Avocado salad dressing/ southwestern salad

I made a salad to go with the chili we had.  I wanted to stick with a southwestern theme so I decided to try the avocado dressing in the GSG book.  However, I ended up having no lemon juice and only 1 lime.  I subbed some orange juice.  The dressing was OK.  A bit too salty with the large amount of Liquid Aminos, but I thought it was good on the salad.  I just wouldn't use it as dip for veggies.  Too salty for my tastes.  I do have to say that I liked it enough to have some more salad for lunch today.  To make the salad I just tossed some lettuce (I had green leaf and romaine), 1 cup frozen corn, defrosted and some diced red, yellow, and orange bell peppers.  I tossed some black beans in the salad when I had it again today for lunch, and would probably add some tomatoes if I had any.  Shedded cheddar or monterey jack cheese would also be tasty.  I actually made some croutons for the salad by brushing some bread with olive oil and sprinkling with oregano and basil, dicing and  then broiling for 2-3 minutes.   Yum.

To explain why this has a 3 star and a 4 star - the dressing alone + 3 star - maybe less.  The salad together 4 star.

Ingredients

• 2 avocados
• 1/2 cup lemon juice (or if your me, juice of 1 lime plus juice of an orange - to equal 1/2 cup)
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 Tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 Tablespoons Nama Shoyu or Bragg Liquid Aminos (I'll probably reduce this to 1 next time I make this)
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2-4 Tablespoons water (I used all 4 and it was still pretty thick.)

Blend all ingredients until smooth.

Toss with salad immediately before serving.

vegetarian chili

This is another green smoothy girl recipe - only slightly modified by me.  It makes a ton, so either cut it in half, or be prepared for left overs/an additional freezer meal.
Everyone in the family seemed to like it.  I even got my anti bean eating 3 year old to eat it by pureeing the entire dish.  He used it as dip for his corn chips.  So long as he couldn't see a bean he was plenty fine eating them.

• 4 cups pinto beans, soaked overnight and rinsed well (mine got soaked from 5:30 in the morning on. Still worked fine.)
• 12 cups water
• 2 cups brown rice
• 2 diced yellow onions
• 2 15 oz cans tomato sauce
• 2-3 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes, with juice
• 1.5 Tablespoons chili powder (I reduced this, which made a very mild chili - you may want to increase it to 2 Tablespoons
• 2 Tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 cup diced bell peppers (I used sweed0
• optional (2 anaheim or jalapeno peppers, diced

Directions

1. In a very large stock pot, bring the water and beans to a boil.  REduce heat and simmer for 2 hours (or longer if the beans are very old. - until almost tender.)  Add all the remaining ingredients and simmer for 1 hour.  

These are very versatile.  We have used them as chili, burrito/taco filling, nacho topping, puree'd nacho dip/ burritos, and I plan to use them one of these days as baked potato topping.  

split pea soup (vegetarian)

Here is my adaption of Green smoothie girl's split pea soup.   I used a brown basmati rice.  I haven't tried that before.  For the soup I'm sure it made no difference, but my regular brown rice was smelling old and I didn't want any excuses for people to complain the soup wasn't tasty.
I did like this soup.  It turned out very nice.

Ingredients

• 1-2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cups diced sweet onion
• 2 cloves garlic, diced or minced
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 cups dried split peas, rinsed well
• 1 cup brown rice, rinsed well
• 14 cups water 
• 4 carrots, chopped
• 4 stalks celery, chopped
• 3 potatoes, diced
• 2 teaspoons each parsley, basil, and thyme
• 1/2-3/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 Tablespoon sea salt.

Directions

1. In a large pot, saute onion and garlic in the oil until onions are translucent.  Add the peas and rice and stir to coat.  Add the waster, bay leaves and salt.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Add the carrots, celery, potatoes, parsley, basil, thyme and pepper.  Simmer for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

