Black Bean Soup With Avocado {Major YUM Factor!}

My dear childhood friend from the 4th grade, Laurel, has an wooonderful website called Laurel on Health Food.  It is jam packed with delicious, healthy recipes and health topics...not to mention lots of giveaways!  A few weeks ago I made her Avocado and Black Bean Soup and holy macaroni, it was a-MA-zing!  I served it over rice and my oldest son, husband and I absolutely loved it!  It has a bit of a kick to it (which I can adjust next time), so the little kids said it made their "tongues hot!"  I highly recommend this easy to make, healthy and freezable soup!  Ennnnjoy!



Ingredients:

2 cans black beans
2 ripe avocados

1 onion

4 cloves garlic

2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

2 cups vegetable broth  *I only had Chicken Broth...turned out great!

2 tbsp. hot sauce (such as Sriracha)

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. chili powder

Salt & pepper
I served over steamed rice.

All I had to buy extra were the Avocado's!  The rest is very basic kitchen stockpile.

 Chop onions and remove the skin and pit from the avocados and cut up into bite-sized pieces.

 Chop up the onion and sauté in a soup pot with the olive oil over medium-low heat until the onion begins to turn translucent. Add the garlic, stir, and sauté for another minute.

 Stir in the cumin, chili powder, 1 tbsp. of the hot sauce, and a little salt and pepper.

 Add 1 can of black beans and the vegetable stock, and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat.

Pour the ingredients in a blender or food processor. Add half of the diced avocado to the ingredients in the blender and reserve the rest for garnish.

  Blend until smooth.

Turn on rice cooker.

Pour the blended ingredients back into your soup pot and add the other can of black beans. Stir, bring back to a simmer,

serve hot in bowls with the remaining avocado and hot sauce sprinkled on top for garnish.

Homemade Baby Food Time!

Today was daddy's day off!  YAY!  Unfortunately, I was STILL coughing up a storm and was unable to ride my bike to school with Braylon (we try to ride bikes with him once a week).  Therefore, Vu was on bike duty and I was stuck inside all morning again.  Being inside is very very hard for me!  The kids had a decent morning and Paxtyn seemed to be well, although Kyan was still runny and sneezy so dad took just Peyton to Open Gymnastics.  We had the garage door repaired yet again during the day and I cooked Paxtyn's first batch of baby food (recipe below) and was a bit overzealous when I made the decision that I was well enough to ride to Bray's school in the afternoon for pick up.  I'm surprised no one stopped their cars to ask if I was ok!  Hacking the entire time.  Looovely.  When we got home, Braylon was in a very helpful mood and after folding a load of laundry he became my assistant chef in the kitchen!  We cooked a huge pot of Chili with rice...it was DEEE-LICIOUS!  I think I might even make another pot for a Christmas Party this weekend.

That evening Paxtyn had a very big milestone and ate his first baby food!  Once I became a stay-at-home mom I decided to push starting foods back further to keep my milk supply stronger, longer.  Kyan didn't start solids until 7 months and Pax is 2 days shy of 7 months.  Doesn't work for every mom, but certainly has worked for me!  Pax loved the Butternut Squash and ate like a pro :)  I am so proud of my sweet baby boy.

Butternut Squash Baby Food

I started with this veggie since it's not too sweet and just one Squash makes a LOT of food!  Right now I'm guesstimating on amounts and hopefully in a week or so I'll have the portions correct.  Making baby food is easy-peazy and takes very little time...in my opinion.  To get a refresher, I used the site http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/.  Last year when I started making food for Kyan, I found countless sites that suggested freezing the food in ice cube trays which made thawing exact 2 ounce portions easier.  I did this for my first few batches but in the end, found it to be a waste of time.  Maybe if I started my babies on food at 3 months and needed the smaller amounts it would have made a difference...but not at 7 months.  Therefore, what I found to work really well was to make a batch and just allocate the food into a few containers...keep one in the fridge and freeze the others until needed.  Usually 1 plastic container would last a day and half to two days. I also just fed cold baby food pulled straight from the refrigerator...none of that warming/reheating business and never had any complaints ;)

I bought two Butternut Squash and one Acorn Squash.  I used the medium sized Butternut to make this batch.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

 Cut squash in half.

 Scoop out the seeds.  I use an ice cream scoop.

 All set.

 Fill pan with 1/2 inch of water and place squash side by side "meat" side down.

Cook at 400 degrees for 45minutes-1 hour (until skin is brownish and puckery).

Scoop out inside and put in blender...if pieces of skin are attached, it's no big deal.

 Ready to blend!  I blended on high for about 2 minutes.  Also, add small amounts of water as needed to get desired thickness.

 And that's it!  Fabulous Homemade Butternut Squash Baby Food!

 This is how much one squash made.  The 3 containers on the right went in the freezer and will all probably be used within the next week.

 And the verdict???

 "Mikey likes it!!!"

 Can't get enough!

Short video of Paxtyn chowing down!

Multi Tasking Monday 11/29 and Linguine Salad Recipe

Well, I'm even more sick than I was yesterday!  Pax had another rough night and now Pey and Ky have runny noses, too.  Today was spent dropping Bray off at school, running a quick morning errand, some outdoor time with the little ones, picking up Bray and finishing laundry, cleaning and staying hydrated (I can feel my milk supply has taken a hit).  Hopefully today is the worst of it!

