I’m Bored – Let’s Jazz Up The Sac Lunch With Zippy Sandwiches!

Boring brown bag

February is my LEAST favorite month because I am bored with the cold weather, the dark, the lack of fresh garden produce and just all-around bored.  Yes, I used to drive mom crazy at this time of the year when I was a kid; not much has changed in that respect.

So let’s come up with some different sandwich ideas and jazz up the boring brown bag, what do you say?

Here are a couple for starters that I found that sound interesting:

 

1. “Tuna salad on toasted rye with shredded carrots for crunch (and Vitamin A!).”

    My thought is the carrots need to be flash-sauteed.  Just enough to wilt but not soften the carrots

   
   

2. “Almond butter with sliced banana packs a protein punch, but tastes like dessert.” 

    I do this with peanut butter but have never tasted almond butter – now I am really curious!  In fact I like to smear peanut butter on a banana; it would probably be good with almond butter too.  

   
   

3. “Grilled cheese doesn’t have to be just American cheese. Try cheddar with sliced apples and grainy mustard.”  

   My favorite is grilled swiss cheese with spicy dark mustard.  Ummmmm!

   
   

   What are some of your ideas?  In the mean time, I will keep looking and let you know what I try.  

 

Pizza By The Slice – Stress Free, Heart Healthy, 6 WW points and Yummy!

Heart healthy Pizza by the slice

Summary: These are large eggplant round slices that sit atop english muffin halves, loaded up with pizza sauce and your choice of veggies.   Also, I prefer to use my toaster oven for this recipe!  You will be surprised how filling this is, and if you don’t tell the kids there is eggplant in it, I promise they will love it too.

I love eggplant and am always on the lookout for new ways to make it.  So last night I combined a recipe I found for eggplant-pizzas, with the old stand-by English muffin pizzas, and my favorite pizza which is a Pizza Hut personal pan veggie lovers pizza!  Ohhh yeaaaa!

I am pleased to say my  ”kitchen experiment”  was definitely a success.  How do I know?  I passed my test:

1. Tastes yummy

2. High in nutrition and low in calories

3. Not difficult to make

4. Versatile; can modify to suit individual likes

5.  Picky meat-eater demanding hubby likes it!

So here it is. 

First, you will bread and cook the eggplant slices. While they are cooking you finely chop the vegies.

INGREDIENTS:

1 eggplant, large (about 3″ diameter); peeled and sliced 1/2″ thick

1 package of whole wheat English Muffins; separated into halves

1 small can Pizza sauce – I am out of my home made so I buy it canned from the store

8oz package Part-skim mozzerella cheese, shreaded

vegies for topping:

red onion, finely chopped

green pepper, finely chopped or sliced

mushrooms, fresh or canned, whatever kind you like

1 large tomato, chopped

Ings. for breadding the eggplant – Mix together:

2 lg. eggs, + 2 Tbsp water

1/2 c. Itallian bread crumbs

1/4 c. parmessan cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1. dip the eggplant in the egg mixture, then roll in the bread crumb mixture

bread the eggplant

2. Place on a rack in a 400 F oven.  ( I prefer to use my toaster oven ).  Cook till slightly crispy on the outside, about 20 min.    While these are baking, finely chop your vegies.

3. Place each cooked-eggplant round on top of an English Muffin halve.    Spread a generous amount of pizza sauce on each eggplant round, then sprinkle with cheese.  Top with the finely chopped vegies.  I like to sprinkle Hot Mrs. Dash or dried hot peppers before baking too!

set on muffin half

4.  Bake at 400F or 450F till the vegies look cooked, the cheese is melted and it’s just starting to get a few “toasty” areas on top. I think it was about 15 minutes, but I forgot to note closely how long this took.  Enjoy!!

enjoy!

Enjoy!

In fact, even though it’s only 7am as I am posting this, it tastes so good I am getting hungry for more pizza; I  think I will have leftovers for breakfast.  Anyone else out there like leftover pizza for breakfast?

