Recipe for Sweet and Hot Baked Beans

Sweet and Hot Baked Beans

My family loves beans. Three times a day my husband eats some type of beans as part of his meals. He is great about eating an array of beans every week and has lost over 30 pounds due to his good eating habits. My son and I try to eat beans at lunch every day, he loves black beans with feta and could eat them every day if given the chance. Since we live in West Virginia we also eat a ton of pinto beans, we love them. Given that beans are such a large part of our weekly diet I try to come up with new recipes and bean dishes so we don't get bored. Last week I tried a new recipe from the April/May 2013 issue of Taste of Home magazine for Sweet and Hot Baked Beans.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 5 hours and 20 minutes of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 12 servings. I didn't make too many changes to the original recipe. For the beans I used cannellini beans since they were the type available. I allowed the beans to cook for 6 hours on low and used sweet onions for the onions called for in the recipe.

These beans turned out really well. They were a nice combination of sweet and spicy and made enough for three separate meals for my family of 4. My husband and I enjoyed the recipe the most since the spice from the jalapenos was a little more geared towards adults. However, my youngest decided to eat the beans over rice the next day and loved them. The only complaint I heard in my house was that my husband would have preferred if the onions were sauteed and caramelized before being added to the crock-pot.

For the recipe go to Sweet and Hot Baked Beans.

Recipe for Spiced Chicken with Creamy Horseradish and Cabbage Slaw

I live in a family that loves meat. My husband and two boys would be horrible vegetarians. They will put up with vegetables being in a dish or a meal or two during the week having no meat. However, anything more than that and I begin to hear complaints. When my husband is left to take care of my two boys they seem to eat a lot of bacon with chicken or pork as a side. Needless to say meat seems to always be center stage in my house. Sine meat is such an integral part of my family's diet I try to make sure we eat a large variety of protein sources and I switch up my menu plans so no one gets bored. Yesterday I tried a new recipe for Spiced Chicken with Creamy Horseradish Cabbage Slaw from the July 2012 issue of Woman's Day magazine.

This recipe has 8 ingredients in the chicken and 9 ingredients in the slaw. It takes 1 hour 15 minutes of total time for the chicken, 20 minutes of which is active and 30 minutes of total time for the slaw, 15 minutes of which is active. Both recipes make 12 servings. The only change that I made to the chicken was to take the skin off of the thighs and I used honey instead of the brown sugar called for in the recipe. For the slaw I left out the carrot that was used in the original recipe. Instead of the granulated sugar I used agave syrup. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The slaw used in this recipe is delicious. My husband and two sons loved it and they are picky about slaw. The chicken was okay. It needed more flavor that it had from the rub. I would suggest adding 1 tsp of garlic powder and 1/8-1/4 of cayenne pepper to increase the flavor and add a little bit of kick. I think with the changes to the rub the chicken could be a lot better. The slaw would be delicious with a blue cheese burger or anything with blue cheese. The flavors would blend very well together.

For the recipes go to Spiced Chicken and Creamy Horseradish and Cabbage Slaw.

Easy, Flavorful Barbecue Roasted Nuts

As I've discussed before I love to snack. There are days that I eat six small meals a day instead of 3 large ones. When I learned from my doctor that I had to go gluten free I struggled with snacks the most. I have always loved carbs, especially breads and waffles. Pre-packaged gluten free snacks are not that delicious and I only buy them if I am starving and have no other options. It's hard when I am hungry and there is nothing that I can eat in the cupboard. Since my snacking options are limited I try to keep homemade snacks on hand as much as I can. This week I tried a new recipe for Barbecue Roasted Nuts from the November 2012 issue of Southern Living magazine.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 2 hours 5 minutes of total time, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 6 cups. I did make a number of modifications. First instead of light brown sugar I used sorghum syrup and instead of granulated sugar I used honey. I have been trying to limit the amount of granulated sugar that I use in baking and cooking and honey is a great substitute. Make sure to stir the nuts at least every 10 minutes while they are in the oven. They will go from browned to burnt very quickly, so be careful.

These nuts aren't very spicy so if you are looking for a little kick I suggest adding a 1/2-1 teaspoon of cayenne. The barbecue flavor is nice and even my two kids were fans. One of the best things about the recipe is that it takes very little prep time and makes a large amount of nuts. A great way to make homemade snacks and the flavors can be adjusted to be spicier, more garlic etc.

For the recipe go to Barbecue Roasted Nuts.

Appalachian Cider Baked Beans

I'm back! I have been without a computer for over a week, thanks to a number of unfortunate events. In a single week our car needed fixed, my dryer broke (and couldn't be repaired), my glasses broke and my netbook completely broke. Needless to say it was an expensive week. Instead of buying a new netbook I decided to treat myself to a nicer computer and bought a MacBook Pro. So far I love it, so hopefully my streak of bad computers has come to an end. I hope everyone has been enjoying delicious food, I have and have a number of great recipes to share in the next week. A few weeks back I tried a new recipe for Appalachian Cider Baked Beans from the October issue of Southern Living Magazine, which looked delicious and great for a West Virginia food blogger.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes a total of 5 and a half hours of cooking and prep and makes 6 cups of beans. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. Pinto beans are a stable in the West Virginian diet and you can literally find them even at convenience stores. Instead of salt pork I used sliced pork jowl. I special order my sorghum syrup, but I also have bought it at craft fairs all over my area. I had to add additional water as the beans cooked in order for the beans to not burn. I would estimate that I added an additional two cups over the course of the 5 hour cooking time. Make sure to use a Dutch oven with this recipe. It really does make a large difference in the way that the beans cook (I promise :). I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

These beans were delicious. My husband thought these were the best baked beans that he has ever had and my two boys absolutely loved them. The only thing that I would modify is the use of whole onions. I understand the idea of keeping them whole for flavor, but the end texture wasn't something my husband and I liked. Instead I would slice the onions, which would keep the flavor and improve the texture. Definitely a recipe to add to my recipe book!

For the recipe go to Appalachian Cider Baked Beans.