Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Honey Baked Beans

Prep: 35 Minutes
Cook: 3-4 Hours

½ 1b dried great Northern beans 1 ¼ c rinsed
2tbsp olive oil
1 med onion, sliced
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 c water
¼ c dark, full-flavored honey
1 ½ tsp salt

1. Put beans in medium saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 30mins. Drain and set aside.
2. Place oven rack in center position and heat oven to 325
3. Heat oil in ovenproof 1 ½ quart dutch oven over med high heat. Add onion and cook until lightly browned, about 4 mins. Stir in tomato paste, chipotle pepper and garlic. Add water, honey, salt and reserved beans and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, cover and pour into crockpot.
4 Cook on high until beans are tender, 3 to 4 hours. Stir every hour. Add boiling water, if needed to keep beans covered and soupy.

Nutrition Facts
Per serving: 208 cal, 8g pro, 35g carb, 7 g fiber, 5g fat, 1g sat fat, 0mg chol, 637mg sodium

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Help Us Help You Feed Your Family Better

I am so thrilled with the response to this site, and the consistent and growing readership since we started Mommy What's For Dinner.

As this site grows, we love that we are hearing more and more from our readers about what they like and what has worked for them as they try to feed their families well. We love hearing your comments!

We'd also love to be able to respond to what you have to say, especially when you leave such great feedback and ideas and I want to know more! So, if you leave us a comment, and you have a blogger account, please sign in so we can track back and visit your blog and respond to you there. Or, do us one better by having your email address in your profile so we can reply to your comments. For your convenience, you can follow this blog on your Dashboard or add us to your feed reader to get updates as soon as they are posted.

As always you can email me with your ideas, suggestions, comments or recipes you would like to see on this site.

Mexican Chicken Casserole

Yield: 8 servings
Prep: 15 minutes
Bake: 30 minutes

1 20-24 oz bag of tortilla chips
2 c of cooked chicken (diced or shredded)

6 c of chicken stock (boxed, homemade, canned)
8 oz of shredded cheese (sharp cheddar or a mex mix)
5 tsp of chili powder
salt to taste (depends on the salinity of your chili powder)
1 15 oz can of petite diced tomatoes
1 4.5 oz can of chopped green chilies (near the taco shells in the supermarket)
4 oz of shredded cheese (sharp cheddar or a mex mix)

Preheat oven to 350.

Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with oil. Take 2 handfulls of whole chips and put aside for later. Lightly crush the rest of the chips. Spread them in the casserole dish (NOT TIGHTLY). Spread cooked chicken over the chips.

Heat the chicken stock to a slight boil in a saucepan. Add chili powder, salt, 8 oz shredded cheese, tomatoes & chilies. Reduce heat and cook on low until cheese is almost completely melted.

Pour over chips.

Spread the reserved whole chips over top. Sprinkle the ~4oz of shredded cheese. Bake for 30 mins.

Tips & Tricks:
The texture of the chips is similar to a tamale. It's even better reheated the second day, so the large recipe is nice for those like me who love leftovers!

This is a great way to use up the crumbly chips in the bottom of the bag that no one wants to eat.

How kids can help:
Kids can crush chips, open cans, shred cheese.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Tucanos Grilled Pineapple

My brother has been singing the praises of grilled pineapple, so I set out to find a good recipe and try it out. We have been loving this Tucanos Pineapple from Kieras Recipes. (I really only got a taste because my 8 year old gobbled up the rest.)

Ingredients:

* One half pineapple, cut into long spears
* 1 TBPS butter
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 1 Tsp. cinnamon, in all
* lemon juice


Fire up the grill to medium heat. Before putting the pineapple down, sprinkle the spears with half of the cinnamon and a little bit of brown sugar. This will facilitate a sweetness and instant carmelization when they hit the grill.

In a small saucepan, heat the butter, brown sugar and the rest of the cinnamon. Heat until bubbly and the sugar is properly melted.

Grill the pineapple spears over direct heat about 2-3 minutes per side, turning occasionally. Each time it turns, baste with a brush of glaze. When finished, plate up and drizzle a final amount of glaze on top.