Friday, November 15, 2013

November 15, 2013

I'm going to see a movie tonight!  I haven't been to one in ages, and I hope this will be a good one.  I am going with a bunch of friends to see About Time.  I'll let you know how it is next Friday.  Going to the movies is another indication of the time of year - who wants to go see a movie when you can be out enjoying the beautiful weather?  But now, since the sun sets at about 4:15 in the afternoon, and the evenings are chilly (sometimes down right cold) it is time to head indoors and see a movie!  It should be fun!

With the cold wintry weather that swooped in on us early this week, we pulled out some dearly loved comfort food dinners...shepherd's pie and chicken pot pie.  They are both really scrumptious, and though a bit of work the results are well worth it!!!  You could even do these in individual ramekins to serve in smaller portions, or follow the recipe for one large dish.  Either way, they are great!  These were some favorites of ours that we discovered before and previously posted, but click on the links if you want to check them out again.  You could book mark the chicken pot pie and used any leftover turkey you might have on after Thanksgiving...just an idea!

As for new recipes, Ryan and the kids had off on Monday, so we tested out two new recipes, and both were keepers!  For breakfast I made oatmeal waffles and for lunch we had black bean quesadillas.  Both were huge hits!  The waffles were unbelievable light and fluffy, and because they have oatmeal in the batter they kept the kids fuller for longer.  If you know my kids you know this is truly an amazing feat...typically about 2 minutes after they get up from the table they are hungry again!  And the black bean quesadillas were a fantastic lunch.  You could also cut them smaller and serve them as appetizers or for a first course.  Again everyone was satisfied after lunch since the beans have so much protein and nutrition packed into them.  I will be definitely making both of these again!

What tips or recipes do you rely on to keep your kids fuller longer?

Happy Cooking!

New Recipes
Oat Waffles
Black Bean Quesadillas

Black Bean Quesadillas


Ingredients
* 1 cup black beans, rinsed and drained
* 2 green onions, chopped
* 2 tbsp chopped red onion
* 2 tbsp finely chopped roasted red pepper
* 1 tbsp minced fresh cilantro
* 1 tbsp lime juice
* 1 garlic clove, minced
* 4 or 5 flour tortillas
* 3-4 oz shredded Monterey jack or cheddar cheese

Directions
1. In a small bowl, mash the beans with a fork.  Stir in the green onion, red onion, red pepper, cilantro, lime juice and garlic.
2.  Spread the bean mixture on  each half of the flour tortillas, then top with cheese and fold in half.
3. Cook on a griddle coated with cooking spray or a small amount of oil.  Over medium low heat cook for 1-2 minutes on each side of until cheese is melted and tortilla is golden.  Cut into wedges.

Notes
Talk about delicious!  We had leftover beans from a previous dinner, and didn't want them to go to waste.  I saw this recipe and we all thought it sounded great.  We used 5 tortillas, but may have been able to stretch this to 6 if we needed to.  The filling was spilling out of some of the quesadillas!  You can serve these with salsa or sour cream. 

Oat Waffles


Ingredients
* 1 cup AP flour
* 1 cup oat flour
* 4 tsp baking powder
* 1 tbsp sugar
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 2 eggs, separated
* 1 3/4 skim milk
* 2 tbsp oil
* 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
1. In a large bowl combine the flour, oat flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
2.  In a second bowl combine the egg yolks, milk, oil and vanilla.
3. Beat the egg whites in a third bowl for 2 minutes or until light and fluffy.
4. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and combine.  Once the wet and dry ingredients are combined, fold in the egg whites.
5. Use batter in your preheated waffle maker.

Notes
This made 11 waffles in my waffle maker, but depending on the size you may get more or less.  For the oat flour, I used my food processor to make it from quick cooking oats.  I used 1 1/4 cups of quick cooking oats to make the oat flour and I ended up with just over 1 cup of oat flour.