Pecan-cranberry quinoa

This is the first dinner recipe I've tried from green smoothie girl.  I shy away from quinoa a lot.  Many times it isn't particularly my favorite, and I have multiple children who don't care for it. I almost forgot that when we sat down to dinner and Tavio said he LOVED this - Why don't w have quinoa more often.  Of course, then the little boys opened their mouths, and it was all yuck, this is disgusting. etc. etc.  before even trying the food.  Benjamin eventually ate it - only because he was racing Aaron.  Aaron took an obligatory bite, but was NOT happy about it, and it took some time to get that in him.  Duncan ate his (mostly) without complaint, but was super slow to eat, and I heard him muttering about the horrors of eating healthy and that he wasn't gaining weight..... (a normal occurance at our house.)  I actually really liked it.  Had just enough crunch with the almonds, just enough sweet with the craisins.   I didn't even mind the cilantro (of course I probably didn't put the full 1/3 cup it called for in - more like 2 Tablespoons once chopped if I really would have measured.)   I really liked the dressing that went with it, and am thinking of making it again to go on a salad.  Very fresh and citrusy with no vinegar to bite my lips.  I'll eat the left overs for lunch today.  (always a good indication of how much I liked a meal.  :)

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed well (soak for a few minutes, then drain in a fine strainer
• 1 Tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 2 green onions chopped
• 2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Dressing ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice (1 lemon)
• 1/4 cup fresh orange juice (1 medium/small orange)
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons agave
• 1 teaspoon basil (I reduced this from the original - feel free to add more if you want to.)

Directions

1. Toast the almonds in a saute pan.  Set aside.  In the same pan, briefly saute the garlic in the oil.  Add the quinoa and stir until toasted.  Add the water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.  
2. Blend all dressing ingredients in a blender or food processor.  Mix all ingredients together and serve.  This dish is good both hot and cold. I ate it hot for dinner, but cold for lunch the next day.

strawberry-poppy seed dressing

A couple of posts ago I wrote about not buying salad dressings anymore.  Well here is another I have tried to add to my list.  This one also is from green smoothie girl.  It is very simple.
I think my next chore after this is to go through all of my recipe books and make a salad dressing cookbook on the computer or something so I can see what I have.  So many look very similar.  In fact in one of the Raw books I have checked out of the library it has a generic salad dressing recipe.  Surely it looks something like -equal parts oil and vinegar, sweetener, spice.  Really it is so simple, one could get quite creative.

This dressing had an optional ingredient of basil which I did try.  It gave it a bit less sweet, more savory flavor.  It was a good addition for a more savory dressing, but if you want a more sweet dressing, go without.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1 Tablespoon poppy seeds
• 2-3 Tablespoons pureed strawberries or raspberies (I just used 3 large ones from my bag of frozen strawberries.  I defrosted them a bit and threw them right into the blender whole.
• 1/4 teaspoon basil (optional) -I used the dried stuff.

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients except poppy seeds in a blender (I think my blender was dirty and I made this in my food processor with no problems)  Add poppy seeds and pulse a couple of times.

Craisin salad and honey mustard dressing

This recipe comes from Green smoothie girl.  However, her recipe makes a very large salad.  I didn't have the types of salad called for, or the almonds (at least I couldn't find them.  Found them today when I went to put away the new bag I bought - go figure.)
I really liked the salad - LOVED the candied pecans -(who knew you could make those with agave - not me.)  I wasn't a fan of the dressing, but I'm not a fan of mustard.  I'd probably either use the strawberry poppy seed dressing on this next time, or let individuals pick their own dressing, or just use only about 1/3 the amount of mustard in the dressing.  Seems like everyone else liked the dressing though, so don't let my dislike of mustard sway you from trying the dressing.
Anyway, here is how I made the salad with the dressing to follow.  Still tasty and just enough for our family as a salad before dinner, not the main dish.

Ingredients

• 1/2 of a large head of romaine (I'd use 1 whole head if you are using romaine hearts or a smaller head.)
• 2-3 large handfuls of baby spinach
• 1 can mandarin oranges, drained (I used an 11 oz. can)
• 1/2 cup craisins
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 2 Tablespoons agave

Directions

1. Saute pecans over medium heat with the butter and agave until browned.  Set aside.  Toss remaining ingredients together with dressing (see below for what we tried.)    You can toss the nuts in at the end, but personally, I just sprinkled them on top of each individual plate.

This too is from green smoothie girl.  I liked the dressing I tried the next day a lot better.  This amount made quite a lot.  I'm not sure how long it will stay good in the fridge, but I think if making it again, I would probably just do a 1/2 batch.  That would still have been plenty for the cranberry salad plus left overs.

