Simple Chili in the Crockpot

After searching the Interwebs and Pinterest for a recipe similar to how I make my chili, to send to my  Lil' sister, and finding NADA. I decided that I needed to just post it on here for her, that way I can write it exactly like I want :)  Cause I'm picky like that.  So Nellie dear, this is for you.

Simple Chili in the Crockpot

 Ingred;
6 c. dried beans- I used 2c. pinto, 2c. black, 2c. pinto
1//2c. diced onion
4T. chili powder
2T. cumin
1T. minced/ or 1/2T. powdered garlic
2t. salt
1t. pepper
1 bay leaf (optional)
1 can v8 juice, tomato juice, or diced tomatoes
2 regular cans tomato sauce

   Rinse your beans in a colander, then add to your crockpot. Add water until the beans are cover by 2-3 inches of water. Add in the onion, put on the lid and set to cook on high. I cook mine on high for 3-4 hours, until the beans are cooked through. Drain the beans and put back in your crockpot. Add the remaining ingredients to your crockpot and set on low heat for 4-6 hours. Don't forget to remove the bay leaf when you get ready to serve.

Now, if you hadn't guessed, this makes A LOT of Chili. After dinner I will divide up the remaining Chili into 2-3 cup portions, place in ziplock freezer bags, label as- Chili, with the date, and toss in my freezer.  These will get used later as toppings for baked potatoes, noodles, turn mac and cheese into chili-mac, chip dip. Anything you would use canned chili or beans for.  I love having these bags of yumminess in my freezer, ready to help me make quick, homemade dinners for my family.

Yogurt Fudge Pops

So Kat and I made a batch of fudge pops, we started with one base and changed it up twice to get 3 flavors in one batch. And out of all three types this our #1 choice for Homemade Fudge Pops-  

Our Base was- 

1c. Homemade Vanilla Yogurt

2T. Cocoa Powder 

3T. Honey

 These are using the base and adding a little bit of non-fat milk, everyone thought they were ok. They ranked 3rd in our family taste test. 

These we used the base mix, 1/2c. frozen cherries and about 1/4c. nonfat milk, these ranked 2nd. 

These ranked #1 and everyone LOVED them- to the base we added 2T. Peanut Butter, 3T. Almond Joy Creamer and an extra T. of Cocoa powder. 

As I sit here typing this my girls are in the kitchen mixing up another batch of these :) 

doTerra Yogurt Pops

Mix together-

1/2c. milk (your choice dairy or non)

2c. greek yogurt

1/4c. honey (optional)

1/2t. vanilla extract

4 drops doTerra Essential Oil,

EO suggestions- lemon, lime, wild orange, grapefruit, lavender

Put into popsicle molds and freeze until set. 

               These Popsicles were made using the Lemon EO and another batch with the Wild Orange EO, they turned out really good and I am already plotting other flavor combos- 

like a Lemon/Lavender one:)

We also added a couple drops of food coloring to these to give them color, 

without the food coloring they would both be a beautiful creamy white, I did it mainly for picture purposes and because my daughter who was helping to make these wanted a way to tell the two apart without tasting them. We make a lot of Popsicles around here, they get wrapped in wax paper and stored in the freezer ready for kiddos to enjoy. 

These got the child, teen and spouse stamp of approval, and me, well I've already had one of each flavor so......... ;) 

Coconut Caramels

    What if I told you that you could make super delicious, somewhat healthy caramels with NO butter and NO cream?!? My sweet sister came to visit me this weekend and she was telling me about some caramels that she bought at GNC for 26.99! They are marketed as a dietary supplement because they have 500 mg of coconut oil in each chew. She loved them, loved the idea of them and wanted to know if we could make them ourselves and save her a whole lotta money. Now after looking up the ingredients for that product, not only are we saving her money we have managed to make them even healthier.

Here is the list of ingredients from the original product in the order listed on their pkg-

Corn Syrup
Sugar
Coconut
Evap. milk
Pineapple
Heavy Cream (cream with carageenan)
Coconut Oil Blend (coconut oil, organic extra virgin coconut oil)
Butter
Mono and Diglycerides
Natural flavor
Sea salt
Soy lecithin

Here is our ingredients list- 

Sugar, white and brown
Coconut milk, canned
Honey
Water
Coconut oil
Vanilla
Sea salt

Doesn't that sound better?  : )

 Here we are getting ready to see if our "concoction" will work-

My beautiful Sis stirring away-







Ta Dah!  The finished product-




     These are DELICIOUS!  And set beautifully. They are dairy, gluten and soy free. These have about 75% less fat and sodium than is in the GNC version. So here is the recipe for you, enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Coconut Caramels 

1/2c. Water
1-1/2c. White Sugar
1/2c. Brown Sugar
1t. Vanilla Extract
1- 14oz can full fat Coconut Milk
1c. Honey
6oz (12T.) Coconut Oil
1/2t. Sea Salt

        Lightly grease a 9x13 pan with coconut oil, set aside. In a 4 qt sauce pan mix together the water, sugars, coconut milk, coconut oil, and honey. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Continue stirring and cooking until it reaches 245 degrees F, or Firm ball stage. Remove from heat, stir in the salt and vanilla, Pour into greased pan. Let set until cooled- at least 2 hours. Turn out onto a cutting board cut into squares and wrap in wax paper.

