Tag Archives: inexpensive

Real Men Do Eat Quiche

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Want to hear something stupid? In 1982, a popular book came out called “Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche”.

I never read the book. But it’s satirical message — that masculine men should avoid feminine-type things like eating quiche — took hold during those Reagan-era, flag-waving days.

The early 1980s were the beginning of the New Age movement. And Bruce Feirstein’s book, which was supposed to be a send-up of the anti-feminist pro-American mood that was sweeping the nation at the time, instead found an audience among people who didn’t get the humor and who took its message at face value. The book was on the best-seller list for 55 weeks and sold 1.6 million copies.

The book also had the unfortunate side effect of single-handedly ruining quiche for a generation of American men forever.

Well, I’m bringing it back!

After all, quiche is simply an egg and bacon pie. There’s nothing anti-masculine about it. In fact, it’s quite delicious, easy to make, and extremely cost-effective.

In this version, I used egg whites instead of whole eggs and skim milk, making it a little lower-fat. I kept the bacon, though. Getting rid of it would be unmanly!

Vegetable Quiche

One 9-inch deep dish frozen pie crust

4 slices bacon

1/2 of a 10 oz package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

1/2 medium onion, medium dice

1 cup broccoli florets

2 tomatoes, ribs and seeds removed, medium dice

8 oz egg whites (or 4 whole eggs, whisked)

1 cup skim milk

1/2 tsp granulated garlic

1/2 tsp dry dill weed

Sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste

2 oz goat cheese

1/2 cup shredded chedddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking pan with foil and place pie crust on the sheet.

2. Cook bacon until crisp, then let cool on a paper towel. Chop into small peices then combine in a mixing bowl with spinach, onion, broccoli, and tomato and toss together. Transfer the vegetable mixture to the bottom of the pie crust.

3. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk, then add the granulated garlic and dill weed. Season with salt and pepper then pour over the vegetable mixture.

4. Drop the goat cheese peices into the mixture evenly then sprinkle the cheddar cheese over the top.

5. Bake for one hour. Let cool for a few minutes before cutting. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Quiche is great because you can put anything that you have leftover in the refrigerator in it and it will taste great. The goat cheese was expensive — about $4 for just 2 ounces — so you can substitute a less expensive cheese if you wish or leave it out altogether. I would keep the shredded cheddar on top, however, because it adds a nice top crust.

Have you ever been intimidated by a food because of the way it was viewed by popular culture? Share your story in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Rigatoni with Italian Sausage and Red Sauce

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On busy nights, pasta with red sauce is a great go-to dinner. It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s inexpensive.

A box of pasta and a jar of red sauce can serve at least four people, and together they cost less than $2.50, or about $.63/portion, which is not bad.

What is bad, however, are most jarred tomato sauces. Both the name brand sauces that cost more — like Ragu and Prego — and the store brand or packer brand sauces usually are bland, tasteless and disappointing.

But I’ve been using this recipe to fortify ordinary pasta sauces for years and the result is a tangy, delicious and nutrition-packed red sauce that will please your family and spare your pocket book. Because most of the flavor is added during cooking, you can start with any brand of red sauce. I usually pick up a couple of jars just to keep on hand whenever they go on sale.

This red sauce can go with any pasta, from spaghetti to ravioli to stuffed shells or manicotti. You can even put it on a pizza, although I prefer my extremely simple pizza sauce recipe.

I used rigatoni, one of my favorite pastas. I just love to use it when I’m including Italian sausage in my pasta because they are both about the same shape and it just looks better. I always have plenty of grated parmesan on hand as well.

Whole Wheat Rigatoni with Italian Sausage and Red Sauce

1 box dry whole wheat rigatoni noodles

1 jar red pasta sauce, any kind

3 TBS EVOO, separated

1 onion, medium dice

1/2 green pepper, ribs and seeds removed, medium dice

6 to 8 white button mushrooms, sliced (you can use canned if you want)

3 cloves garlic, rough chop

1 lb Italian sausage, either spicy or mild

1 TBS Italian seasoning

Fresh cracked black pepper

1/4 cup grated parmesan (or more)

1. Cook rigatoni according to package directions, usually 10 minutes. Drain but don’t rinse. Return to pot, drizzle generously with EVOO, season with salt and pepper and toss. Cover and set aside.