Here's my slightly adapted version.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon mustard 
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 medium sweet onion cut into fourths
• 1 Tablespoon poppy seeds

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients except poppy seeds in a blender and blend until smooth.  Add poppy seeds and pulse a couple of times.  
2. Toss desired amount with salad (I can't imagine you using all of this on the salad listed above.  This is a lot of dressing.

Peanut butter granola bars

Here's a recipe I made forever ago - like 4-5 months ago.  My modifications are written on a paper that I'm tired of tossing around my kitchen so it is getting a blog post.  If I remember right, these turned out a tiny bit crumbly/hard to keep together,  so I may want to make some modifications to the recipe.   However, it seems like I got better at cutting them, and knew to treat them a bit more carefully than regular granola bars and all was well enough.  The flavor was great, and they are a lot better for you than most granola bars.

Ingredients

• 5 cups oats
• 2 cups rice crispy cereal
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips.  (I like to use the minis - they seem to go farther)
• 1/2 cup agave
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 3/4 cup peanut butter, melted
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together until all of the oats are rice are covered in the honey/agave.
2. Spray a 11 X 14 pan with cooking spray and pat the mixture into the bottom of the pan.  
3. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes.  Cut into desired shapes.

Ideas for next time - use only honey, add raisins or other dried fruit.

blender buttermilk waffles

Update: This is now my goto waffle recipe. I now use all wheat, sometimes 2/3 c bean flour, 2/3 c water, other times 1/3 cup each and 1/3 cup olive oil. Both turn out well. Love this recipe.

 After I taught my bean class, I ordered a downloadable bean book from everydayfoodstorage.net.  I've been trying to try some recipes from there, that this was one of those recipes - modified of course.  All of her baking recipes use bean puree.  I use bean flour.  It is way easier than pureeing beans in my opinion.  I also made these wheat-white and added a bit of vanilla.    I used a smaller portion of wheat than I normally would have because I ran out in the front of the pantry and didn't feel like crawling to the back to pull out another barrel.  However, I really liked this combination a lot.  I'm trying not to use white flour, and will probably end up trying this same recipe using 100% wheat, but I will probably also make these occasionally with white. She also made them in the blender - simple I suppose, but mine was probably dirty from green smoothies -or I didn't want to make it dirty so I could make green smoothies, so I made them the traditional way.   They were very light and fluffy - that is a problem I have with my current waffle mix.  I did double this from the original as well.  I have a large waffle iron and if I'm going to make waffles, I want left overs for another day in the week.  (they fit perfectly in my toaster.  I either refrigerate the extras, or freeze them separated by wax paper for another day.)
For the combination of being healthier than a lot of my other waffle recipes, and being so nice and fluffy I could give them a 5 star rating, but I still think I like tender sour cream waffles better, so they will stay a 4.5.  However, they are an awesome, plain waffle.  I'm planning to try and make a mix based on this recipe if I ever get buttermilk powder again.

Ingredients

• 4 cups buttermilk
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cups bean flour
• 2/3 cups water
• 2 1/4 cups unbleached white flour
• 1 1/4 cups wheat flour (I use white wheat and again, this is just the amount I had ground.  I'd either go all wheat next time or half and half -1 3/4 cups of each)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (bean flour, white flour, wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt) until well blended.  Whisk in remaining ingredients (buttermilk, water, eggs, and vanilla) until combined.
2. Pour in pre-heated waffle iron and bake according to your waffle iron's instructions.  For me, it is until it beeps.  :)  LOVE my waffle iron.

Potato and feta Spanish "tortilla"

This is another modified recipe from six o'clock scramble.  Here I mostly just upped the amount of eggs and milk to make it go farther.  As it was, it was all eaten and we had to make some more scrambled eggs to fill up our hungry teenagers. (and the original recipe was supposedly able to serve 6 - with only 5 eggs.)
I absolutely adored this meal.  That is saying something because I'm not a huge fan of eggs in general.
The original did say you could add optional fillings.  We did not although since I had asparagus in my meal this evening, I'm thinking that asparagus would have gone very well as an optional add in.
Definitely planning to make this again - maybe even for breakfast tomorrow.  It sounds sooo good.

