BBQ Cowboy Beans & Biscuits

Mandi sent this in August and I finally got around to making it.  So good and easy!  I made the biscuits in my cast iron skillet...love that thing!!!  

I did throw some quinoa in just because I'm trying to use it up:o)  Oh and an onion with the meat...Texas onions are so cheap right now and yummmmy!

BBQ Cowboy Beans & Biscuits

From: 5 dollar dinners

Ingredients

1.3 lb ground beef
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 cups cooked black beans or Substitute 1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups cooked pinto beans or Substitute 1 15 oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup BBQ sauce
1 15 oz can petite diced tomatoes, drained
Drop biscuits (see recipe below)
1/2 bag frozen corn

Directions

1. Brown the ground beef with the crushed garlic cloves. Drain and return to skillet. Add the black and pinto beans, as well as the BBQ sauce, diced tomatoes…and stir through. Let simmer over low heat for 5-10 minutes.
2. Make drop biscuits.
3. Prepare the corn as directed on package.

4. Serve BBQ Cowboy Beans over Drop Biscuits with Corn.

Drop Biscuits
-----------------
Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 Tbsp butter or margarine
1 cup milk

Directions
1. In mixing bowl, combine wheat flour, white flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
2. Cut in 4 Tbsp of butter with pastry blender or 2 knives.
3. Slowly mix in milk and stir with fork. Mix until thick batter forms.
4. Drop biscuits onto greased cooking sheet or into greased muffin tins. Makes 12 biscuits.
5. Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Cool on cooling rack.
6. Serve warm with Cinnamon Honey Butter.

Menu Plan Monday

We had some meals we didn't make last week so I am putting those on and also making more than a week plan because we have everything on hand.

Monday:
Salisbury steak with onion gravy(new)
Veggie

Tuesday:
BBQ Cowboy beans and biscuits(new)
Veggie

Wednesday:
Asian Salmon (new)
Fresh green beans

Thursday:
Mexican vegetables on cornbread

Friday:
Steak
Squash
New England baked beans(new)

Saturday:
Bumblebee soup
Depression era bread

Sunday:
Quick Pasta Carbonara
Veggie

Monday:
Pizza

Tuesday:
Cheesy beef taco skillet

Cream Soup Substitute

I would have sworn I had this recipe on here but I can't find it by searching so I'm putting it on again.

Ingredients:
2 cups dry milk
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup chicken bouillon granules
2 tablespoons dried onion flakes, optional
1 teaspoon dried leaf thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried leaf basil, optional
1/2 teaspoon dried leaf oregano, optional
1/2 teaspoon ground marjoram, optional
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 to 3 teaspoons butter
Preparation:
Combine all ingredients except butter together and store in airtight container. To use, mix 1/2 cup dry soup mix with 1 1/4 cups water and cook until thick; add butter. This is equal to one can cream soup. The mix makes enough to equal 9 to 10 cans. For cream of mushroom or celery soup, add chopped sauteé mushrooms or celery along with the butter while cooking.

Chicken Shepherd's Pie

This was one of Mandi's choices for this week and it was perfect for what I had in the kitchen!  It's originally from here.  I had canned succotash on hand so two cans of that made the vegetables and I added cheddar cheese before the mashed potato layer.  Out of a 9x13 pan there was one small serving leftover that Hunter(13) had for breakfast today!

• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2-3 cups cooked, chopped chicken
• 3 cups mashed potatoes (I used instant)

Boil carrots in the broth till tender.  Stir in peas, cream of chicken soup, salt & pepper and cooked chicken.

Pour into a greased 9×13 casserole dish.  Top with mashed potatoes.  Dot with butter.  Bake 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Twinkie Tiramisu

I feel like I'm stalking eatathomecooks lately!  I've been trying to not make big desserts unless I already have the ingredients on hand but this sounded just way too good so I went to the store(using the excuse that my son needed to go get a new bike tube...).  I used vanilla pudding because I was wanting more of a regular tiramisu taste but the chocolate sounds awesome too!  This was SO.  GOOD.

• 1/3 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup strong brewed coffee
• 2 boxes (3.4 oz)  instant pudding mix
• 3 1/2 cups milk
• 1 container frozen whipped topping, thawed (8oz)
• 1 box Twinkies

Mix the boiling water and sugar together, stirring until the sugar is dissolved and the liquid turns clear.  Stir in the coffee and let it cool.