2. Put cast iron skillet on the fire. When hot, add EVOO. When smoking, make a slit down the sausage casing and remove sausage from the casing and add to the pan. Use a spantula to break up the sausage into 1″ chunks. Brown about 5 minutes, stirring frequently so that all sides are browned. Set aside.

3. Put sauce pan on the fire. When hot, add EVOO. When smoking, add onions and green pepper. Cook until onions translucent, about five minutes, then add mushrooms and the Italian sausage, making sure to include all the flavorful oil from the bottom of the cast iron pan. Cook until mushrooms browned, about 3 minutes, then add garlic and Italian seasoning. Cook another minute, then pour jar of red suace into the pan and stir. Fill empty jar with a little bit of water, replace lid and shake to get all the excess sauce out, then pour it into the pan and stir. When it begins to bubble, reduce the flame to a simmer and cook about five minutes. Turn it off.

4. To plate, spoon a little of the pasta into the center of a pasta bowl. Then spoon a generous amount of sauce on top of the pasta, making sure to display lots of big chunks of sausage. Sprinkle generously with parmesan cheese.

If you have a small can of sliced black olives lying around, they go great in this recipe as well. I normally serve this with garlic bread and with hot sauce on the side. This makes a great mid-week mid-winter meal.

What fast, inexpensive dishes do you make for your family this time of year? Share your ideas in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog.

Wine on Wednesdays – House Wine

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Over the years, I have worked at a lot of restaurants. At various times, I have been the general manager, the executive chef, the sommelier, the bartender, the server, and many other positions.

Most restaurants have a house wine, which is the wine you receive if you just ask for a “red” or a “white”. It’s usually — although not always — the cheapest wine option. And it almost invariably tastes just terrible.

As a consumer, I don’t judge a restaurant by how awful its house wine tastes because if guests don’t care enough to look at a wine list or ask for a favorite brand, they deserve what they get.

Even if what they get comes out of a jug. Or even a box. Which it frequently does, even in the best fine dining restaurants.

(A quick aside: Never drink wine out of a box unless you enjoy having horrible headaches the next morning. Box wines are the Chicken McNugget of the winemaking world: You don’t ever want to see how they are made.)

That’s why when I found this brand called “House Wine”, I was intrigued. It turns out this wine is nothing like your typical “house wine” because while it is completely affordable, it tastes amazing.

House Wine is one of a handful of brands made by the Magnificent Wine Company, which is based in Walla Walla, Washington. While many people think of that as onion and potato country, it also is home to the Washington’s famed Columbia Valley wine growing region.

The company is a partnership between Charles Smith, of K Vintners, who is something of a living legend among syrah fans, and Andrew Browne, the wunderkind founder of the Precept Wine brands. It also makes a chardonnay, White House Wine; a sauvignon blanc, Fish House Wine; and a cabernet suavignon, Steak House Wine.

House Wine is mostly cabernet sauvignon, but also has merlot, malbec, syrah and petit verdot, all grown in Columbia Valley. It is a nicely balanced wine that is neither jammy nor meekly bland, but a nice place in between. Even though it is made mostly with cabeneret sauvignon grapes, it has qualities of the laid back merlot.

And it was definitely affordable at $7.99/bottle, which is, of course, my self imposed upper limit for budget wines. Any restaurant would do well by serving House Wine as their house wine.

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On a separate note, I found myself in a Trader Joe’s the other day and I couldn’t help but to pick up a bottle of their house brand, Charles Shaw, perhaps better known as “Two-Buck Chuck.” although it now costs a whopping $3/bottle.