Ingredients

•  2 medium potatoes diced
• 1-2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 medium sweet onion, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 8 eggs
• 1/3 cup milk
• 3 Tablespoons feta

Directions

1. Place the potatoes in a medium sized microwave safe bowl and sprinkle with water.  Lightly cover them (I used my microwave cover.)  Microwave on high until they are fork tender (3-5 minutes)  Drain any excess liquid.
2. Preheat the broiler to high and set the rack 4-5 inches from the heat.  
3. Spray a heavy, oven proof 12 inch skillet with nonstick cooking spray.  Saute the onions in butter until fragrant.  Add the softened potatoes, rosemary, salt, and pepper (and any additional ingredients -ie veggies I'm thinking spinach would probably be good as well)  and saute for a few more minutes.  (It should smell awesome at this point between the onions and the rosemary.  YUM!)
4. In a bowl, mix eggs, milk and cheese.  Pour it over the potato mixture in the pan.  Cook (without stirring) over medium-high heat until the eggs begin to harden.  (about 4 minutes)
5. Place the skillet under the broiler and cook until golden brown on top.  For me I did 3 minutes on high then turned my broiler down to low and did 2 minutes more.  That was perfect.  
6. Cut in slices and serve.  

easy-cheesy tortilla skillet

Here is another quick and easy recipe from the six o'clock scramble.  (slightly modified by me of course.)  LOVED the fact that this was super simple and super quick.  Everyone also ate it without complaint, even the little ones.  Yet another vegetarian dish (not vegan) this one uses both eggs and cheese.

Ingredients

• 3 cups broken tortilla chips (I like the food should taste good chips with flax seeds.)
• 1 1/2 cups chunky salsa 
• 6 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (we used sharp)

Directions

1. In a large nonstick skillet, warm the tortilla chips slightly.  Add the salsa and sir until the chips soak up the liquid.
2. Pour the eggs on top.  Cook and stir until the eggs are set and the mix is somewhat dry.  (This won't get as dry as normal scrambled eggs with the chips and salsa in there - I kept thinking it would, but it didn't.)  Top with cheese - stirring in if desired.
3. Serve hot.

lentil and cheese casserole (vegetarian meatloaf)

Part of my new healthier eating is eating way LESS meat.  In fact, I haven't cooked anything with meat in over a week.  In the past 2 weeks we've only had a birthday dinner that had meat, and salmon.  Like I said, way less meat.  It has been interesting.  So far for the most part I haven't had too many revolts from the kids.  Probably helps that I had my older boys watch food inc and food matters with me.

Back to the recipe.  This one was actually on my calendar for a few weeks before it got made.  Something about it being subtitled vegetarian meatloaf made me shy away from it.  I also think I kept avoiding it because it was made of lentils and sometimes they go over extremely well, and other times they don't go over very well at all.  This was one of the better times.  Only my oldest had horrible commentary to go with this meal.  He hated everything about it.  The casserole and the salad I served on the side.  Wanted to know why I was serving such gross and disgusting food.  However, both of my younger boys LOVED this.  They both had seconds.  Tavio also didn't seem to mind it because he too had seconds.  I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I sauteed my onions.  That was the biggest flavor in the dish.  So glad I chose to add that extra step from the original.

This recipe is adapted from one in The Six O'clock scramble.  I'm LOVING this cookbook.  It has lots of recipes and quite a few of them are vegetarian.  Not vegan, but vegetarian.  

Ingredients

• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese  + a bit more for topping if desired
• 2 cups cooked lentils (directions below)
• 1/2-1 Tablespoon butter
• 1/2 medium sweet onion, diced
• 1 - 2 teaspoons garlic (can't remember how much I added)
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1 egg, slightly beaten

Directions

** To make lentils, bring 3 cups of water to a boil.  Rinse 1 1/2 cups of lentils in a colander.  Add lentils to boiling water.  Return to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes or until tender.  (This made like 3 cups of lentils.  Not sure if I'd dare go down to 1 cup lentils, but I think 1 1/4 cup would be plenty without as many left overs.)  Cook these earlier in the day for a quicker meal prep.  If not, do step 2 first while the lentils cook.

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Place cooked lentils in a large bowl and mash with a potato masher.  
2. Saute the onions in butter until nice and golden.  Add the garlic and saute a minute or 2 longer.  Add the salt, pepper and thyme and stir to combine.  Remove from heat.
3. Stir onion mixture and breadcrumbs into the lentil mash.  Add the cheese and eggs and stir to combine.  
4. Evenly spread the lentil mixture in a loaf pan that has been coated with cooking spray.  Top with additional cheddar cheese if desired.  Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.
5. Slice and serve with ketchup or tomato sauce.  

