Sweet Bean Burritos

Featuring the Sweet Potato! I know what your thinking...yes it does sound odd, but TRY IT! You just might like it. I think it's great! This is another recipe from the Dinner Diva over at savingdinner.com. Enjoy!

2 TBLS Olive Oil

1 onion, chopped (we used half of each of a red and yellow onion)

3 cloves garlic, pressed

2 cans black beans, drained

2 medium sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed

1 tsp cumin

6 flour tortillas

6 TBLS cilantro, chopped

6 TBLS cheddar cheese

In a skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat and cook onion and garlic until soft. Add beans, stir in mashed sweet potatoes, add the cumin and mix well.

Heat tortillas and plop bean mixture inside, add the cilantro and cheddar cheese and roll up burrito style. Serve.

(You can also serve with enchilada sauce and cheese on top, along with a dollop of sour cream...yummy!)

The BEST Oatmeal Cookies EVER!

Funny that I follow my "shpeal" on veggies with this post...but I just had to do it!

Warning: These are highly addictive. My sister made them a few months ago and I have been searching for the recipe ever since. I finally figured out which one it was and made them the first chance I got. I haven't been able to stop eating them since. It's a good thing they are almost gone. I can't make them again for a LONG time, but I hope you get a chance to try and enjoy them...

This is from the cookbook "Deep Creek Creations: Recipes Past & Present, Ibapah, UT, 2000". Gold star goes to anyone who knows where this is (without googling it ;)

Oatmeal Cookies

2 C brown sugar

1 1/2 C butter, margarine or butter flavored crisco

4 eggs

4 C oatmeal

3 C flour (Whole Wheat works great!)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 C nuts (pecans are really good!), raisins, toffee chips or peanut butter chips (optional)

Cream sugar and butter; add eggs. Beat; mix in dry ingredients. Drop on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Makes 3 dozen large cookies or 6 dozen small cookies.

For my cookies I like using a cookie scoop or melon baller. This will make a really nice uniform cookie that's on the smaller side. I've also started using my ice cream scoop for bigger cookies. If you don't have one that will push the dough out on it's own, you can just use a spoon to pull it out of the scoop. I like using the scoop though because it makes it more uniform that just eyeballing it with a spoon.

Chicken Stir Fry...another version

This was put together from stuff I had to use the other day and turned out SO good. As with many of my recipes...this would be SO easy to tweak based on what you have on hand. So easy in fact I'm not even going to put measurements in. I used what I had and enough chicken to feed everyone I needed to. Does that drive you crazy? Sorry....

This turned out so great. I love cooking with red onions because they add a really nice, almost sweet flavor. I served this over rice. Good luck!

Chicken Stir Fry:

Olive Oil - Heat in a cast iron skillet (you can use non stick, but I have come to really LOVE my cast iron skillet. My non stick I got for my wedding is trashed and I find CI much more durable for what I need)

Cut all of the following in strips or cubes (to your preference)

Chicken Breasts

Red and Yellow Peppers

Zucchini Squash

Red Onions

Garlic

Saute the onions and garlic for a few minutes. Add chicken and cook until most of the pink is gone. Add the veggies and cook to desired doneness. If you want it to cook faster you can cover it and let the steam do some of the cooking of the veggies.

This was so flavorful without adding any other spices or sauces. Once you get used to cooking with and eating fresher foods, you realize how much more exciting it is than dumping something out of a can, or even pulling it from the freezer.

Bountiful Baskets and Some Tweaks....

Any of you ever heard of Bountiful Baskets??? They currently have "drop sites" in Utah, Arizona, Idaho and Washington. But I know that there are programs like this all over. It is a food co-op that allows you to buy high quality produce and other items at prices reserved for restaurants and grocery stores. I've attached some pictures of "baskets" I got on two different weeks for $15....

Can you believe it? This is SO much more than you could ever buy at the grocery store for that price. It is also really high quality, very fresh! It's also great because they always give you something a little exotic so your forced to try something you might otherwise not. We've had mangos, jimacas, pummelos, asian pears, cara cara oranges and the list goes on. You never know what you are going to get, but I'll tell you what...we eat a whole lot more fresh produce now and I hardly EVER buy fresh fruits and veggies from the grocery store anymore. BB also offers great bread add ons every week. And it is really good bread. I'm talking 100% Whole Wheat or 9 grain sandwhich bread, Olive Oil loaves, Rye Bread...good stuff! I don't buy bread at the store hardly at either now. In fact most weeks I just send my husband for milk on his way home from work and we are set. (I buy my meat in bulk as well and freeze it)

I tell everyone I know about it because I think it is SUCH a valuable asset to our community. Cedar City started with one drop site, every other week, in October 2009 and 14 orders. There are currently four sites in the Cedar/Enoch area accommodating I think 100 people each. At least one of them is now open every week. We are hoping to start another site on the west end of town and I've heard rumors of at least one other in Cedar, one in Parowan and one in Kannaraville, all close by.