Whole wheat dairy free pancakes

Breakfast for dinner, one of our favorite things :)

Because one of my kiddos doesn't tolerate milk well, we usually have a carton of coconut milk in the fridge, so last night when I went to make pancakes for dinner and found out we were out of reg milk I thought I would give it a try. It worked great, they were fluffy and tasty, what more could you want in a pancake :)

Whole wheat dairy free Pancakes


Ingred;
2 1/4c. whole wheat flour
1/4c. ground flax
1/4t. salt
1-1/2t. baking powder
1/4 c. olive oil
1/4c. agave
3 eggs
1t. vanilla 
2 c. coconut milk, adding more if mixture is too thick

     Stir together the dry ingred, make a well in the center. Into the well put your oil, agave, eggs and vanilla- mix together the wet ingred. Add in the coconut  milk and mix altogether.

Cook on a hot griddle.

These made a great dinner topped off with some homemade raspberry and strawberry freezer jams and eggs  :)

Protein Bites Galore

      I wanted to share some new recipes that have become a fav go to snack at our house. Because of my Husbands health and just in general benefit of our family we have been trying to eat only unprocessed foods, or foods with-out preservatives. Which means that any prepackaged snacks are out. Gone are the granola bars, goldfish, and to my Katy-Kat's dismay her beloved cheez-its.
   I have found a fun recipe and made homemade cheez-its, they were tasty. But our new fav snack around here seems to be protein/cookie bites. I found and altered one recipe and then because my oldest has decided he doesn't like pb I looked for and found several others. So here are all of the ones we have tried so far, they are all awesome, kid approved, picky husband approved, and chock full of good for you stuff.

  First we have our basic protein bites recipe, the original recipe before I altered it is found here at Gimme Some Oven.

 Protein Bites

Ingred;
3c. old fashioned rolled oats
1c. unsweetened finely shredded coconut
1/2c. ground flax seed
1/2c. oat or wheat bran
1/2c. mini choc. chips
1/2t. salt
                                   1/4c. choc. protein powder
                                     1/4c. chia seeds
                                     1/2c. agave
                                     2-1/4c. peanut butter
                                     1/4c. coconut butter

        I mix all of the dry ingred. in a large bowl, then heat the agave, pb and coconut butter in a glass bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1min. until it's warm and easily mixes together. Mix well. Pour it over the dry ingred. and mix together, I find after a bit of mixing that it works best to use your hands, they are going to get messy anyways :)
Form into balls and store in an airtight container. These are ready to eat right away but after a day in the fridge are AMAZING  :)
This recipe makes approximately 50-60 bites.

Second up are the ones I make for my oldest, my sweet son, who will eat whatever I give him with a smile but then later informs me that it was fine but he didn't care for it. His list of likes are getting shorter and shorter, it is really hard to find snacks that he likes so these next 3 recipes are ones I like to have on hand so that I know there is a snack around here that he will eat. The original recipe that I altered is here- A Dash of Compassion,  Natural Vegan baking with Love. 

Kegan's Cookie Bites 

Ingred:
2/3c. almonds, blanched or unblanched raw unsalted
2/3c. walnuts
2/3c. old fashioned raw oats
1/4c. ground flax
1/4t. salt
1/2t. cinnamon
1/4c. chia seeds
1/4c. agave
1/4c. coconut butter (here is a link to make your own if you can't find it), melted. 
1/3c. mini choc. chips

In a food processor blend the almonds, walnuts, and oats until it looks like flour. Add in the flax, salt, cinnamon, agave and coconut butter.  Blend until well mixed, dump into a bowl and with your hands mix in the chia seeds and the choc chips.  Form into balls and store in an airtight in the fridge.


This recipe makes aprox. 40 bites.