Ranch dressing or dip mix, and dressing

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this one yet.  I've made it a couple of times (the mix -triple batches each time.)  I remember last time I made it I had to search forever to figure out what book I got the recipe from.  Should have blogged it then.  Save myself time searching every cookbook I own.  :)
So, lately I've decided to really change up my eating habits - more on that later.  One of the things I'm doing is eating way MORE salad.  Quite a while ago I quit buying salad dressings and started making my own.  This one is definitely a family favorite.  It is super easy -especially if you have some mix already made.   You can also adjust the thickness by varying what you mix it with.  Never buy a packet of ranch dressing mix again.  :)

Ingredients

• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon dried chives

This will yield only enough for 1 batch of ranch.  To triple, simply change all of the teaspoons to Tablespoons.  That gets a bit tricky with the 1/4 teaspoons,  It should look something like this

Ingredients for 3 batches

• 1/2 Tablespoon (1 1/2 teaspoons) pepper
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons parsley
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 1/2 Tablespoon (1 1/2 teaspoons) garlic powder
• 3/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 3/4 teaspoon thyme
• 3/4 teaspoon dried chives

Or double again and only use Tablespoon and 1/2 Tablespoon measures.  It would look like this

Ingredients for 6 batches

• 1 Tablespoon pepper
• 3 Tablespoons parsley
• 2 Tablespoons salt
• 1 Tablespoon garlic powder
• 1/2 Tablespoon onion powder
• 1/2 Tablespoon Thyme
• 1/2 Tablespoon dried chives

Make as much as you like.  Personally, I make the 6 batches.  It is just easier, and my kids love ranch.  My oldest dips his pizza in it, and they all eat fresh carrots, celery, cucumbers peppers or tomatoes or salad in general much better with some sauce.  Ranch being a particular favorite.

To mix up some ranch

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 teaspoons Ranch mix listed above *
• 4 teaspoons olive oil **
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup greek yogurt***
• 3 Tablespoons buttermilk

Mix it all together.  Store in the fridge.  You are "supposed to" let this sit for an hour in the fridge before using.  I haven't in the 4-6 times I've made it.  First batch gets used immediately.  Still tastes great.  Other notes

* (you can totally play with this amount.  I usually add 1 heaping Tablespoon because I'm lazy and don't want to measure out 4 1/2 teaspoons.  Today I actually measured out 4 teaspoons.  Add as much or little as you like to make it taste good.

** I have been known to omit the olive oil especially if I'm going for a thicker veggie dipping sauce.  I added it when making it today and suggest it if you are going for salad dressing.

*** original called for mayo or yogurt.  I always use greek yogurt.  It is thicker but way better for you.  You can always thin the dressing with a little water if it is too thick for you liking.

****Buttermilk is listed as an option written in the intro to the recipe (not even in the recipe) - I know, crazy huh?  I love my ranch to have a buttermilk flavor so I always add it.  I even waited until today to make it because I was out of buttermilk yesterday.  It thins the dressing a bit and adds a wonderful flavor.  

Shelf life of mix :1 year  --I put it in a ziplock bag and write on the ranch recipe on the outside with a sharpie.  Then when I pull out the baggie I know exactly what to do to make the dressing without having to look it up again.

Shelf life of dressing:  3 weeks in the fridge.

zucchini bread muffins

Here is the recipe I used for muffins using waffle mix at my bean class.  It is similar to carrot cake muffins.

Ingredients

•3 cups waffle mix

•2 cups shredded zucchini

•1 cup sour cream

•¼ cup agave (or sweetener of choice)

•2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

•1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

•Dash of ginger

•Dash of nutmeg

Directions

1.Stir together all ingredients until moistened throughout. 

2.Spoon into muffin pans either lined with papers or sprayed with cooking spray.

