Mexican Night

Last night we had homemade chicken enchiladas, Spanish rice, and beans. It was delicious. I wanted to share two things from our meal.

1. My stand mixer (which I received as a Mother's Day gift this year!) makes SIMPLE work of shredding cooked chicken. I used the paddle attachment for 30 seconds and the chicken was ready to use. In the past I would have stood in the kitchen for a solid 15 minutes chopping/shredding the chicken by hand.

2. Homemade "Refried" Beans are my new favorite thing! Noah absolutely loves beans and rice, but I just can't bring myself to buy a can of refried beans. Almost all of them have either MSG or lard, neither of which I want to serve my family. I found a recipe for homemade beans that takes less than 10 minutes of hands-on time plus 6-8 hours in the crockpot. I love that the recipe uses (cheap) dried beans that you don't have to soak overnight! Fresh ingredients, whole foods, nothing mysterious... and I will NEVER think about buying canned refried beans again. Everyone gobbled up the beans, except Erik who never has liked refried beans anyway. Noah was still talking about the beans this morning.

Easy Slow Cooker Refried Beans

INGREDIENTS

• 1 onion, peeled and halved
• 2 cups dry pinto beans, rinsed
• ½ fresh jalapeno or other hot pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ¾ teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• One big pinch of cumin
• 6 cups water

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker.
2. Cook on high for 8 hours or overnight while you are sleeping.
3. Remove the bigger onion chunks and drain the excess liquid. If desired, save excess liquid until the final product is desired consistency.
4. Mash remaining beans with a potato masher and voila! You have homemade refried beans.

Autumn's recipe notes: 

1. I used half yellow and half red onion and chopped them up so I didn't have any big chunks to take out at the end of cooking.

2. I used an extra clove or two of garlic. That's how I roll.

3. I added more salt at the end, to taste.

4. I stirred the beans a couple times throughout the day to keep them from sticking to the crock. I didn't add any additional water, and I didn't drain any liquid off at the end. The consistency was perfect.

5. Don't be afraid of the jalepeno. The beans were not the least bit spicy! The jalepeno adds to the flavor.

6. I got this recipe from a food blog I love to follow: 100 Days of Real Food

Food Revival!

I propose that we resurrect this blog! We are all in different seasons (no pun intended) of life now, and our approaches to nutrition and good living have evolved. I've enjoyed reviewing all our archived recipes and can't wait to give some of them a try.

A few things in my life have changed dramatically since my last posting. I graduated nursing school and began working as a RN. I went through a divorce. I moved to a new rental house with my three children. I met someone wonderful who is now my husband. I bought a house and moved. I gave birth (at home for the first time) to our sweet son. Currently, I am mostly staying at home with 12 week old Matthias (and Erik, Hailey and Noah as their summer break is winding down) and finding much joy in home management and family life.

I love my kitchen! I've never felt so at home in my own kitchen as I do now. There are plenty of countertops, cabinets, and drawers. It's a nice open space. It's functional, and I find myself inspired to branch and try new things in the world of food preparation. The only thing I would change today would be the lighting. It could use some improvement.

This summer I have instituted "Kids in the Kitchen." It's my own way to involve our children in menu planning, shopping, food preparation and clean-up. Each child gets to choose the menu one night every week. On that particular evening they help me in the kitchen, and I try to teach them how to cook. In real life, I am usually overly hungry and quite impatient with the child as we work together but I am working to prevent/improve this situation. I figure it's better to do it imperfectly than not do it at all. I just hope they can see that cooking can be enjoyable despite a grouchy Momma. They really find great satisfaction in "owning" the meal for that night. I take them to the local farmer's market and grocery store most weeks and teach them about nutrition, how to select the best produce and meats, and how to make your dollar stretch when buying food.

What's for dinner at your house tonight? We are having Chicken Pot Pie and salad.