized servings.
1 Tbsp of each: Oregano, Parsley, Basil, Marjoram, Red Pepper Flakes, and Italian Seasoning
12 Oz Macaroni
Large Frying Pan
Slow-Cooker
Directions
1. Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add Ground beef and onion, and cook until all beef is brown. Transfer to slow-cooker. Add stewed tomatoes, beans, garlic, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and beef broth. Cook for 4-6 hours on high, or 6-8 hours on low.
2. Add remaining ingredients. Cook pasta for 20-25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes until done. Plate and serve.
Teriyaki is a great Asian sauce that is both sweet and savory. Like American Barbecue, Asian Teriyaki can either be a wet sauce or a cooking style, and in this case, I made and used the sauce style. I diced up extra vegetables I had, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, celery, peppers, and onions, to use as my vegetables in this dish. I also sliced venison for my meat, but slicing a steak or two will accomplish the same thing. I served this dish over rice. This recipe made 5-6 adult sized servings.
Heat wok over medium heat, add oil and veggies. Add additional water as needed until all veggies are tender. In side bowl, mix together broth and corn starch. Once smooth, add soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, mustard, and vinegar, mix until smooth. Add meat and cook for 6-8 minutes, or until fully cooked.
2. Once cooked, add sauce and cook until sauce is thickened. Plate rice, then place teriyaki mixture over top.
This meal is incredibly easy and tastes great. This is a quick meal I grew up with, and it’s impossible to get it wrong. If you are nervous about boiling the sausages, you can also bake them with some water at 350 F for about 25 minutes, but just boiling them on the stove has worked fine for me. I also used mild Italian sausage, just because my family isn’t that big on spicy food. This meal made 5 Adult sized portions. To store leftovers, you can store the sauce separately or with the noodles. If you store them separately, the rinse the noodles with cold water to stop pasta from sticking together when you reheat. Start your sausage first if you have a faster cooking pasta like angel hair, since the sausage can cook for a while before becoming over cooked, but pasta has a limited time.
1. Fill the large saucepan with water for pasta. Place over medium heat until water boils. Then add Pasta and cook as directed. Place sauce into medium saucepan, place over low heat and cover.
2. Place frying pan over medium heat. Add your sausage and 3 cups of water. Cook for 6 minutes on each side. Once pasta is done, strain it. Remove your sausage and cut into bite sized pieces then add to sauce. Once everything is heated, plate pasta covered with sauce and sausage.
You can use any container you have for this veggie platter. These veggies are a good choice because not only do these colors look great together, but these veggies have a good variety of flavors that would be good with a variety of dips, or even just ranch! For this platter, I bought normal cherry tomatoes and pre-sliced carrot chips. This just made sense for me. You could get a mix of cherry tomatoes to get a variety in colors, but the cost wasn’t worth it for this platter. I also bought carrot chips for a different shape on my platter and for easy prep. If you have a mandolin you can cut your own chips, but you can also just buy the already sliced chips. Other than that, it just took a bit of prep for the rest. A nice cutting board is necessary for this and a sharp paring knife will help a lot with cutting the two head veggies. Celery is a great garnish if you want more color on your plate, and Yellow peppers are preference to add more color and a milder flavor than red or green peppers. Using the veggies below, your veggie platter will serve about 15 as an appetizer or side dish.
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What You Will Need
1/2 lb. Broccoli Head
1 Head Cauliflower
2 Yellow Bell Peppers
1 Container Cherry Tomatoes
1 Bag Carrot Chips
1 Bag of Celery
1 Large Bowl
Vinegar
Large Baking Sheet Lined with Paper Towels
Small Strainer
Directions
Preparing Celery
To prepare your celery, Remove large outer stalks and place in sink. Rinse thoroughly with cold water making sure to remove any dirt on the white tail end of the stalk. Transfer to a cutting board. Cut off the leaves just below the knuckle. Save all celery trimmings in a resealable container for vegetable stalk/soup. Reserve a large top for garnish under cauliflower. Cut off about 1/2 inch to 1 inch from the bottom. Then divide the remaining stalk into equal sections about 2 inches long. Continue this until you reach the fine stalks at the center of the celery, then save them also for a stock. Rinse your celery in cool water before transferring to baking sheet to dry.
Preparing Cauliflower
To prepare your Cauliflower, rinse under cold water then transfer to cutting board. First, you’ll want to remove any leaves from the bottom of the head. Then, begin cutting off florets and transferring to bowl of cold water. Once all cut, divide large florets to smaller pieces. Place florets on baking sheet to dry. Save the stem for stock.
Preparing Tomatoes and Carrot Chips
Place tomatoes and carrot chips in small strainer individually. Rinse your tomatoes and carrot chips. Place in containers to dry.
Preparing Bell Peppers
To prepare peppers, rinse the outside of the peppers thoroughly with water. Cut around the outside of the pepper to get 4 slices of pepper. Clean out any seeds and cutting any inside veins. Once cleaned out, slice the peppers into strips. Rinse in cold water then place on baking sheet to dry.
Preparing Broccoli
Follow the same steps at Cauliflower, however broccoli needs a double rinse. To do that, you’ll want to fill your bowl with 1/2 cup vinegar and fill the remaining space with cold water. Place your florets in the vinegar water for 5 minutes, before dividing into smaller pieces as needed, then you’ll want to do a final rinse before setting to dry. Once again save your stem! You can peel the tough outside and use the soft inside in other recipes.
Sugar cookies are a labor of love, and this recipe was no exception. Making the dough was very straight forward, however the real effort comes into rolling the dough and cutting the cookies. This step is made easier by having helping hands to cut cookies for you while you can focus on the baking. Also, the dough makes lots of cookies. We picked out larger cookie cutters in an effort to have less cookies, but even with that we easily got over 4 dozen cookies. Since it is just my husband and I, we were able to fill 2 gallon freezer bags and freeze them for up to 3 months. And, we still had some left over to snack on. So, this recipe makes about 4-5 Dozen cookies.
1. Cream together butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, and mix well. Chill cookie dough for 1-2 hours.
2. Heat oven to 350 F. Knead dough then roll out dough to 1/4 in thick, then use cookie cutters. Spray baking sheet with non-stick spray, then place cookies. Bake for 10-12 minutes, then remove from oven, remove from baking sheet, and let cool before icing.
3. (Opt) Whip together 8 Oz of softened cream cheese and 1/4 cup softened butter. Add 1 tsp vanilla and combine. Finally, begin adding 4 cups powdered sugar a little at a time while mixing until all is added. If desired, add 2 tsp of additional flavoring (ie. Lemon or orange), or add 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder.
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