Mix the pudding mix and milk together with an electric mixer until the pudding has thickened.  Fold in the whipped topping.  This makes a delicious mousse-like fluff.

Slice the Twinkies in half, lengthwise.  Place half of the slices on the bottom of a pan.  I experimented with pan sizes.  9×13 was a bit too big.  9×9 was too small.

Drizzle with half the coffee syrup.

Spread half of the chocolate fluff over the Twinkies in the pan.  Top with the rest of the Twinkies.  Drizzle with the remaining coffee syrup.  Spread the chocolate fluff over the top of all of it.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Skillet biscuits

These were pretty good...still looking for the perfect recipe though. I used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour so they would have a small bit of nutrition...


Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, cubed
3/4 cup milk
Directions
In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together. Cut butter into mixture until it begins to look likecornmeal.
Make a well with flour mixture and slowly add milk into the middle.Knead dough with your fingers and add milk when necessary. Roll out dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to desired thickness. Cut with small biscuit cutter.
Butter bottom of skillet and place biscuits in pan. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Monday:

Lunch:

PB&J on bagels

Dinner:

Baked pasta with cauliflower(although I'll be using broccoli)

Tuesday:

Lunch:

Fish sticks and corn nuggets

Dinner:

40 clove crockpot chicken w/ 2 chickens (the beginning of rubber chicken)

Succotash

Salad

Wednesday:

Lunch:

Ramens

Dinner:

Stuffed shells

Salad

Garlic bread

Watermelon

Thursday:

Lunch:

Mac n cheese w/ sausage

Dinner:

Stirfry with bamboo shoots, rice noodles over hot rice

Oranges

Friday:

Lunch:

Grilled cheese and soup

Dinner:

Liver and onions

Mac and cheese

Pea salad

Saturday:

Lunch:

Leftovers or ramens

Dinner:

Chicken soup with pumpkin, noodles and veggies

Sunday:

Leftovers

Salsa Verde in the crockpot

We loved this!!  And the leftover meat I cut up and put in a beef pot pie along with some other steak a few nights later.  This is another eatathomecooks.com recipe.  I used a huge steak from our freezer of local beef and cooked it overnight with all the ingredients but the onions(which I added and let cook another 4 hours or so until they were soft).

Salsa Verde in the crockpot

boneless rounds steak or another cut of beef

1 small can of salsa verde
1/2 cup chicken broth, beef broth or water
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1 clove garlic, minced
1 onion, sliced
flour tortillas
cheddar cheese
lettuce, tomato, sour cream etc
Put the steak and onions in the crockpot.  Combine the salsa, broth and seasonings.  Pour over the steak.  Cook on high for 5-6 hours or low for 7-8 hours.
Shred the meat and serve in the tortillas with the fixings.

Whole Wheat Soft "pretzel" Rolls

I made these following the recipe at goodcheapeats but I didn't do the soda bath and then I made them more "roll" like in shape than a pretzel.  They went with our black bean soup and were fabulous!

Whole Wheat Rolls


Dough:

1/2 cup water
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 cups bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon yeast

For topping:

melted butter & coarse salt
melted butter & cinnamon sugar

Throw dough ingredients into bread machine as directed(by machine manual) on a dough setting. When the cycle ends, remove the dough to a lightly oiled surface. Divide the dough into 12 equal portions.

Preheat the oven to 450°. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Roll each portion into a long snake, about 18 inches long. Shape the snake into a horseshoe. Twist the sides of the horseshoe, about halfway up, around each other twice. Flip the ends over onto the U of the horseshoe. Press to seal. Continue until all the pretzels are shaped.

Bake for about 9 minutes.  Brush with butter and sprinkle with coarse salt, if desired.

If you prefer sweet pretzels, brush the baked pretzels with melted butter and sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar before serving.

