Beef and barley stew

Growing up this was a regular meal we loved and still love today! This is a great cold weather meal, but we eat it in the summer time too. It's easy and Something you can just throw in the crockpot, or make ahead of time and freeze. Don't forget to make a batch of home made cornbread or biscuits to go with it, yumm!!



Ingredients:
1 cup pearl barley
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
3 ribs of celery
Carrots, peeled and sliced
1 lb meat (we use stewed roast, cubed)
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp sea salt
7 cups of beef stock/broth


Put everything in the crock pot and let it cook all day on low!

Or place all ingredients, accept stock, in a freezer bag. Freeze and cook later! Just add the 7 cups of beef stock when you are ready to cook it!

Home made pinto beans

My husband loves my pinto beans! It's a super cheap meal, and super easy! I prefer cooking it with the crockpot, but I also have a quick stove top version for a last minute meal. I recently created a good seasoning to give the beans a lot of flavor, I've included that recipe at the bottom!

Ingredients:

1 bag(small) dried pinto beans

Bean seasoning mix (recipe below)

1 package of bacon, cooked and diced into bits(optional)

Directions:

Wash and soak your beans overnight

Rinse your beans, place in your crockpot.

add seasoning mix(all of it, recipe below)cover beans with water.

Cook on low 6-8hours, add additional water if beans start drying out (you want to keep them completely covered in liquid)

Now about the bacon. I've made it without and it tastes great! But it also tastes great with the bacon and my husband prefers it that way. You can cook your bacon bits in a pan and add it to the beans from the start(grease and all if you want) but the bacon will get pretty mushy by the end of the day. So I like to add it about 1 hour before we are ready to eat. So it's up to you, and either way tastes good! You can also use leftover ham instead of bacon, or we have even used turkey sausage and it also tastes good! Just add it about 1hour before your ready to eat and make sure it's cooked Before adding it. We serve our beans with cornbread and home made sweet potato fries! 

See prior post for my sweet cornbread recipe. It's pretty tasty! 

Enjoy!

Directions for bean seasoning mix

2 Teaspoons onion powder

1 Teaspoons paprika

1 Teaspoons ground cumin

2 Teaspoons sea salt

1 Teaspoons ground black pepper

1 Teaspoons oregano

1 Teaspoons minced garlic

Mix together and store in a air tight container or use right away. This equals 1 packet of season and you want to use all this in one pot of beans. I will work the measurements out to make a batch in bulk and update you with those measurements. you can add extra to taste if you want, but this measurement was plenty for us :)

If you do not want to use the crockpot, and you forgot to soak your beans(I do this all the time) then I do have a quick stove top recipe. It's all the same ingredients and measurements.

Rinse your beans and add to a pot, cover with Plenty of water. Boil beans on Med-high heat for a good 30minutes, watch beans so they don't dry out and add more water as the beans absorb a lot of the water. Reduce heat to Med-low heat and simmer. Add more water if necessary, add seasoning and cooked bacon bits. Simmer until beans are cooked (about a hour or so) serve! 

Pesto calzone pizza

Recently my sister in law shared a yummy recipe for quick home made pizzas using basil pesto as the sauce. They were wonderful! So while making yummy home made calzone pizzas over the weekend I decided to try out my own pesto version. It was absolutely AMAZING! Here is the recipe! Feel free to change it to suit your taste!


Pesto calzone pizza

Ingredients:
Original Basil pesto
Rhodes dinner rolls(frozen and set out two-three hours Pryor to rise and thaw)
Garlic salt (1/4 tsp)
Mozzarella cheese (optional)
Fetta cheese (I used sun dried tomato fetta)
Shredded asiago cheese
Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
Canadian bacon (optional, but really yummy)
Mushrooms (optional)
Tomato, diced (optional)
A few spinach leaves(also optional)
One egg, beaten


Any extra toppings you wish

First, set out your rolls on a cookie sheet, cover with a towel and let them thaw or rise for about two hours. I set mine out while I was cooking breakfast so they would be ready for lunch.


Pre-heat your oven to 350.

Grab one of your rolls and roll it out (this will be your pizza dough)

Grab a spoon and spread some of the pesto all over the "dough".
Sprinkle a little garlic over the pesto
Now place a few spinach leaves on
Next, add the Canadian bacon(or whatever other topping you choose)
Then add a couple mushrooms
Now sprinkle a little of each cheese over top....oh yeah, starting to look pretty tasty now!
Lastly. I added a few diced tomatoes.

Now fold over the dough and pinch the sides together to seal it shut. Take a fork and press down around the ends, this just helps pinch it closed so it stays sealed while baking...And it makes it look pretty!

Now take your egg and beat it, then wash over the top of the calzone, and sprinkle a little basil(or oregano)and garlic salt over top and place into heated oven. Bake for 10-15minutes or until nice and golden brown on top. Enjoy the yumminess!!!