I had this wine many years ago and remembered that I didn’t like it. But given the concept of this budget wine blog, I thought I would try it again to see if I was mistaken. After all, if “Two Buck Chuck” was at all drinkable, I could recommend it to those people seeking affordable wines.

Sadly, this is not the case. I now remember why I didn’t like this wine. It tastes like barrel dregs. It’s bitter and has a persistent unpleasant aftertaste. It is a waste of $3.

Trader Joe’s has plenty of other good, affordable wines, so do yourself a favor and walk past the enormous display of “Two Buck Chuck” and pick yourself up something drinkable. The only positive thing I can say about this wine is that at $36/case, you can afford to pick up a dozen bottles to fill the holes in your wine rack until you can replace them with better wines.

Just don’t get tempted to drink a bottle.

Almond Crusted Chicken

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This is a low-fat heart-healthy variation on the classic nut-crusted chicken. Except instead of breading the chicken breasts, they are simply dredged in a mixture of chopped almonds and Panko bread crumbs.

The result was a light yet crispy coating that perfectly complemented the tender meat of the chicken breast.

This is a variation on a recipe I found on one of my favorite blogs, We’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat. I served it with steamed long grain rice and broccoli. You practically lose weight looking at this, it’s so good for you.

Panko bread crumbs are just Japanese bread crumbs that are little larger than regular bread crumbs. They are now available in most supermarkets.

Almonds, incidentally, are one of those miracle foods that many nutritionists claim have health benefits, including improving complexion and reducing risk of cancer and heart disease. I have used them while dieting as an appetite supressant. A handful of almonds is usually good enough to keep hunger pangs at bay for at least a couple of hours.

If you have lived in or traveled through Southern California, you know that almonds trees are everywhere. In fact, California produces 80 percent of the world’s almonds and 100 percent of all the almonds consumed in the US are grown there.

Harvesting almonds is fun to watch because the trees are hooked up to these big machines which violently shake the trunks so that all the nuts fall off the tree. They kind of look like those weight belts people used to use.

Best of all, almonds are delicious. I used roasted almonds for this recipe, but raw, smoked or even candied would have been great, too. Almonds just have a very pleasant, distinct slightly sweet flavor.

Almond Crusted Chicken

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, about 8 oz each

1 cup roasted almonds, whole

1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs

Pan spray

1 TBS EVOO

Sea salt

Fresh cracked black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Put almonds in food processor and pulse until chopped fine. Don’t let it run by itself or the nuts will form a paste with the consistency of peanut butter. If you don’t have a food processor, just chop them by hand until fine. Combine in a mixing bowl with the bread crumbs and toss together.

2. Season each chicken breast with salt and pepper then spray with pan spray and dredge in almond/bread crumb mixture until completely covered. Reserve the remaining mixture for later.

2. Put cast iron pan on the fire. When hot, add oil. When smoking, add chicken breasts to the pan skin side down, being careful not to splash yourself with hot oil. Sprinkle with some of the remaining almond/bread crumb mixture. Carefully cook chicken breasts until golden brown and turn over. Sprinkle the chicken with more of remaining almond/bread crumb mixture. The almonds will burn easily, so watch them closely.

3. When both sides of chicken are nicely browned. Transfer them to a sheet pan fitted with a baking rack. This will allow the breast to cook more evenly. Sprinkle the remaining almond/bread crumb mixture over chicken and bake at 350F for about 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the thickness of the breasts.

There’s nothing complicated about this recipe. It is quick, simple and delicious!

I served these with long grain rice I made in my rice steamer, and fresh broccoli I made in my vegetable steamer. There was a whole lot of steaming going on in my kitchen, I assure you!

What low-fat heart-healthy recipes do you like to make? Share your ideas in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Meat Free Mondays — Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

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We love enchiladas. It’s one of our favorite meals to make and we have it at least twice per month.

The great thing about enchiladas is that you can fill them with anything you want. They are particularly great for using up leftovers or if you want to make a vegetarian dish.