Eat Cheap And Healthy Tip – Adventures With Veggies

Vegies

Everyone knows that veggies are good for us, but how do you teach kids to actually LIKE the stuff?  Well, it is possible. Here are a few ideas:

1. Don’t let kids think green stuff is bad. That’s right. If everyone in your family eats broccoli and doesn’t make a big deal out of it, your child won’t realize that anything is amiss. This includes both parents. If one parent happens to really hate that poor innocent broccoli, maybe that parent needs to re-visit the yumminess for themselves. Kids notice everything, and if the veggie in question never appears on someone’s plate, they will know.

2. Have a “Try It” rule. All vegetables, new and old, must be tried at least once (or twice, depending on your rule) every time it appears on their plate. The standard excuse of “I tried it last time and didn’t like it” will not work. In fact, studies show that repeat exposure to new tastes and flavors is often necessary before kids will like a new food item. In other words, the more often they try it, the greater the chances that they will like it until, one day.

3. Have a grocery store adventure where each person has to pick out a new vegetable to try. Make it a game. Research the vegetable online when you get home. Look for printables to color, the history of the vegetable, its origin and cultural traditions or even the tastiest way to cook and eat it. Involving kids increases your chances that their curiosity will be piqued. Jicama is a great veggie to test out this way. It is unattractive and resembles a potato. In actuality, you peel it like an apple, slice it and dip it in low-fat ranch dressing.

4. Think of creative ways to cook each veggie. If you have only ever served zucchini raw, try it sautéed in butter or olive oil. You can even make zucchini bread for a healthy snack. Cauliflower is good steamed and sprinkled with a little parmesan cheese and Italian breadcrumbs.

5. For younger children, host a family “color” night. Plan ahead and serve only foods in that color. Purple cauliflower or yellow squash might slide right by when the little one is having fun. The point is to make a game of it and not let anyone have the chance to think about it and complain.

6. Brave a messy kitchen and let them cook. Most kids learn by doing and this is no exception. For younger children you can start by mashing cauliflower instead of potatoes or even adding vegetables as ingredients to other dishes for older children.

Eat Cheap and Healthy – Tip

Clip Coupons

Planning ahead is the best thing you can do to keep costs down and ensure nutritious meals.

Every week, local grocery stores have a “sale” cycle.  For instance, locally our grocery stores have a “sale” items from Wednesday through the following Tuesday.  Here is a great plan:

1. Find out from your grocery store when their sales flyers come out and when their sale cycle runs.  For this example, I am going to use from Wednesday through Tuesday.

2.  Find out the URL for your grocer’s online sales flyer.  This way you can log on to the Internet and view their store sales flyer early in the morning, before work and school while you are sipping your coffee waking up.

3. From the flyer, find those items that your family uses or needs; write those on your list

4. Go to ebay and search for coupons for the items that are on sale at your grocery store.  If you order first thing that morning, you will get the coupons usually by Saturday’s mail delivery.

5. Grocery shop the sale items matching with coupons for extra good priced.  Stock up on these sale items.

Example: 

A local grocer had a sale of Tobasco sauce; each bottle was on sale for $1.09.   I went to ebay and found coupons from the Tobasco company for $0.50 per bottle.  Well, the store that had the sale also doubles coupons up to $0.50.  So When I presented the fifty-cent coupon, they doubled it to equal $1.00 leaving the cost per bottle at $0.09.   I bought a lot of 20 coupons so I stocked up on Tobasco sauce.

This is an example of how you can slowly and gradually start to increase your storehouse of “pantry” items while working at the same time to eat healthier and save money.

Stress Free Cooking – Puttanesca Sauce

Here is a tasty, fun, easy, versatile, healthy recipe I made.  I found it on Sharon Wegner’s website Essentials for Healthy  Living.  I had never heard of Puttanesca Sauce before  finding it on this website.

