Quick Beans & Rice

When we heard Dave Ramsey talk about eating rice and beans, beans and rice, Michelle and I took him seriously.  But it's because it's just so good! This is a staple in the Carlile household.  I would usually start with dry beans, but that will just have to be another blog post.  Tonight I made quick beans and rice, and I promise you, you will want to make these again! Easy and awesome. So here we go!

What you will need:
1/3 Red Onion
1/2 Green Bell Pepper
1/2 - 1 Jalapeño depending on how hot you want it
2 Cans of Red Beans
Goya Adobo Seasoning
1 packet Goya Sazon Seasoning
Red Pepper Flakes
2 cloves Minced Garlic
1 tsp Oil

First chop your onion, green pepper and jalapeño.

Then in a large saucepan, put the oil with the garlic and a splash of red pepper flakes and let sizzle, be careful not the burn the garlic. When the oil is infused with the flavors of the garlic and peppers, add the onion/pepper mixture. Cook until tender.

Add the beans and 1 packet of the Sazon Goya.  This little packet adds a ton of flavor. Really making this dish awesome.  Also sprinkle some of that Adobo seasoning as well.  Use it instead of salt. (to taste) Remember, when using canned beans, you automatically have a higher sodium level so you don't need to add much.  Let this cook for about 10 minutes or so, your rice should be finished at the same time.  I will need to post a blog how to make perfect rice every single time... no joke!

Once everything is done, put a bed of rice down, then the beans (make sure you get a good amount of juice with it) and Enjoy!

Stuffed Jalapenos [Warning: Addicting and Not Good For You]

Super Bowl Sunday is filled with food, also called the supper bowl.  It's one time out of the year you have the right to gorge yourself full of chips, dips, nachos, pizzas, and this year... stuffed Jalapenos.

This was actually thought up in the shower (where most of my awesome ideas come from) and it just sounded really good.  You might be thinking, how is this any different? You'll see...

What you'll need/want

Jalapenos - I made about 11 for a total of 22 halves
1 pkg of cream cheese
1/2 cup of griller crumbles
Shredded pepper jack cheese
Tabasco - Chipotle flavored
1 small can of green chilis
1 bulb of garlic, yes garlic.

First you roast the bulb of garlic.  Sounds fancy, but very easy to do.  Simply take a bulb and cut off the top of it. Wrap it in foil and put in the oven at 400 for an hour.  Your house will smell incredible.

Meanwhile let the cream cheese soften. Also, cut the jalapenos in half (wear gloves) and take out all the seeds.

Once the garlic is done,  place the jalapenos on a cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, they should brown up just a tad.

Take the cream cheese and add the green chilis and mix together with the tabasco, just a splash of the stuff.  Gives it kind of a smoky flavor.  Next take the bulb of garlic and squeeze it from the bottom and it will just come right out into the cream cheese mixture.  Mix it up, smashing the garlic. Next add the griller crumbles and mix it all up.  Put the mixture in a ziploc bag.

Take the Jalapenos out and let cool.  Cut a corner of the ziploc bag (like an icing bag) and fill the peppers with the mixture and place back on the cookie sheet and top with the pepper jack cheese.  At this point you can put them in the fridge if you want to wait until game time (or eating time) when ready to eat, place them in a 450 degree oven until the cheese is melted on top (roughly 5-9 minutes).

Enjoy!

Curry with Chickpeas

Every time I open the door, I'm reminded I can't go anywhere because of the white mess that's in front of my house.  I've done work today, but there's only so much you can do from home.  Plus when the city is pretty much shut down, no one really answers their phone.   So when I'm bored, I eat, and think up things to eat.  Tonight's meal is simply that.  A meal conjured up out of boredom.  This probably isn't a traditional curry dish, but it's still good and super easy to make.

You'll need/want:
1 TsbOil
1 tspRed pepper flakes
1 Med. Onion
1/2 Green Bell Pepper
1 tsp Ginger paste
1 tspGarlic Paste
4 Tbs Mild Curry Paste
Can of diced tomatoes
3 yukon gold potatoes
1 large carrot (or 7 baby carrots diced)
3/4 cup of water

First you'll want to do two things.  Start on your basmati rice which takes about 25 minutes
Then cut up 3 yukon gold potatoes and several baby carrots. (or 1 large carrot) and boil to cook them.

Now for the curry part.
Add a tablespoon of oil to a large saucepan add a few red pepper flakes to spice up the oil.  Next add one yellow onion and half a green bell pepper. Let that cook down. Add one teaspoon of ginger paste and garlic paste (both found at an Indian food supply store) stir together and add a can of chickpeas.

Let cook for a bit and then stir in 4 tablespoons of mild curry paste.  Get a good coat on everything and then add the cooked potato and carrot mixture.  Add a can of diced tomatoes and 3/4 cup of water. Let cook for a while or at least until your rice is done. 

Top the rice and enjoy! Keep in mind you add or take out any of the vegetables you want.  If you eat chicken, you could do that instead of the chickpeas.  Whatever the case, it's got a good flavor and you'll want more of it!  If you've never had Indian food before, this is a great starter dish. Not too spicy, and not weird.  It's just right!