So when I found this enchilada recipe — which I found on this blog by the2beths, one of my favorite blogs — I just knew I had to try it. It had some funky ingredients and even the way it was assembled was way different from my enchilada recipe.

The good news: It was delicious. The sweet potato did not overwhelm the complex flavors of the enchilada as I suspected it would. Instead, it kind of complemented the mushroom-pepper-onion-jalapeno-spinach filling. I also thought the sweet potato would make it too dense, but it didn’t at all. It was light and moist.

The bad news: With the enchilada sauce on the bottom of the casserole dish, instead of mixed in with the filling like I normally make it, the enchiladas stuck to the bottom and fell apart as I tried to plate them.

This may have been because I made them a few hours ahead of time and held them in the refrigerator until we were ready to have dinner. Or it may have been because I used generic store-brand whole wheat tortillas. But next time, I will assemble them the way I normally do.

But despite the plating disaster, I loved the flavor of these enchiladas. Plus, it gave me an excuse to make our guacamole, which I think is why we have enchiladas (and quesadillas, for that matter) so frequently: We can’t get enough of our guacamole.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped

1 TBS EVOO

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 15-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 jalapeno, ribs and seeds removed, small dice

8-10 button mushrooms, chopped fine

1 green bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed, medium dice

1/2 red onion, medium dice

2 cups fresh spinach, stems removed and cleaned

1 tsp chili powder

2 tsp cumin

Sea salt

Fresh cracked black pepper

1 12-oz can enchilada sauce

6 8″ whole wheat tortillas

1 cup salsa, plus more on the side for service

1/3 cup shredded Mexican cheese

1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped (full disclosure: I bought this but forgot to put it in)

1. Bring a small pot of water to a boil then add the sweet potato and boil until soft, about 10 minutes. Drain and mash.

2. Preheat oven to 375F. Put cast iron pan on the fire. When hot, add oil. When smoking, add onion, green pepper and jalapeno and cook until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook until mushrooms browned, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and spinach and cook until spinach is wilted, about 3 more minutes. Add black beans, cilantro, cumin and chili powder and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until heated through, about 2 minutes, and remove from heat.

3. In a casserole dish, spread 1/2 of the can of enchilada sauce around the bottom. One by one, fill the tortillas a schmeer of mashed sweet potato topped with a dollop of the filling, then a TBS of salsa. Roll up like a burrito and place seam side down in the casserole dish. When all tortillas are filled, pour remaining enchilada sauce over them and sprinkle with the cheese. Cover with foil, bake 35 minutes then remove foil and bake another 10 minutes to brown up the top.

I serve my enchiladas with homemade guacamole, salsa, fat free sour cream and baked tortilla chips. This is one of our favorite meals.

What dishes do you love so much you make them at least a couple of times per month? Tell us about them in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Tex-Mex Tuna Casserole

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Wow, it’s already February! Where has this year gone?!

Both my wife and I have been extremely busy since pretty much Thanksgiving, so I have been looking for meals that are fast and delicious, but will also hold well to accomodate our ever-changing schedules.

Tuna casserole is always a good fall back option, but it feels like we’ve done it to death. So I decided to spice it up a little with this recipe I adapted from one I found on The Cooking Blog. It takes only a few minutes to prepare, it can be held in the refrigerator until we were ready to eat, and it cooks fast. Plus, it was pretty rich and creamy — despite being low-fat — so I was able to hold it in a 200F oven until we were both ready to eat.

This spiced-up version of tuna casserole was delicious and – like traditional tuna casserole – it tastes even better the next day heated up.

So if you’re looking for a new take on an old favorite, you should give this recipe a try. Most of the ingredients are probably already lying around your kitchen, plus it’s super fast, super easy, and super tasty! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to work!