        


      This next recipe is in honor of my Grampa, his favorite cake was German Chocolate Cake. So this one makes me think of him. I found the original recipe on Chocolate Covered Katies Blog, if you haven't been over there boy howdy are you missing out. The pictures alone are worth the trip :)

                         Grampa's German Chocolate Bites

Ingred;
1/2c. pitted prunes
1/2t. vanilla
1/16t. salt
1/2c. pecans
2T. unsweetened finely shredded coconut
2T. choc. protein powder
2T. cocoa powder
1T. chia seeds
1/4c. mini choc. chips

In a food processor blend together the prunes, vanilla and salt, when that has become sort of a paste add into your food processor the pecans, coconut, protein powder and cocoa powder. Blend until it all comes together as a dough, dump into a bowl and with your hands work in the chia seeds and choc chips. Form into balls and store in the fridge.

This recipe makes approx 20 bites
(better double it :) 






         This next recipe is so good, just like eating choc chip cookie dough, love it. The first time I made it I followed the recipe to a T, it's found here at- Averie Cooks. It was a little sweet for us so I did a little bit of revising and here is what I came up with.

Raw Vegan Cookie Dough Bites

Ingred;
 1c. raw unsalted cashews 
1/3c. old fashioned rolled oats
2T. agave (going to try only 1 next time)
1t. vanilla extract
1T, vanilla protein powder (or could use powdered milk)
1/8c. mini choc chips

Place the cashews into the food processor and blend until like flour, then add in the oats and blend until it's powdery again. Add in the agave, vanilla, and protein powder. Blend until it forms a dough, dump into a bowl and work in the choc chips. Form into balls and store in the fridge.

This recipe makes aprox 10-12 bites, and I have to tell you my first batch never made it to the fridge. They were snatched up by children and spouse before they even made it into a container :)

All of these taste even better after they have been refrigerated for awhile, like overnight,  it lets everything mesh together better.


        There are a couple more recipes for protein bars that I am working on turning into bites, one with quinoa for my dad. I will be doing those later this summer. A quick shout out to my Sister-in-Law Kristy, I found out recently that she is a fan of my blog. She is super sweet and it was awesome to see her at the reunion a couple weeks ago, hugs girl.

Happy 4th All, I hope you have a Wonderful Independence Day!!!

A New Tradition

My Family has a Tradition of getting together on New Year's Day and having Breakfast together, each of my siblings and their family brings a dish. There are old favorites that everyone insists on being brought, and new dishes that we all can't wait to try!

This is one of the many things that I miss about living close to my Family, it's been a few years since we have been able to be at this event. So this year I resolved to carry on this Tradition in my own little family. We would have our own New Year's Day Breakfast feast! One of the dishes I made is Peaches and Cream French Toast, this has become a big favorite at our house. As a savory dish to go with that I made a yummy Hashbrown Bake, bacon and sliced oranges. I got out the nice dishes, fancy cups (we had OJ with 7up) and we all sat down to a tasty breakfast.

While I still missed being at my parents house and enjoying the company of everyone there, spending this morning with my sweet Family was a great start to a New Year. Cheers!



The recipe that I use for the French Toast I got from MyRecipes.com, I always change it up a little so here is my version-


Peaches and Cream French Toast

Ingredients

• 1 8-oz. loaf French bread, sliced
• 8 large eggs
• 2 cups half n half
  
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 15-oz. cans sliced peaches packed in juice, drained
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish and a 8x8 inch baking dish. Arrange bread in a tight, flat layer in both dishes.

Whisk eggs with half n half, sugar and almond extract until blended; pour over bread, using 3/4 of the mixture in the bigger pan and the rest in the smaller pan. Arrange peaches on top and sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 8 hours. I always do it the night before.

Remove baking dishes from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake, uncovered, until casserole is lightly browned on top and just cooked through, 45 to 55 minutes. I have always baked it for the full 55 min, and have never had it dry out. I serve it with a jar of cream so that it can be drizzled over top if they want.

Hashbrown 'n Egg Bake

Ingred.

4 c. thawed, frozen shredded hashbrown potatoes
1/4c. minced onion
1T. minced parsley
1t. onion powder
salt and pepper
1/2c. melted butter
1/2c. sour cream
1/2c. shredded cheddar cheese

1/2c. bacon bits/ or cubed ham.
6 eggs
1c. shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350. I used a buttered, lg round dish for this but I think a 9x13 pan would work fine. Mix together the potatoes, onion, parsley, onion powder, salt and pepper, butter, sour cream and 1/2c. shredded cheese. Spread mixture evenly into your pan. Make 6 indentations for your eggs. Place covered in the oven for 30 min. Remove from oven, crack each egg into it's own little indentation, sprinkle with salt and pepper, sprinkle the bacon/ham over the whole top. Cover and returned to the oven for 45 min. Remove from the oven, sprinkle the remaining
1 c. cheese over top and return, uncovered to the oven for 10 minutes more.