Remind me to make this next  summer when tomatoes are fresh and plentiful.

Try it out here:  http://www.bella-vitawellness.com/do-these-look-like-pumpkins-to-you/#comments

Lentil Soup – Cheap, Healthy, Stress Free Cooking!

Earlier this week a co-worker was asking about how to make Lentil soup – and that got me hungry for this tasty soup.  Super easy to make, fast, healthy, low in calories, high in fiber, very versatile, cheap, makes enough to feed an army, and totally Stress Free cooking.   My kind of cooking!

This is a recipe I got way back when I was first married. I modified it a little and what you see here is my version.

Well it’s been a while since I have posted anything in this blog (sorry ’bout that. I have been totally occupied on another area of my business).  Would you believe not 5 minutes ago I was thinking about how to “share” recipes with friends on the internet when I received an email from my sister-in-law about a recipe exchange.  ( spooky, eh?)

So let me post this recipe which will serve not only as my recipe for the exchange, but it will also allow me to share a recipe with you-all.

 

Easy -Peasy Stress-free Lentil Soup

2 cups brown lentils (1 small bag you can get at any grocer. I believe it is 1 lb)

8 cups water

1 large onion, chopped

1 garlic clove

2 Tbsp oil

2 stalks celery, chopped

4 carrots, chopped

1 bay leaf

2 Tbsp Tamari soy sauce (it’s a “natural” soy sauce. If you don’t have Tamari you can substitute regular store-bought but Tamari is healthier for you)

1. Wash & sort the lentils.  Wash & chop the vegies

2. Quickly saute the chopped carrots in the oil, in the bottom of a large soup pot.  After about 2 minutes add the celery, then the onions & garlic.  Saute for about 2-3 more minutes.  This starts to soften the vegies.

3. Add all the ingredients. Bring to a quick boil then rapidly bring down to a slow-cook.  You don’t ever want to cook  beans or peas too fast as this “seals” them and makes them hard as bricks no matter how much cooking you do (except I have not seen this happen with lentils. They are a softer outer shell).

4.  Just slowly cook for about 1 to 1.5 hours while you do something else.  They really are easy! Just stir once and a while.

I really recommend serving this soup with some Lundgren’s wild rice mix.  Beans or peas served with rice or whole grains dramatically increases the protein you will get from the meal.

I would love to hear your feedback!

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Visit the above link, Click Scribd in the left column, “LIKE” Wellness Coach Connection and download your free ebooklet of Protein Recipes.  It’s that simple!

Breakfast Idea – Oatmeal; cook once, eat 5 meals

When Sunday rolls around, that means on my schedule I often cook up a big batch of oatmeal for the upcoming week.  I learned this tip several years ago; cook up all the oatmeal you will need for the week, then just store it in the refrigerator.

In fact, since I take my oatmeal breakfast to work with me, I scoop servings up into individual pyrex bowls and attach the tight-fitting lid.  These dishes are WONDERFUL!  They won’t spill (which is great because often I carry my oatmeal in an oversized purse-duffel) and they of course are microwave safe.  Remember, you NEVER want to microwave in anything plastic!!  So these pyrex dishes are perfect.

Another feature of the dishes  is they are available in several sizes, and last forever.  Of course you can find them at any Wal Mart so they are readily available. Plus, being completely clear you can easily see in the refrigerator what you have stored in each one.

After dividing the oatmeal into individual dishes, I add cinnamon, raisins, craisins, and either walnuts or pecans.  The raisins add enough sweetness that I no longer even need to add honey or sweetener.

If you do a cost comparison you will find that this is SO much cheaper than instant oatmeal, and healthier too.   If you compare this oatmeal with boxed cereals it is much healthier as well.  In the human body boxed cereals break down  into basically, SUGAR so home-cooked oatmeals wins hands down!!

Whole oatmeal is in my (and many others) the healthiest food a person can start the day with.  It is just what the body needs in the morning.  This might be a good time to start the kids off right and get them off heavily processed, high sugar – little fiber store cereals and save money at the same time.

