Terrific Black Bean & Ham Soup

I cannot believe my kids eat this. I mean— it’s good! But when I was a kid, I hated anything with beans in it. My kids devour this soup. It’s so easy to make, and it’s perfect with my Bread Machine Flax Bread. The ingredients are simple; you probably have everything in your pantry. I serve a big crowd, so this recipe is a little large. Reduce (or double) as you wish.

Wow Chow Black Bean & Ham Soup

4 15oz. cans black beans
2 15oz. cans chicken broth (or use your own)
2 Tablespoons minced garlic, chopped fresh or prepared in the jar (optional)
1 Tablespoon horseradish (optional)
1 Tablespoon olive oil or pat of butter
1 white onion, diced into small pieces
6 cups of diced ham or turkey ham

In a large stock pot, put in the olive oil or butter, and then the onions. Saute lightly, just until the onion is barely translucent. Toss in all your ham or turkey ham (I use turkey ham), and stir well to heat.

Now, drain your canned beans and dump them in the pot. Dump the broth into the pot. Add the garlic and horseradish if you include them.

Stir it well, and cook on low/medium for about 3 hours. I guess it would be technically cooked in 1 or 2 hours, but cooking longer thickens the soup and blends the ingredients more. This is a GREAT cold weather meal. It’s also a terrific “quickie” meal, for days when you’re too busy fooling around, doing housework and bills, blogging, making vacation plans and checking out www.goodsamesp.com, etc etc. Heh heh. It takes about 20 minutes to have everything ready to throw in the pot. The key is stirring it every once in a while. to make sure the beans don’t stick as the soup thickens. Alternatively, if you will be out of the house all day, you can throw these same ingredients into the crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours. The Flax Seed Bread is perfect with this!

Four Foods For Friday 100

Well, Friday has come and gone! But as is my motto, “Better late than never.” :-p

Here are this week’s questions:

1. What did you eat yesterday? (Christmas for some of you.)
2. Do you have any food traditions for Christmas?
3. What’s your favorite holiday leftover?
4. What food do you always wish you had more of after the holidays?

1. Because I’m so late with FFFF, Christmas is gone now. Um… what did I eat yesterday?? Uhh *think think*
Coffee for breakfast.
A soft pretzel for lunch. (I was out of the house and picked up a quick snack).
For snack: a few almonds and cashews (about half a handful).
More coffee.
For dinner: a spinach and greens salad with red pepper, mushrooms, carrots; a hamburger with red onion slices; half a glass of milk; three shrimp in spicy cocktail sauce.
For dessert: more coffee, sweetened with sucanat (yum!).

2. Yeah: gorge and then pop the adipex diet pills!! HAHA! No, really. We don’t celebrate Christmas– we celebrate Thanksgiving Day and make that our big day; but I do cook a nice meal for Christmas, because everyone has the day off and I have plenty of helpers around, heh heh. My only tradition is turkey. I love turkey so I make a big one. And I try to make a pie or two.

3. Turkey. I just love it. I love it with leftover stuffing. Mmmmm.

4. Turkey. And leftover stuffing. It just never gets boring to me!!

Well, this was another fun one. Maybe I’ll actually have the next one done on time, for a change!

FFFF 99: Bottom’s Up!

As is becoming my tradition, I missed the Four Foods for Friday on Friday. I had good thoughts about it Saturday, but didn’t get to it…. so I’m FINALLY doing it.

1. How do drink your hot chocolate? Marshmallows? From boxed or scratch?
2. Do you prefer cider hot or cold?
3. Do you like egg nog?
4. How do you make punch?

I have a bad head cold (AGAIN! gah!) so I can only hope that my answers are coherent. Here goes…

1. I’m not a hot chocolate drinker… I sometimes add a spoonful into my coffee when I make it for the kids. I use the powdered stuff. Disgusting, I know. My mom used to make her own powdered stuff, and that was even more disgusting.

2. Don’t like cider, either! I’ll sip it, I guess. I’ve only had it hot once in my life. Eh. Give me coffee and water, and I’m a happy camper. I do like the occasional orange juice.

3. I used to CRAVE it when a kid. LOVED it. Now… boy, I have become such a fuddy-dud when it comes to drinking, haven’t I? My hubs recently bought a half gallon of egg nog, and it’s still in the fridge, barely touched.

4. Umm…. add three cups of cold water to the frozen concentrate…. *blush*

I’m not a drink connessieur conesseir connoisseur. Obviously.

There’s Adobo Chicken, and Then There’s Adobo Chicken

Oh gee. For the longest time, I thought this was what made Adobo Chicken:

HEE HEE! I like this stuff- I sprinkle it generously on skinless boneless chicken breasts with some olive oil, and bake, It’s wonderful with rice.