List for the Week

Tree Decorated

Grocery Run

Primary Appt.

Watch pool repair man like a hawk and make sure he's fixing it correctly ;)

MOMS Club Emails

Print and complete Peyton's VPK forms

Bray's ACH Appt.

Get things together for December Holiday Party

Complete Christmas Card and PRINT

Complete The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest Book

Laundry, cleaning and cooking in a joyful way!

And all the in betweens :)

Linguine Pasta Salad

This is a recipe from my mom that is SUPER easy to make and I always get compliments.  It's a yummy side dish and takes about 20 minutes to make.

Ingredients:

1 box of linguine pasta

1 green pepper chopped small

2 large tomatoes chopped into small pieces

1/2 bottle of Salad Supreme

1 16 ounce bottle of regular Italian Salad Dressing (try to find one in which the oil doesn't settle half way down)

Break the pasta in half and put in pot of boiling water and cook.

 Mix 1/2 bottle of Salad Supreme (found in spice section at Publix)...

 with the chopped green peppers and tomatoes.

 Drain cooked pasta and rinse with COLD running water.

 In a large bowl add pasta, mixture of ingredients and an entire bottle of Italian Salad Dressing.

 And that's it! :)

 Place in gallon zip lock bag in frig to marinate overnight.  This also makes it very easy to transport to events or potluck dinners

Freezing Ground Meat

I read about this on numerous blogs, including one of my favorites, Alicia's Homemaking.  Separating ground meat into individual 1lb packages makes life LOADS easier!

1.  It's cheaper buying in bulk.  I am now buying my meat from Sam's Club, 5-5.5lbs in a package.
2.  As a family of 6 (well, still 5 since baby doesn't really count yet) we have outgrown those smaller ground beef packages.
3.  It's so great being able to head to the freezer and grab the exact amount I need.  2 pounds for spaghetti sauce, 3 pounds for tacos, soups, ect.
4.  Defrosting is a jiffy now that the bags are flattened.  I often rarely forget to defrost in the morning and it takes about 5 minutes of running under hot water and they are good to cook!
5.  You have options for storage.  You can either lay them down in the freezer or "catalogue" them like books standing up once frozen.

Gallon zip lock bags, 11 lbs ground beef (Sam's Club) and foil laid out on counter to transfer meat over.

 I set up and open 11 gallon zip locks, then put 1 lb of meat into each bag.  I don't have a scale, so I just guesstimate.

 Take my rolling pen and flatten out meat...

 Make it as thin as you can, press air out and seal.

 Don't forget to date it!

 Here is my stack!  This took 10 minutes and SOO worth the time :)  Make sure you freeze them FLAT before arranging them in the freezer.  Now you are ready to grab and cook!

Breakfast Burritos...Ole!

Today I wanted to share a quick recipe (if you could even call it that).  Last year on our camping trip, some of my fellow mom friends made yummy breakfast burritos.  I just remember thinking how delicious and easy they were to make!  Well, after reading one of my favorite blogs, Alicia's Homemaking , I was reminded once again of these scrumptious, easy-peasy breakfast items.  I was going to make them with peppers, onions and spinach...but opted to keep them very simple for the kids.

Breakfast Burritos

Ingredients:

-1 lb sausage

-dozen eggs

-1 package of flour tortillas

-onions, peppers, spinach, tomatoes and anything else you love!

Lay tortilla flat on section of tin foil.  Scoop an equal portion of ingredients onto tortilla.  Make sure the food is at one end of the tortilla.  Then roll over, like so...

Halfway through rolling, bring each side of tortilla in and then continue.

Ta-da!  Then roll up the tortilla in the foil.

This yielded 10 breakfast burritos to freeze!  Just remove the burrito from the foil, nuke it in the micro for 45 seconds, and you've got a yummy go-to breakfast item when you want something besides cold cereal or eggs. 

Today was a beautiful laid back day.  We were able to take the kids to park this morning and even had an impromptu play date with one of my childhood best friends parents her 2 year old daughter.  Then I was able to squeeze in our monthly Sams Club trip before dad headed to work...it was PACKED!  I was bummed that I wasn't able to help out a friend who was moving today, but I don't think I'd be much help with 4 kids in tow ;)  I hope everyone has a fabulous and productive Saturday!

Apple Enchiladas are mmm mmm good!

I found this recipe a month ago and it sounded so simple and so delicious.  I just had to share!  :)


Apple Enchiladas

Ingredients:

21 ounce) can apple pie filling

6 (8 inch) flour tortillas

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup water

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 2 quart baking dish.



1A: I did not have any apple filling, so I decided to make it which was super easy! I just peeled a bag of apples,sliced, and mixed with some brown sugar and Cinnamon. YUM!

 Gotta have those adorable little baby feet in the picture!  hee hee

2.Spoon about one heaping quarter cup of pie filling evenly down the center of each tortilla. Sprinkle with cinnamon; roll up, tucking in edges; and place seam side down in prepared dish.

3.In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, white sugar, brown sugar and water. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly; reduce heat and simmer 3 minutes. Pour sauce over enchiladas and let stand 30 minutes.  I did not get a picture of this.



4.Bake in preheated oven 20 minutes, or until golden.

 

Below is a picture of my leftovers that I brought to my friends homes, withOUT the mixture on top.  I brought that in a a little container for her to use.

Ennnnjoy!!!