Pizza Sauce Recipe!

Finally (Yea!).

When I went to the farmer’s market, the late season tomatoes that came in  were no longer at a good price.   In fact they were priced right out of being cost effective so I did not buy the case of tomatoes I had planned, and I didn’t make homemade sauce this year.  

So what I will do is this.  I will post the recipe I do use for pizza sauce (I like to double and freeze the extra) and I will post the recipe I was planning to try from Ball.

First, the recipe that I use frequently:

2 cloves garlic,  minced

1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste

1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce

1/2  teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon honey

1/2 teaspoon oregano, dried

1/2 tsp basil, dried

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/8 tsp crushed red pepper

1/8 tsp lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Stir all ingredience together then use on your favorite pizza crust, Itiallian bread, or whole wheat English muffins; whatever you use for your family or individual pizzas.

If you double the batch and freeze the remainder, best to use plastic freezer containers.   If you do use glass canning jars for freezing liquids,  be sure not to fasten down the cap until the sauce has frozen overnight or it will expand and burst the glass container.

Here is the Ball Canning recipe that I wanted to try (guess I will wait until next year):

fresh plum tomatoes puree,  13 cups (about 9 lbs)

lemon juice, 1/2 c (bottled ok)

oregano, dried 2 tsp

pepper, black, freshly ground 1 tsp

salt, 1 tsp

garlic powder, 1 tsp

To make the tomato puree, pass quartered tomatoes through a food mill or Victorio strainer. If you don’t have a food mill or strainer, blanch, peel, core, seed and chop tomatoes. Place in a colander and let stand for 15 min. Discard liquid and puree tomatoes in a food processor fitted with a metal blade.

Place half of the tomato puree in a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to high heat, stirring occasionally. Add remaining puree 1 cup at a time. Stir in the remainder of the herbs and condiments.  Cook the sauce down stirring frequently until the mixture is like a thin commercial sauce (about 15 min).

At this point you would can the sauce or freeze batches and not worry about canning.

 Makes about 4 pint jars.  Process 35 min in hot water bath canner. ( follow canning instructions carefully http://www.freshpreserving.com/getting-started.aspx  )

Chicken Soup Recipe – Homemade

Part 1: Cook the Chicken

Cook the chicken and save the broth first:

Chicken, 1 whole, washed

Celery, 1 stalk, sliced

Carrot, 1, chunked

Onion, 1 small, sliced

Poultry seasoning, 2 tsp

Salt, 2 tsp

Pepper, 1/2 tsp

Wash the chicken and place it in a deep soup pot, then cover with water plus about 2 inches.  I prefer to cook down the water to make a fine broth.  Add all the above vegetables and seasonings.  Cover and just bring to an almost-boil; quickly reduce the heat to a medium-low.  In my experience, if you cook the chicken too fast it will cause the meat to be tough.  You want melt-in-your-mouth chicken for this soup.

Cook on low for several hours, reducing the liquid slowly. I like the chicken to be literally falling apart before I do the next step.

Next, remove from heat and pull the chicken out into a colander; be sure to catch all the juice under the colander and add it back to the broth. You might want to wait until the chicken has cooled a little to make the de-boning easier.

De-bone, seperating the meat from the bones and icky stuff.  Be sure to feel closely, as there are occasional small bones and cartilage that you don’t want going back into your soup or anything else you make with the meat.

If you like, you can refrigerate the broth and chicken (seperately) until the next day.  I do this if I am cooking chicken in the evening after work. It cooks in the background, making the house smell yummy while I do other things.  Then the next day I already have cooked chicken waiting for me.

