Recipe Share: Easy Crock Pot Firehouse Four Bean Chili

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Baked Potato, Bean, bean chili, Black, Chili, Crock-Pot, dinner, Easy, Elbow Pasta, Firehouse, Food, Four, Ground Beef, Ground Turkey, Kidney, ranch style beans, recipe, Red, red kidney beans, Rice, Saltine, Share, Shredded Cheese, Slow Cooker, Sour Cream, Spicy

Easy Crock Pot Firehouse Four Bean Chili

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds of ground beef (you can also use ground turkey)
• 1 can of Ranch Style Beans
• 1 can of black beans
• 1 can of light red kidney beans
• 1 can of dark red kidney beans
• 1 can of hot Rotel
• 1 can of tomato paste
• 1/2 onion chopped (optional)
• 1 tsp. cummin
• 3 heaping tbsp. chili powder
• 3-4 cups of water

Directions:

1. Drain the black beans, light red kidney beans, and dark red kidney beans and pour into the crock pot. Add remaining ingredients to the crock pot EXCEPT the meat and turn on high.
2. Slowly brown the meat in a saucepan on low – medium heat. You want to be able to separate the meat well so that you don’t have big chunks of it in your chili.
3. Drain cooked meat and add it to the crock pot. Cook for 4 – 6 hours adding water as needed.
4. Serve piping hot alone, over rice, over small elbow pasta, or over a baked potato.  Some additional toppings you may want to add are saltines, shredded cheese, sour cream, and freshly cut chives.

Warning: I have a a big 8 quart crock pot and this makes the whole pot full. I usually separate it and freeze some so that my husband and I can eat it for several meals.

Enjoy!

Don’t forget to find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Until next time, this has been a real housewife in Houston moment.

Friday Favorite: Recipe Share

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Bag, Basil, Butter, Cook, cooking, Favorites, Friday, Lemon, Orzo, Parmesan, Pinterest, recipe, Salmon, Sauteed, Share, Spinach

I’ve got another recipe share for you today but you’re getting a two-fior-one deal. How exciting (<—sarcasm)! I found these two recipes on Pinterest and have been wanting to make them, so I put them together last Sunday. Please click on the photos to be directed to the Pinterest link where you can click again and be directed to the recipe.

Orzo with Parmesan and Basil

I was getting tired of making rice all the time. I feel like I either make rice, potatoes, or spaghetti with all of my meals for our starch. This Orzo recipe is a very tasty, easy, and quick alternative. I will definitely be keeping it in the house and making it A LOT more often.

Salmon in a Bag

This salmon came out so moist and flakey, it might have been the best fish I’ve ever made. I struggle with my fish dishes. They’ve never come out as flakey as this one did. I don’t think I’m going to make my salmon any other way ever again. I placed the salmon on a bed of sauteed spinach with the Orzo on the side. It was such a quick delicious meal. It only took 25 minutes with about 5 minutes of prep time. YUM. Enjoy.

Salmon on a Bed of Spinach with Parmesan and Basil Orzo

Until next time, this has been a real housewife in Houston moment.

Friday Favorite: Recipe Share

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AllRecipes, Delicious, dinner, Easy, Entree, Favorites, Food, Freeze, Friday, Loaf, Meat, Meatloaf, Muffin, muffin tins, Pinterest, Quick, recipe, Reheat, Share, Tin