So what good does this do you? If you live in one of those four states....check out the site and find a site near you. If there isn't one, you can probably start one. The founders Sally and Tanya are great to answer questions. If you don't live there...you may be able to get in on the action somehow, it's worth exploring. Or you can look for a similar program. I think the food co-op idea is gaining a lot of ground all over.

Excuses:

*We don't eat that much produce....

If you get this and have it in your house...you will eat more I PROMISE. You will find things to make with it and find yourself eating healthier because you don't want it to go to waste. Besides, even if some of it does go to waste....you still only spent $15 on the whole lot of it!

*I don't have anywhere to put it....

My solution is seen in the picture below. Pretty sure we got this at Walmart. I love this for a few reasons. It's portable, so if I need to move it I can. It's accessible. When my kids ask what they can have for a snack I send them to find an apple. When my son is hungry, he sees the bananas and will ask for them instead of asking for something less healthy. It keeps everything right there so I can remember I have produce that needs to be eaten.

*I can't afford it....

A basket will last a normal family a good two weeks. There is a great variety of food so that even though some will need to be eaten right away, some is hardier and will last till the end of the two weeks. $30 a month spent on healthy food like this will be worth the investment I PROMISE! It will help change the way you eat, in a fabulous way.

The area I live in has an email group to share recipes for the ingredients we get each week. That is great, but if you like the recipe, you have to save the email or print it out. So I considered starting a new BB food blog, but my hubby suggested I just tweak this one to fit! So I have decided to make a few changes to this blog. I'm going through all the recipes and instead of labeling them as simply containing "veggies" I'm going to label specific produce items. So if you get the mexican pack or the italian ingredient pack with your basket, you'll be able to look up items containing specific ingredients. I'm hoping to recruit more contributors (aka Other BB friends) to the blog this way as well and get some more healthier recipes on here. Plus I'm hoping this will be helpful as it gets closer to gardening season, so if you have zucchini coming out your ears, maybe you can find some ideas here.

Anyone else totally stoked about this? Have I converted anyone yet?

Above: Dipping Pack that was offered over Superbowl weekend. Cost was I think $7.50 for all of that. Avocados on a killer sale are at least 50 cents a piece. The carrots would cost probably $1.50. Tomatoes: $2.50. Celery...I dunno 50 cents or a dollar? Cilantro again???? $1? But we are already past the $7.50 it cost me...

Above: Italian ingredient add on pack. You get a ginormous pack of fresh herbs and spices with this baby. Have you ever priced those at the store? Again this pack is $7.50 to add on your basket. You couldn't get half of this for that price!

Yummy Sloppy Joes

My family loves this recipe and now they won't even try other sloppy joes because they are so used to my recipe. Give it a try.

1 pound hamburger( browned)
1 can chicken gumbo soup( Campbells)
catsup
mustard

This recipe is very easy. You just brown the hamburger and then add one can of chicken gumbo. After that you add mustard and catsup to desired taste. It all depends on how much you want. We probably use approximately 4 tbsp of each mustard and catsup.

Warm sloppy joes up and serve on buns.

Spicy Honey-Glazed Chicken

This is from my Saving Dinner cookbook, by Leann Ely. Love her! Check out www.SavingDinner.com for more info! Anyway, this recipe is really yummy and even "Joey approved" (my husband is incredibly picky...). Plus you probably have everything you need already :)

Spicy Honey-Glazed Chicken

1/4 C Honey

2 TBLS frozen orange juice Concentrate

2 cloves garlic, pressed

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

1 TBLS butter

1/2 tsp olive oil

6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

salt and pepper to taste

cilantro, chopped

green onions, chopped

In a small bowl, combine honey, orange juice, garlic and red pepper flakes. In a skillet heat butter and olive oil (I just used all olive oil instead) over medium heat. Add chicken, salt and pepper to taste and brown, about 4 minutes on each side.

Add honey mixture to the skillet and cook, turning to thoroughly coat the chicken. Cook 2 more minutes or until sauce begins to thicken. (Make sure your chicken is cooked through. Mine always takes longer than the recipes say. I always use a meat therm to test as well!) To serve, place chicken on plate, spoon sauce over the top and sprinkle with cilantro and green onions.

We had this with rice and it was perfect!

204 Calories, 4g fat, 28g protein, 14g Carbs