Part 2: Making the Soup

Chicken broth from cooked chicken, about 6-8 cups

Carrots, 3-5 depending on the size, sliced

Celery, 2-3 stalks, sliced

Onion, 1 large, chopped

Garlic cloves, 3-4, minced

Parsley, fresh is best, 1/3 c. minced (about 2T if dried)

Chicken Boulion cubes, 2

Salt & Pepper to taste

Tobasco sauce, 1/4 tsp

de-boned chicken meat, bite-size chunks

Noodles, 2 c.  uncooked

Add all ingredients except the noodles and meat  to the chicken broth and bring just to a boil; turn to medium-low and cook until the vegetables are tender (about 15-20 min).

When the vegetables are tender, add the noodles and the meat and cook until the noodles are tender (usually about 10 more minutes).

I like to serve up with homemade bread (yes bread bakers count as home-made bread) or garlic bread.

Serve up and enjoy!

Notes:  I feel the secret to a great homemade chicken noodle soup is carrots which add sweetness, garlic which is just plain delicious and it is medicinal, and the fresh parsley.  Also, cooking the chicken slowly so as not to make the meat tough.   This is an excellent way to get garlic into kids to keep them healthy.

Chicken – the versatile meat

While vacationing and visiting family, my granddaughter and I cooked up some yummy chicken noodle soup. She is not quite 10 and I thought she might get tired or bored but she did great! Anxious to cut vegies, measure ingredients and get right in there she looked forward to multi-tasking!  She has a lot of talent and desire so whatever she does with it, whether for a family or for the public, I know we can look forward to years of fun in the kitchen together.

 We started with cooking the chicken, and once that was “in the pot” we got the chocolate chip cookies baking because as everyone knows, cookies and grandmas go together, right?  Absolutely!!   If we had a little more time we were even going to make our own noodles for the soup but we couldn’t quite squeeze it in.

Next I will post the soup recipe.

Zucchini Crust Pizza

4 c. shredded zucchini (about 1  1/2 lbs)

2 eggs

2 Tbsp flax seed meal

1 c. whole wheat flour (or gluten free flour)

1c. Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

1c. Mozzarella cheese, shredded

12 oz pizza sauce (I prefer home made)

2 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground

1/4 tsp garlic powder

Whatever vegies you like on your pizza. Here are my favorites:

1 lb sliced baby portebella mushrooms

1/2 red onion sliced thin

12 oz sliced black olives

1/4 green pepper, thinly sliced

roma tomato slices

whatever meat you like!

* Oven – 400 degrees F

1. Shread the zucchini – I recommend a food processor to do this quickly! If you use a food processor you can then slice or shread your green pepper, chop the mushrooms, then black olives.  Better slice the onion by hand.  Set your vegies aside.

2. The most important step for a successful zucchini crust is to squeeze all the moisture out!!  I use paper towels and squeeze small portions then set aside while I work on the rest.  If the zucchini has too much remaining moisture the crust will be ‘floppy’.

3. Into a mixing bowl add the eggs, salt, pepper, flax meal, flour, and 1/2 cup of the monterey jack and 1/2 c. of the mozzarella all  to the zucchini.  Mix well.

4. Grease a flat pizza pan, then turn the mixture out onto the pan.  Press into the size of pizza that you want. Bake in a preheated 400 F oven for 15 min.

5. Combine the pizza sauce with additional spices. Spoon over the baked crust.  Add the toppings of your choice and top with the remaining cheese. Bake 30 min or until cheese bubbles and everything turns a yummy golden brown.

Where is the Pizza Sauce?

You may be wondering “where is the pizza sauce recipe you were going to make?”  This is what happened.

When I went to our local market looking for a box of fresh tomatoes, they were out!  All that were  available were the tomatoes from a  local grocery store.

I had decided beforehand to buy fresh tomatoes (even though technically I could have made the sauce with store-bought tomatoes on sale) but I decided to wait until they got some more fresh local tomatoes in.   They said their next supply from a local Amish community would be coming in after september, so next week I plan to go back and get the tomatoes that were unavailable the first time I looked.

So I still plan to make pizza sauce, it will just be later than I planned.

