Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos

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We have beans every Monday night!  (I wonder if my kids will ever eat beans again on a Monday after they leave home!)  I love beans and I am always looking for new ways to use them in recipes.  The combination of beans with sweet potatoes is really quite tasty.  Give it a try and see what you think!

1 T canola oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 medium green pepper, chopped

Saute above ingredients until tender.

Add to vegetables and stir one minute:
1 T chili powder
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 t ground cumin

Add 1 tablespoon water and stir, scraping the pan to spread the chili powder and cumin throughout.

Stir in and cook until heated.
2 cups cooked and diced sweet potato
(I usually peel and dice the sweet potatoes then steam them until they still hold their form.)
2 cups cooked black beans or pinto beans (Canned beans would work fine too!)
1 cup frozen corn
juice from one lime

Serve in a flour tortilla with sour cream.  (It is good just by itself too.)

Cranberry-Orange Cornmeal Breakfast Muffins

We have muffins for breakfast every Wednesday and they are a favorite!   This recipe was inspired by an idea I saw in Cooking Light magazine.  I like it because of the nutty texture created by the cornmeal.  It is also very tasty made with blueberry and lemon. 

 1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
zest of one large orange, grated

Mix dry ingredients in large mixing bowl.  Then mix in grated orange zest.

1 cup buttermilk
OR
1 cup milk mixed with 1 T white vinegar (I use this because I rarely have buttermilk.)
3 T butter, melted (I've used oil too and that works just as well.)
1 egg

Whisk together in small bowl milk, butter, and egg.  Add to dry ingredients.  Mix just enough to moisten the batter.  Add:

1 cup frozen or fresh cranberries

Grease 12 muffin cups with cooking spray.  Spoon batter into muffin cups.  Sprinkle with sugar.  Bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

*for Blueberry-Lemon muffins replace orange zest for lemon zest and cranberries for blueberries!

Enjoy!

Flat French Bread

I wanted to share a recipe that comes from my days in college. (I still have the original hand written recipe, as seen in the photo above.) I've adjusted it a little but it is still basically the same yummy bread that I remember. My roommate introduced the recipe to me and we often made it on Sunday afternoons. It is one of those recipes that you can't fail at . . . and that I often make when guests come for dinner. It is always a hit and most don't go home without asking for the recipe (maybe that is just a polite thing to do but it always makes me feel good).

Flat French Bread

1 1/2 T yeast
2 cups warm water
1 T sugar
2 t salt
4 to 4 1/2 cups white flour (I like to use unbleached white flour.)
4 to 8 T melted butter

Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water in a large mixing bowl. Stir in salt. Add flour and stir* until dough is no longer sticky adding additional flour as needed. Let rise in a greased bowl until double in bulk about one hour.

*I pretty much did this all by hand during my college days but now that I have a KitchenAid I like to kneed it in the machine. But it rises without a whole lot of kneeding so the mixer is not necessary.

Press dough into a well-greased 9X13 pan. (I have found that using shortening to grease the pan makes a wonderful crust! But however you choose to grease it will work fine, just be sure to grease the pan!)

So here comes the part that probably makes the bread so tasty . . . pour 4 to 8 tablespoons of melted butter over the dough. (Depending how much your conscience allows you to use!) Sprinkle with sesame seeds, parmesan cheese, minced garlic, or rosemary.

Bake at 400 degrees until golden, about 20 - 25 minutes.

I used butter and minced garlic on this batch. We ate almost the whole pan for dinner!
I think it has something to do with the white flour and butter!