Menu Plan

Wednesday:

Steak

Carrot Raisin salad

Green salad

Peach cobbler

Thursday:

Lunch:

Frozen bean burritos

Carrot Raisin salad

Dinner:

Black bean soup

Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels

Green salad

Friday:

Lunch:

Ramens

Dinner:

Paula Deen's Skillet biscuits

Gravy and sausage

Snickerdoodles

Saturday:

Lunch:

PB&Js

Carrot sticks with ranch

Dinner:

Cottage Pie

Salad

Blueberry pie

Sunday:

Lunch:

Fish Sticks

Corn nugget

Dinner:

Stuffed shells

Salad

Garlic bread

Monday:

Lunch:

Grilled cheese and soup

Dinner:

Liver and onions

Mac and cheese

Pea salad

Tuesday:

Dinner out

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

This was a cookie recipe but Willow was having a rough day so I knew I wouldn't have the time to keep switching cookies in and out of the oven.  Instead it went into a pie pan(sprayed with baking spray) and I baked it at 325 degrees for 20-30 minutes.  It was delicious!
This recipe is from allrecipes here and is for cookies.

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups peanut butter chips(I used half a bag of pb/chocolate chip mix)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, fold in the peanut butter chips. Drop cookies by heaping teaspoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until set. Cool on wire racks.

Fresh Cranberry Apple Pie

This was a tart delicious pie!  I didn't layer the fruit and it worked out fine that way:o)

FRESH CRANBERRY APPLE PIE
Pastry for 9 inch 2 crust pie
1 3/4-2 c. sugar
1/3 c. flour
3 c. sliced pared tart apples (2-3 med.)
2 c. fresh cranberries
2 tbsp. butter
Stir together sugar and flour. In pastry lined pan, alternate layers of apples, cranberries and sugar mixture, beginning and ending with apple layers, dot with butter. Cover with top crust with slits, seal and flute. Cover edge with 2-3 inch strip of aluminum foil to prevent excess browning. Bake at 425 degrees for 40-50 minutes or until crust is brown. Remove foil last 15 minutes of baking.

Penne with Sausage, Onion and Cranberry Sauce

I got this recipe here when trying to find easy recipes using fresh cranberries.  It is SO good!!!!!  You'd never guess there's cranberry in it until you run into a little piece of one and I used double the amount called for even!  I used orange juice in place of the sherry just because it was what I had on hand.

Click here for the original.

Penne with Sausage, Onion and Cranberries
1/2 pound dried penne or other small pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup cranberries, fresh or frozen and thawed
5 links sweet Italian sausage, sliced or crumbled
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 cup dry Sherry
3/4 cup chicken stock, preferably low-sodium or homemade
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup pasta water

1. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat and add the onion. When the onion is soft and translucent, add the cranberries, sausage, basil and oregano.
2. Cook until the sausage begins to brown and the cranberries are popping. Add the Sherry and turn the heat up to medium. Scrape the bottom of the pan to remove and cooked-on bits. Once the Sherry is reduced by at least half, add the chicken stock and garlic. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If the sauce is a bit tart for your taste, you can add 1/2-1 tablespoon of sugar to sweeten it.
3. Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water.
4. Once the pasta is cooked, add the pasta water to thin the sauce. Toss the pasta and the sauce and serve.

Easy Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

This was SO good!!!  I tripled the recipe and we had very little leftover.  I used round steak.

The recipe is from food.com.  Everyone in the family loved it--even Willow(almost 2 years old now).

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons cornstarch, divided
1/2 cup water, plus
2 tablespoons water, divided
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 lb boneless round steak or 1 lb charcoal chuck steak, cut into thin 3-inch strips
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
4 cups broccoli florets
1 small onion, cut into wedges
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
hot cooked rice

Directions:
1 In a bowl, combine 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 2 tablespoons water and garlic powder until smooth.
2 Add beef and toss.
3 In a large skillet or wok over medium high heat, stir-fry beef in 1 tablespoon oil until beef reaches desired doneness; remove and keep warm.
4 Stir-fry broccoli and onion in remaining oil for 4-5 minutes.
5 Return beef to pan.
6 Combine soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger and remaining cornstarch and water until smooth; add to the pan.
7 Cook and stir for 2 minutes.
8 Serve over rice.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday
Lunch:
Sandwiches
Cantaloupe
Dinner:
Broccoli beef over brown rice
Leftover blueberry pound cake

Tuesday:
Lunch:
Bean bowls
Dinner:
Shar's mom's roast
Noodles
Crowder Peas
Cookies(box)

Wednesday
Lunch:
Mac n cheese w/ hot dogs
Dinner:
Homemade pizza
Salad
Choc. pie

Thursday:
Lunch:
Split green pea soup
Bread
Dinner:
Penne w/ sausage and cranberry

Friday
Lunch:
Grilled cheese
Soup
Dinner:
BBQ Beef casserole

Saturday
Lunch:
leftovers
Dinner:
Oven omelette
Chocolate pb cookies

Sunday:
leftovers and/or dinner out

Pumpkin Soup

Last year, for the first time, I cooked and canned our jack-o-lantern pumpkins.  It was a huge job to do three big pumpkins and I thought I'd never do it again...but all winter we've had delicious things made with this pumpkin and now I am sure I will.