Pizza Sauce Recipe – coming soon!

I will be making my home made pizza sauce and canning it this weekend so stay tuned for that recipe and notes by early next week.

Green Pepper substitute

Here is a good suggestion.

Yellow banana peppers are EASY to grow in your own back yard, while green sweet peppers are more difficult; I am not sure why.

Green peppers are so expensive in the store too!  So I have found that yellow banana peppers can be substituted in recipes for green and you won’t know the difference!

When they are plentiful in the summer, just chop them up and throw in a ziplock bag, then freeze.  Break it up as it freezes so as not to freeze into a ‘clump’.  Then whenever a recipe calls for green peppers, you can just substitute with the chopped yellow peppers.

Oatmeal cookies somewhat “Healthi-fied”

I can’t go so far as to say this cookie is “healthy”, but WAY BETTER than the store-bought alternative.  Even the traditional oatmeal cookie recipe can’t hold up to these.  So since SOME treats are one of the treasures of life, let’s see what we can do to make the cookie somewhat healthy.

Yesterday (Sunday) I didn’t feel like doing anything else so I “played” in the kitchen making bread, and cookies.   I give the result was a 3-star (on a 5-star scale).  As far as the taste, it was a 5-star.  I want to make the cookies a little “fluffier”; mine were slightly on the crumbly side.  Not crunchy, but they didn’t hold together as well as I would expect.  So I will include the final recipe when I perfect the quantities for each ingredient but these substitutions I made.

You can use this guide to make substitutions for a more nutritious oatmeal cookie:

Where the recipe called for:         I substituted:

granulated sugar                            I cut back on sugar and added in some honey

raisins                                            I added more than the recipe called for

oatmeal                                         I added 1/4 c. more oatmeal than called for

all-purpose flour                           Home-ground whole wheat flour

You can use whole wheat from the store

(nothing)                                         I added 1/4 c. ground flax seed just because

1 egg                                                2 eggs

choc. chips                                 I didn’t use chips but if I wanted to , I would use carob chips

shortening or margarine        butter only!  But grease the pans with olive oil

 

Did you try playing with these substitutions? How did it go?  Got any other substitution suggestions?  I would  LOVE to hear your feedback.

Steak and Burger Sauce – with plums…

This is a yummy, spicy sauce that you make from 3-fruits; plums, apples and peaches.  Right now, plums and peaches are in season, and early apples are starting to come in too.  So I made this for very cheap which is how I like it!  Cheap and healthy.

This sauce can be used as a substitute for ketchup on burgers, french fries, even steak sauce.  When you make your own, YOU KNOW what you are eating; no preservatives and all whole food.

This recipe is right out of Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.  This is a high-acid food so it only requires a water-bath canning to preserve the product. However if you don’t have the canning equipment or prefer not to can, just leave more headspace and freeze all but the one jar you are using.  When you freeze, I would recommend setting the jars upright without screwing down the bands. After the liquid is well frozen, then tighten down the bands.  You don’t want the liquid to swell and break the jars and this would prevent that from happening.

Steak and Burger Sauce:

2Tbsp pickling spice (I buy mine in bulk at the health food store.  Tons cheaper and fresher than at the grocery store)

4c. chopped,  pitted,  plums ( recipe requires peeling but I never do and it’s just fine)

4c chopped, pitted,  peeled peaches

2 c. chopped cored peeled apples

1  1/2 c. cider vinegar

3 hot banana peppers, seeded and chopped

2Tbsp. gingerroot, minced

3c. granulated sugar

1Tbsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp dry mustard

1 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground allspice

Instructions:

1. Tie pickling spice in a square of cheesecloth, creating a spice bag. Set aside.

2. In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine plums, peaches, apples, vinegar, banana peppers, gingerroot and garlic. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Don’t let it scorch! Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, until fruit is tender, about 15 min.