But… Adobo Chicken, a recipe from the Philippines, is different! I didn’t know this until reading some of the Filipino blogs. Asian bloggers talk about food ALL THE TIME. I can never surf these blogs on an empty stomach, especially the Japanese blogs. YUM!! I don’t need fall protection, I need food protection! I get so hungry when surfing those blogs. :-p

Anyway, here’s a recipe for Adobo Chicken. It’s so easy! Going to do this this week. It’s from Manilenio, a fellow Entrecarder. Thanks for sharing this great recipe!

Ingredients
1 head of garlic, minced
1 cup of vinegar
1/2 cup of water
1 cup of soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
3 leaves of laurel (bay leaves)
1 kilo of pork or chicken cut into pieces

Over low heat, saute the minced garlic and add the pork or chicken meat. Add in the 1/2 cup of water, 1 cup of soy sauce, 1 cup of vinegar while stirring to prevent the meat from sticking to the pan. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste, then add the bay leaves. You can turn up the heat to bring it into boil and simmer until the meat has turned brown and tender, OR you can maintain the low heat for slow cooking and more flavor for about an hour.

Top it off with garlic flakes (minced garlic fried until golden brown) for added aroma. Enjoy your Adobo!

You can also use pork for this recipe. Go to Manilenio for more yummy recipes.

We’re Dental Maniacs

Is it SO terribly bad for a mother to pass on to her kids something that bothered her in her childhood?

I don’t think so. Especially if it’s a good thing.

Like dental care. I did not see a dentist until I was 14, in agony from a cavity. I had a sweet tooth as a child, and I don’t remember brushing my teeth a lot.. I NEVER flossed, ever. So needless to say after having a few extractions and numerous cavities filled, I vowed my kids would not go through the same things. We are FIENDS when it comes to dental care. Plus, while I had pretty straight teeth as a kid, three of the four kids have horribly crooked teeth. My daughters have had braces, and my eldest son is scheduled to get some next year. We’re taking dental health so seriously, that one of my daughters is considering going into the field as a career! (Just think– a DENTIST in the family! Free dental care for me for life! Yay!!!!)

Well, we’ve gotten the attention of DenTek, the company that produces some of the best dental hygiene products out there. They asked me and the kids to try out their new floss, the “ultimate” in floss, they call it: The DenTek Complete Clean Twisted Easy Sliding Floss. It’s unique because it’s got two fine strands of floss twisted together and is coated with mint-flavored and fluoride-fortified wax, thus the complete clean floss. The special construction of this twisted floss makes it easier to floss AND grabs the gunk in between your teeth much better than the regular flat floss we’ve been using. I like it because it doesn’t cut into my sensitive gums like the flat stuff does.

The kids, with their usual creativity and panache, made a video about the glories of flossing (NOT) and the discovery of this new DenTek floss I got. I’ve been trying it for a few weeks now (I am a flossing fiend!) but this is their first time.

For me, there are pros and cons.

PROS
• It’s very effective. It does clean the teeth better than the other floss.
• It does not slice into the gums! Of course, if you saw back and forth, it probably will, lol… but with proper use it will not. I liked this aspect, because my gums are tender and are cut easily by the other floss.
• You can wash off the floss and reuse it later. (Yes, I am cheap.)
• The floss is tough. It doesn’t fray like the flat floss does; which explains why I can reuse the floss strand.
• It’s got good packaging. The floss doesn’t break in the INSIDE of the package, so I don’t have to go fishing for the floss on the inside.

CONS
• It’s slippery to hold. You have to extract a longer piece to wrap it around your fingers, or you can’t manage the floss.
• I’m not too keen on the fluoride in the floss. We get enough of it in the water supply. :-p
• It’s not very minty. I don’t taste anything.
• It’s more expensive than the generic brand I get at the store.

OK, so there you have it. If you are a flossing fiend like we are, this is good floss. Yes, I think the DenTek Complete Clean Twisted Floss is ULTIMATE. It’s the ultimate floss I’ve ever seen. But of course, it comes with a price. The floss package, which provides 55 yards, sells for $2.99 at the DenTek store. Amazon sells a 6 pack for about $17. So it all really depends on how important dental care is to you (and how desperately you want to avoid the dentist!).

My daughter likes it, so I’m getting her her own package. Kids with orthodontics and related maintenance need a little extra boost when it comes to stuff like this.

NOTE: *This review is a result of a feedback campaign by DenTek Oral Care Inc. The recipients were asked to give their honest opinion about the product they received. Good reviews were not incentivized and poor reviews will not be censored for their opinion of the product.

Remember, I’m a pro-blogger and I am sometimes compensated with stuff or money to review or mention products or services! This was one of them. You can read more about my blog policy on my main blog’s My Pledge page.

Next Page »