BLT or SSTA on Homemade Bagels

As you can see from my previous post, we tackled homemade bagels.  But don't just slather some cream cheese on these bad boys and that's it. Why not have some awesome sandwiches with these bagels? We had BLTs for lunch today. The snow just doesn't want to go away, so we're having another snow day today.  This sandwich is vegan by the way! Enjoy!

1 Homemade Bagel (See Michelle's Blog)
3 Stripples (cooked in skillet, none of this microwave business!)
Veganaise
Tomato
Fresh Spinach or Lettuce
Spicy Brown Mustard
Avacado

There you go, enjoy!

We Made Bagels!

Yes, that's right, bagels from scratch!

To see how, visit Michelle's blog!

Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Portobello Mushroom Panini

If you read my wife's blog, she is the ultimate soup maker in the home.  Really, the only soup I make is chili and that's not really classified under soup.  Chili is it's own category.  If you want to learn how to make chili, read down on the blog from earlier...

However, with the roasted red pepper soup, you must roast the peppers.  Michelle leaves that up to me, so I'm going to share with you how to roast the peppers for this soup, then you can hop on over to her blog to see how to finish it off. 

Then I will share with you the Portobello Mushroom Panini with red onion, basil and provolone cheese.  Very simple, but oh so good.

First off you will need 4 red peppers.

Take a cookie sheet and line it with foil, then drizzle just a little bit of olive oil on the peppers. Then with your hand, rub the oil all over the peppers.

Put the oven on "Broil" and place the peppers in the oven and wait.

Keep an eye on the peppers.  They need to turn black basically.

When the tops get charred, take some tongs and turn them. Keep doing this until the entire pepper is black.  It should look something like this.

I know, it looks like you burned them, but don't worry.

Immediately take them off the sheet and place them in a large mixing bowl and saran wrap the top, trapping all the air in.  This is called sweating the peppers. 

Basically what this does and helps the skins come off of the peppers.  Keep them in this bowl for about 15 minutes. Now it's the fun part.  Take the peppers out of the bowl and onto a cutting board.  Open the pepper up (they will still be hot, so be careful) take out all the seeds, the stem and pinch off all the skin of the pepper.  It should peel off pretty easily.  You are now left with a soft, sweet red roasted pepper!

Cut them into pieces and place them in the stock that Michelle will explain and blend it all together.

Next, let's talk panini's! I know I've already mentioned how much I love sandwiches and if you like mushrooms, this is where it's at.  It reminds me of the portobello sandwich that Panera used to have.  That was my inspiration.  First, in a skillet add olive oil and a slice of red onion. Start sautéing that down and add the portobello mushrooms.  They can be the big ones or the baby ones, doesn't matter. Once they are cooked down, add a splash of balsamic vinegar and fresh basil.  You can do the dried, but the fresh is so much better. 

Once they are all cooked down, remove from heat and add some seasoned salt (be careful not to over season, i've done that before, no bueno). I used Michelle's famous sourdough bread that she makes and put the mixture on the bread, put a slice of provolone cheese on top, closed the bread and throw it on the panini press.  And Enjoy!

Now go read Michelle's Blog!

Breakfast Burritos

It's not everyday you get a snow day. So Michelle and I made the most of it, and you'll be able to see our meals throughout the day. This morning we decided (well, michelle decided) that I would make breakfast.  Her request, breakfast burritos.  I said maybe quesadillas, but as I started cooking, what she said actually sounded better.

I started with half of a green bell pepper and about three slices of red onion.  With olive oil and some garlic I sauteed them up in a skillet.  Once cooked, I added about a cup or less of griller crumbles.  Meanwhile I cracked three eggs and added a splash of Louisiana hot sauce, salt and pepper to the eggs and beat them.  Then pushed the veggie mixture to the side of the skillet and added the eggs.  I started to scramble them, once they started to firm up, I mixed everything together.  Seasoned it with Adobo seasoning and Goya Sazon (secret ingredient for most mexican dishes).

Cut up some avocado and tomatoes and mixed them together with salt and pepper to top the burritos as well as some colby jack cheese.

Tasty... very tasty...

Enjoy!

Carlile Famous Chili

Yes folks, you've asked for it, so here it is! The Famous Carlile Chili Recipe!

Simply add some beans and some sauce with some other stuff and you've got yourself some awesome chili! Enjoy!!!

Spinach, Mushroom, Ricotta Ravioli

A couple of weeks ago we had a "cultural" night with italian food.  Aaron made homemade marinara sauce which was awesome and Michelle and Lindsey made the Ravioli itself.  I was in charge of the filling in the ravioli.  So basically I used the same recipe from the rigatoni blog and didn't add water to keep it thicker and put them in the middle of the ravioli shells.  Yes all of this was done by scratch.  It was a fun evening with some great food.  Here are a couple of pictures of the ravioli and the marinara sauce. Very big!