Tex-Mex Tuna Casserole

1 large can chunk tuna in water, drained

2 cups fat-free cottage cheese

3/4 cup fat-free sour cream

1/2 red onion, small dice

1 small can diced green chiles

2 TBS chipotle salsa (or just regular salsa)

1/2 bag egg noodles, cooked

Sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/2 cup cashews, chopped fine

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Boil egg noodles according to package instructions, usually about 7 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process.

2. In mixing bowl, combine the tuna, cottage cheese, sour cream, onion, chiles, salsa and noodles. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to casserole dish.

3. Combine bread crumbs and cashews in small bowl then sprinkle over casserole. Dish can be stored in refrigerator up to a day, or in freezer for up to a week, until you are read to serve it.

4. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes or until casserole is brown and bubbly. Allow more time if cooking from frozen, or better yet allow to defrost first.

I served mine with spicy Sriracha sauce. My wife normally puts ketchup on her tuna casserole (I know, right?) but she said this one was so good it didn’t need any! Yay!

What quick and easy meals do you like to prepare for those days when you’re too busy to spend a lot of time in the kitchen? Share your story in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Italian Beef Sandwiches

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Philadelphia has the cheesesteak sandwich. New Orleans has the muffaletta. But Chicago is home to the Italian Beef.

We have an embarrassment of riches here in Chicago when it comes to Italian Beef sandwiches because there are literally hundreds of beef stands throughout the city serving this delicious and inexpensive sandwich, and I have yet to find a bad one.

The Italian Beef sandwich was invented in Chicago and was the result of the combination of two events that occurred simultaneously in the city around the turn of the 20th Century — the rise of the meat packing industry and the wave of Italian immigration.

At one time, Chicago was the nation’s largest meat processor, with millions of cattle passing through its famed Union Stockyards on the city’s South Side. Although the industry moved out West more than 50 years ago, the smell of cattle still lingers in that area even today.

Not far away, in the Italian neighborhood around Taylor Street, newly arrived immigrants struggled to create a new life for themselves. Although most were poor, they still celebrated weddings and other important events the same way they did back in Italy — with enormous feasts.

Unable to afford the choicest cuts of meat, the immigrants would pool their money and buy more affordable, yet tougher cuts, from the meat packing houses. Then they would roast them off smothered in traditional Italian seasonings.

In order to feed hundreds of guests, they sliced the beef extremely thin then kept it from drying out by holding it all day in an au jus sauce. The beef was then served on a hinged roll made of soft Italian bread and the Italian beef sandwich was born.

Today, you can get your Italian Beef any way you want it – with red sauce and sweet peppers, or dipped in au jus, or even topped with melted cheese.

As we host our own feasts — this time to celebrate the big game – Italian Beef is still an affordable crowd pleaser. This recipe can be held in the crock pot so your guests can serve themselves throughout the day.

Italian Beef Sandwiches

4 to 5 lb eye or round roast or any less expensive boneless beef cut

1 TBS EVOO

1 TBS sea salt

1/2 TBS fresh cracked black pepper

1/2 TBS granulated garlic

1 tsp onion powder

1 TBS Italian seasoning

32 oz beef stock

1 onion, julienned

1 TBS EVOO, separate

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 TBS Italian seasoning, separate

Provolone cheese slices (if desired)

Hinged sandwich rolls

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Use a sharp knife to cut away excess fat and silverskin from the outside of the beef roast, rub with EVOO then season on all sides with salt, pepper, granulated garlic, onion powder and Italian seasoning. Spray the bottom of a roasting pan with pan spray then lay the roast in the pan and cook for about 1 hour or until internal temperature reaches 140F or higher (medium). Remove from oven and let rest until cool enough to carve. This can be done the day before.

2. Put cast iron pan on the fire. When hot, add oil. When smoking, add onions. Saute for five minutes, stirring frequently, then add 1/2 cup water and cover. This will make the onions carmelize faster. Cook until onions are brown, stirring occasionally.