Today I made pumpkin soup.  I'm eating meatless for awhile so this will also make a good meal for me on the nights I'm cooking meat for the rest of the family.  I didn't use heavy whipping cream but instead used evaporated milk.  This was from allrecipes but I made changes and am putting that recipe below.  

Ingredients

6 cups vegetable stock
3 teaspoons salt
4 cups pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions
Heat stock, salt, pumpkin, onion, thyme, garlic, and peppercorns. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes uncovered.
Puree the soup in small batches (1 cup at a time) using a food processor or blender.
Return to pan, and bring to a boil again. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for another 30 minutes, uncovered. Stir in heavy cream. Pour into soup bowls and garnish with fresh parsley.

Menu Plan March 7-13

Monday March 7
Lunch:
Frozen bean burritos
Dinner:
Spaghetti and meatballs(no meatballs for me)
Garlic bread
Pecan pie

Tuesday March 8
Lunch:
Mac n Cheese with hot dogs(for kids)
Dinner:
Individual pizzas
Salad

Wednesday March 9
Lunch:
Sandwiches and goldfish crackers
Dinner:
Blackeyed peas
Cornbread
Chocolate pie

Thursday March 10
Lunch:
Packed snack meal(fruit, cheese, goldfish crackers, pb on saltines)
Dinner:
Tuna sandwiches
Macaroni Grill Noodles

Friday March 11
Lunch:
Bean bowls(hot beans topped with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream)
Dinner:
Steak  (I'll either make a greek salad or grilled cheese)
Mashed potatoes
Crowder peas
Chocolate peanut butter cookies

Saturday March 12
Lunch:
Leftovers or sandwiches and goldfish crackers
Dinner:
Broccoli beef over brown rice 
Blueberry pound cake

Sunday March 13
Lunch:
Split green pea soup, bread
Dinner:
Hibachi Buffet

Menu Plan February 1-7

Tuesday February 1
Layered meatball casserole
Salad
Box cookies

Wednesday February 2
Marinated rib steak(using up marinade in fridge)
Green bean casserole
Stuffing
Banana cake

Thursday February 3
Easy beef enchiladas
Rice
Refried beans

Friday February 4
Turkey and broccoli casserole
Succotash
Waldorf salad

Saturday February 5
Steak tips over rice
Pea salad
Bread

Sunday February 6
Pizza with pepperoni, black olives and green peppers
Baked apples

Menu Plan

I wasn't feeling great last week and my menu plan didn't go as good as it could have because of it.  We went out to eat one night and another I just didn't want to make lentils and rice.  This week will hopefully go better.  We're  down to the last of the pantry challenge time and I'm ready to be done:o)  Our pantry is still full but I think I did pretty good working it down and will continue to use what's in there even after the challenge is over.

Tuesday
Breakfast: Grits
Dinner: Potatoes and franks

Wednesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Dinner: Skillet Sausage Pasta

Thursday
Breakfast: cereal
Dinner: California Quesadillas  refried beans, rice

Friday
Breakfast: cereal
Dinner: Noodle Stroganoff

Saturday
Breakfast: Pancakes
Dinner: Pizza  (Pepperoni)

Sunday
Breakfast: Eggs
Dinner: Mom's chili over rice

Breadsticks

1 cup warm water
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4C oil
3 Cups bread flour
2 1/2 tsp yeast

Put in the bread machine on dough cycle.  When that is complete divide into equal parts(as big as you want...I think I made 12).  Then I followed my friend, Traci's, recipe for topping them.  Her blog is here.

1/4 C cheddar cheese, finely grated
1/2 C grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1 lb loaf frozen bread dough, thawed
1/4 C butter, melted

Combine first 5 ingredients in a bowl. Cut bread dough into 16 portions. Shape into breadsticks. Dip in butter, then dip in topping. Place on cookie sheet. Bake in 400 deg. oven for 10-12 minutes. Watch them disappear in 10-12 seconds!