3. Using a hand-mixing wand, blend on low and puree until smooth.

4.  Stir in sugar, cinnamon, mustard, cloves, allspice and reserved spice bag. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat and simmer gently, stirring frequently, until mixture is the consistency of a thin commercial ketchup; about 40 min. Discard spice bag.

5. Meanshile, prepare canner, jars, and lids.

6. Ladle sauce into hot jars, inch  leaving 1/2 headspace .  Remove air bubbles and wipe rim. Adjust lids and bands to fintertip-tight.

7. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 15 minutes. (you may need to add time according to your altitude. In my area I process for 20 minutes).  Remove lid, wait 5 minutes then remove jars.  Let cool undisturbed for 24 hrs.

MY  NOTES: I prepared fruit, and added vinegar and sugar. Covered with saran wrap and placed in the refrigerator.  The second evening I finished the canning procedure. In this way I am able to spend some time each evening working on the fruit, but I am not overwhelmed with a long process. It is just broken up into smaller jobs and I work around other things I am doing.  Yes, I add the sugar early but I stay close so as not to scorch the fruit in step 2.

Use up that BBQ Sauce Baked Beans

For the cost of one can of baked beans (like Bush’s for example) you can make a big pot of beans that lasts several meals.

Here is the recipe I used:

Use up that BBQ Sauce – Baked Beans

2 cans (16oz) baked beans 8 ounces (COST SAVER = prepare your own great northern beans from dried!)

1 can pineapple tidbits,drained (COST SAVER= see note below)

1 large onion, chopped

1 large red sweet pepper, chopped (COST SAVER= I substituted with an assortment of peppers from the garden, mostly sweet banana peppers)

1 clove garlic, minced

8 slices bacon, cubed (COST SAVER= see note below)

3/4 cup Barbecue Sauce (COST SAVER= see note below)

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp honey mustard or dried mustard

1/4 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. in a large dutch oven, combine the beans, the pineapple, the onion, the pepper, the garlic and the bacon. Stir to blend. Add the Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce, the soy sauce, the mustard and the sugar. Mix well. Cover and bake until bubbly and heated through, about 45-55 minutes. Serves 6-8 as a side dish

Note:

1. I used Dole canned pineapple because I matched a coupon with a sale and paid only $0.50 for the can.

2. I used Corn King bacon because again, I matched coupon with sale and got a pound for under a dollar

3. I used Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sause because I REALLY love the flavor, and yes, coupon plus sale = $0.25 for the 16oz jar. By the way, BBQ sauce practically never expires so I stocked up when I had coupon+sale so that’s how I got such a bargain.

Why eat Beans?  Fiber, low cost, high protein, and more.  Here is an article for more information about how beans are an important part of a balanced and cost-effective meal plan.

 http://www.wellnesscoachconnection.com/?p=473

How to make whole wheat bread from scratch in 5 min

I am moving things around on  my website so it will be easier to find all my posts.    So, here is the best way to make whole wheat flour in just 60 seconds:

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Watermelon Tip

Don’t you wish fresh watermelon were available all year?  I could almost live on it but like the bible says, “man does not live on watermelon alone“.  Well, maybe not exactly but you get my drift.

The best way I have found to preserve watermelon’s bounty is to “chunk” the meat of the melon  using a melon-ball scoop or just cut it off the rind and chunk it with a knife into about 1.5″ chunks.   Place the chunks or balls in a large  zip-lock bag then place the bag on a cookie sheet and try to seperate the chunks as best you can. An alternative is to place the chunks into a plastic freezer-proof container, label it with the date and put these in the freezer but I prefer the freezer bag.

Throughout the year you can take out serving-sizes and enjoy as a sorbet-like desert.  I have taken this to work and nibbled on it as it thaws.  You will have to thaw it a little but don’t thaw completely or it will end up a watery-mess.  Just think of it as an all-natural sorbet desert.

Last but not least, don’t overlook the nutritional benefits! Watermelon is high in vitamin A, C, and  lycopene (the healthy stuff in tomatoes).