3. Meanwhile, use a sharp carving knife to slice beef roast as thin as you can. Place all meat slices in the crock pot, add the beef stock, garlic, onions and Italian seasoning. Cook on low for at least 6 hours. Serve on sandwich rolls with au jus from the crock pot on the side. If desired, place cheese over beef and melt under the broiler for a minute or two.

Italian beef also can be served with a marinara sauce and giardiniera — pickled sweet peppers and other vegetables available jarred in Italian markets — on the side.

Is there a particular food your hometown is famour for? Tell us all about in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Wine on Wednesdays – The Lost Grape of Bordeaux

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Once upon a time, in the lush green wine growing regions of Bordeaux, there lived a grape named Carmenere. Many people said it was the grandfather of the mighty Cabernet Sauvignon grape, from which many future celebrated wines from Bordeaux would be made.

For centuries, the grape grew happily in the Medoc region of Bordeaux, and in Graves, another famous French wine region, and a few other places. In fact, Carmenere was growing in these famous wine growing regions of France even before there was a France, as evidenced by the praise it received from Pliny the Elder, chronicler of the Roman gladiators who conquered Gaul, now modern day France.

Carmenere was enjoyed and celebrated by wine lovers for hundreds and hundreds of years, and was considered on par with the cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc grapes as one of the finest wine making grapes in the world.

Then, in 1867, something terrible happened.

A plague of phylloxera, also known as the antarctic lotus fly, swarmed the Bordeaux region, as well of much of France itself, leaving a swath of destruction in every vineyard it touched. Nearly all of France’s successful wine industry was destroyed, but the carmenere grape was completely wiped out.

In the wake of the plague, carmenere was declared extinct, and never again would anyone be able to enjoy its distinctive flavor, which had been described as a milder, smoky, spicy, and berry-like cabernet sauvignon.

But flash forward to 1994, where Professor Jean-Michel Boursiquot, of the University of Montpelier’s department of oneology was conducting a study of Merlot Peumal, a grape grown in Chile’s Peumal valley that was believed to be a clone of the merlot grape.

Except it wasn’t.

Professor Borsiquot determined that Merlot Peumal was actually the long-lost carmenere grape. Apparently, in the 1850s – long before the phylloxera plague decimated her vineyards – French winemakers exported carmenere plants to Chile’s fledgling wine industry, believing them to be merlot vines. For more than 140 years, Chilean winemakers cultivated carmenere under the mistaken impression that it was merlot.

Four years after its re-discovery, in 1998 the Chilean Department of Agriculture officially declared carmenere to be its own distrinct varietal and the wine is now produced and exported worldwide by hundreds of Chilean vineyards. It is also being cultivated, on a much smaller scale, in wineries in California and Australia.

Meanwhile, back in France, Bordeaux has moved on and produces some of the most famous and expensive wines in the world. But in recent years, a few vineyards have begun plantng a few acres of camenere vines among their famed cabernet sauvignon vines, and there is talk of expanding these plantings and re-weaving the ancient grape into the region’s rich wine tapestry.

This carmenere — Found Object, from Chile — is one of dozens of delicious, affordable Chilean carmeneres widely available in the US. It cost $7.99/bottle, which is the exact limit of my self-imposed maximum cost per bottle.

This story of the lost grape of Bordeaux concludes with a happy ending, with this lush and fragrant carmenere swirling around in my glass, once again having been discovered and celebrated as one of the world’s finest varietals.

Hoppin’ John and Johnny Cakes

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I love it when a dish comes with a side plate of history.

Hoppin’ John is one of those dishes. In the Deep South, this stew made with black eyed peas is traditionally eaten on New Year’s Day because it is believed to bring good luck throughout the rest of the year.

There are all sorts of rituals that come with this practice, including leaving a coin under the bowl or even in the stew itself, or counting the number of peas to see how many lucky days you will have during the coming year, or leaving three peas in the bowl at the end of the meal — one for luck, one for money and one for love.

Whew! But that’s not all. Hoppin’ John is usually served with brasied collard, turnip or mustard greens because they are the color of money, and with corn bread because it is the color of gold.