A little back-story … we have our house listed for lease right now and recently lowered the price, which created a new buzz of interest. I was trying to test this recipe before I shared it so I had planned to make it on Tuesday night. I usually start making dinner around 4:30 or 5 so that everything will be ready before I start princess’s bedtime routine (which usually takes until around 7:30 to complete) so that I can go upstairs after I put her to bed and have my dinner with the husband. Well, at about 5 on Tuesday evening, the husband called to let me know that a showing was scheduled for 6. I had to stop what I was doing, put everything that I had just taken out to prepare dinner away, buzz around the house for a quick clean up for the showing, and get Ava and myself out of the house. Needless to say, I called in a pick-up order for Chinese take out that night. So I thought I’ll just cook it the following night … no big deal. Wednesday evening around 5, the husband calls again and tells me that a couple from Austin is driving in and they’ll be here between 6 and 8 for a showing. UGH … again. So, I put everything away again, clean up “Ava Zone”, and run upstairs to make the bed and do a quick spot clean in the master bathroom. About that time the husband comes home and we take princess for a walk to a restaurant a few blocks away to have our dinner out. Finally, as 5 o’clock approached last night, I begin to give my phone the evil eye as I take out all the items I’ll need to make this recipe … and it doesn’t ring. Thank goodness! So, after much anticipation, I finally got to make it last night and it was well worth the wait! It was so easy and delicious …

I got the recipe off of www.AllRecipes.com (with a little tweaking and additions of my own) and the inspiration for cooking it off of Pinterest. It’s called Meatloaf Muffins (I mistakenly called it Meatloaf Cupcakes last night in my tweet). One of the good things about cooking meatloaf in muffin tins is that IF there are any leftover, they are easy to freeze and reheat. You can make a big batch of this on a weekend and just take out what you want to eat during the weeks ahead for a quick reheat. I thought they would be really easy to feed to princess also since each one is such a small portion. The recipe was quick and easy to follow and the taste was so yummy. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Meatloaf Muffins

Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 1 Hour

Ready In: 1 Hour 10 Minutes Servings: 11

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 pounds ground beef 1 egg 1 onion, chopped 1 cup milk 1 bell pepper, chopped (any color – I like the red or yellow for color and a little sweetness) – optional

1 cup dried bread crumbs salt and pepper to taste 2 tablespoons brown sugar 2 tablespoons prepared mustard 1/3 cup ketchup

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.	In a large bowl, combine the beef, egg, onion, bell pepper, milk and bread OR cracker crumbs. Season with salt and pepper to taste and place in lightly greased muffin tins. Fill to the top as they will shrink very slightly.
3.	In a separate small bowl, combine the brown sugar, mustard and ketchup. Mix well and spoon over each meatloaf. One spoonful should be enough and the you can use the back of the spoon to spread it evenly over the top.
4.	Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour.

Meatloaf Muffins

Until next time, this has been a real housewife in Houston moment.

Recipe Share: Crock-Pot Lasagna

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5, Cook, cooking, Crock-Pot, Italian, Lasagna, Pinterest, Quart, recipe, Share, Slow Cooker

I absolutely LOVE my crock-pot! I got it for Christmas. I use it 1 – 5 times a week. It was an upgrade from my tiny crock-pot that I had gotten as a Christmas gift as well. The one I have now is a  5 quart and is big enough to hold a whole chicken (which is what’s in it right this second, but I’ll share that recipe with you later).

A while back ago, I found a recipe on Pinterest (of course) for Crock-Pot Lasagna. While I absolutely love lasagna, I’ve only made it a couple of times because of how long it takes to prep and cook it. I typically wait for Christmas time when my mother-in-law makes it for the holidays to indulge myself in it. So naturally, this crock-pot version really intrigued me. I am a quarter Italian and my husband is half Italian, his mother being the Italian in his lineage (although he would have everyone believe he is full-blooded, his last name gives it away).  I digress. My point was that he would be a good judge of this lasagna, so I made it earlier this week. Needless to say, I just finished the last of it for lunch and I already want to make more … it was so easy and my husband loved it too!

Crock-Pot Lasagna - Click on the image to go to my Pinterest and get the recipe.

I never in a million years would have thought you could make lasagna in a crock-pot! I confess, I did add a couple of ingredients than what the recipe called for just because of preference and because my crock-pot is bigger (a can of diced tomatoes and extra meat for the meat sauce). You can always refrigerate any ingredients if you want to make more than the recipe says for next time. You’re welcome. Until next time, this has been a real housewife in Houston moment.