Finally, leftover Hoppin’ John is eaten again the following day — only this time it is called Skippin’ Jenny — to show how frugal you are.

The name Hoppin’ John may refer to a legendary character, or it may simply come from the Creole French for black eye peas, “pois pigeons”. No one knows for sure.

Back in the northern states, our food rituals are not nearly as interesting. Johnny cakes are what people from New England used to call corn bread around the time of the Revolutionary War. Because they would stay edible even during a long day’s journey on horseback, with the flat, nasal Yankee accent “journey cakes” became ”johnny cakes.”

I may have been a couple of weeks late with this dish, but I hope it brings me luck for the rest of this year!

Hoppin’ John

4 TBS unsalted butter

1 white onion, medium dice

1 green pepper, ribs and seeds removed, medium dice

2 stalks of celery, ribs and leafs included, medium dice

3 cloves garlic, crushed

4 cups dried black eyed peas (soaked 6 hours)

32 oz chicken stock

1/2 lb sausage (any kind, your choice, I used chorizo)

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp fresh cracked black pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 TBS red wine vinegar

Rice or bulgur, cooked

1. Soak black eyed peas in cool water for at least 6 hours to soften. Rinse before using.

2. In pot, melt butter then add onions, pepper, and celery and cook until onions translucent, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove sausage from casing, add to pot, break apart and cook until brown, about 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook another minute or two.

3. Add black eyed peas, chicken stock and seasonings and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Cook until most of the liquid is absorbed, about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve over rice with braised greens and corn bread on the side. Good luck!

What recipes do you make that come dripping with history? Share your story in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Meat Free Mondays — Three Bean Pizza

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Perhaps my wife stated it best when I told her what I was making for dinner:

“Wait, what?”

That’s because you normally don’t associate beans and pizza. They don’t seem like two things that would go together. But the fact is, in this recipe they worked together very well because the protein in the three beans — black beans, chickpeas and red kidney beans — is the perfect low-fat low-cholesterol meat-free substitute for spicy pepperoni or greasy sausage.

I won’t go so far as to say that this tastes like traditional pizza. It doesn’t.

But it is delicious in its own right. With the salsa as the sauce and the pepper jack mixed into the cheese, it definitely has more of a Mexican flavor to it.

I frequently put beans in my quesadillas, so maybe that’s what this recipe reminds me of: A big, open-faced cheese quesadilla.

Normally, I would have used my homemade pizza dough. But frankly it has been so busy around here I just didn’t have time, so instead I bought one of those pre-made pizza doughs in the paper tube. I really wanted to hate it, but I have to admit it tasted really good.

BONUS: The recipe I found called for one can each of the beans, but that was WAY too much, so I only used half and made a three bean salad with the other half. Win/win!

Three Bean Pizza

1 TBS EVOO

1/2 white onion, small dice

2 cloves garlic, crushed.

1/2 15-oz can black beans

1/2 can chick peas

1/2 can red kidney beans

1/2 can cut corn

12 oz salsa

1 tube (10 oz) refrigerated pizza dough

4 oz mozzarella, shredded

4 oz pepper jack, shredded

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp chili powder

1. Preheat oven to 425. Roll out pizza dough onto a baking sheet, spray with pan spray and cook 6 minutes. This will result in a crisp, cracker-like crust. Meanwhile, pour all four cans into a colander, drain and toss together until fully mixed.

2. Put cast iron pan on fire. When hot, add oil. When smoking, add onions and cook until onions transclucent, about five minutes. Add garlic and cook another minute, then add half the bean/corn mixture and cook until heated through, about another five minutes.

3. Pour the salsa onto the pizza dough and spread it so the entire surface is covered, except the edges. Sprinkle the dough with half the cheese, then add the bean mixture in an even layer and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Sprinkle the top with the cumin and chile powder

4. Bake for 10 minutes or until top is brown and bubbly. Remove from oven and cut into squares.

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