3.Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.  (You may want to check at 18.  I thought these were a tad bit overdone, but just the tiniest bit.  Original recipe said 30 minutes which would definitely be too long.)

black bean pasta

This pasta was super fun to make.  The recipe comes from the book The Everyday Gourmet by Sari Haag.  It came highly recommended on a couple of food storage sites I have visited, but I find it to be somewhat confusing in a lot of areas, and horribly indexed.  Definitely better than my whole food's kitchen's book, but still quite lacking.  However, there are tons more recipes, and they are categorized and tabbed - it's just that so many of the recipes refer you back to another recipe -or call for another recipe as an ingredient, or refers you to another recipe for the remainder of the instructions IF it is in the book (none of the bread mixes or biscuit mixes are in the book), the page number isn't listed and you have to hope you can find it in the index.  OK, sorry, enough ranting about the book.  It just annoys me that the thing cost $25 + and isn't better organized.
However, I really did like this recipe.  Like I said - super fun to make.  I know, who calls noodles super fun to make.  They are actually a bit tedious.  However, these actually turned out blue, and who doesn't love a funky blue noodle that has extra fiber and protein in it to boot?  Of course, in the book, the directions are all of 2 lines. Mix the 2 flours and proceed with the same method to make Homemade Egg noodles (see index)  Of course I've written it all out.  Have fun.
As with most things I make with bean flour, I think they smell very strongly of beans before cooking, but after cooking these just tasted like normal pasta.  You could sub out pretty much any dried bean flour for black beans, but like I said, I loved the blue tint these had from the black beans.

Black Bean Pasta

Ingredients

•¾ cup durum semolina (pretty sure I found mine at HEB.  It is by Bob’s red mill)

•1/3 cup black bean flour

•1/8 teaspoon onion powder

•1 teaspoon olive oil

•2 Tablespoons water  (or so said the original recipe.  I used 7 or 8 Tablespoons.  I’d start with at least 4.

Directions

1.Mix black bean flour, onion powder and durum semolina flour together. 

2.Knead in the olive oil and water.   Knead for 8-10 minutes –until you have a nice cohesive ball of dough.   (I’ve been experimenting with making pasta lately and it has been hard to know what the dough should look like.  Pasta dough is dry when compared to bread dough.  It should not be sticky at all.  However, it shouldn’t be so stiff and tough that it can’t be rolled thin either.  Add enough  water that is can be kneaded nicely, isn’t super stiff, but isn’t yet sticky.  When I started making pasta, I made it too sticky.  That makes it stick to the counter or pasta roller and makes it very hard to work with.  Once I figured out the right consistency, it really isn’t too bad to make your own pasta.   It does require hand kneading which is 10 minutes, but rolling and cutting go pretty quickly.)

3.After kneading,  Roll the dough in a ball and cover with a bowl or towel to rest for 1 hour.

4.Roll the dough out to the desired thinness either on the counter with a rolling pin, or with a pasta roller.  When you have reached the desired thinness, cut dough into strips (noodles) with a sharp knife, pizza roller, or the pasta roller.   (Or if your super fancy,  just run the dough through the pasta attachment of the kitchenaid or bosch.) I used the pasta roller method and cut spaghetti noodles.  (Mostly because I’d never done it before. )

5.Let hang on a rack for 30 minutes or store dried noodles for weeks in a jar. 

6.Cook in boiling water until the noodles float to the top.  

Beans class info

If you read posts on my blog, you may remember I posted about chia a month or 2 ago.  I had learned all about it at a healthy cooking class taught by a friend of mine.  Well, I had a turn to teach the healthy cooking class and did mine on beans.  You may have noticed I've been sneaking them into all sorts of things lately.  Right after the class I started trying even more substituting of beans -this time for oils because of everydayfoodstorage.net.  She always uses purees though.  I'm going to start trying to sub purees for powdered beans (mixed with the dry ingredients of a recipe) plus extra liquid.  I did it in my recent post on chocolate molten lava cake and it was very successful.
Here is all of the information from the bean class that I had put together.

Why eat beans??

Beans are very nutritious. 

•They are high in fiber.  ½ cup has 25-30% RDV of fiber.

•High in protein – ½ cup has 6-7 grams of protein and costs only 20 cents.

•High in vitamins – thiamin, folate, vitamin B6, and niacin.

•High in nutrients like calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, and manganese.

•Can help lower cholesterol,

•Can prevent spikes in blood sugar

•The soluble fiber in beans can help reduce the risk of heart problems.

•High in antioxidants – particularly black beans.

•Beans are high in lysine but low in methionine.  Grains are low in lysine but high in metionine and sulfur amino acids.  When eaten together they complement each other and provide an excellent source of protein.

Reducing Gas

It is a fact, beans can and do cause gas for many people because our digestive enzymes are not able to break down the raffinose sugars contained in beans.  Here are some ideas for reducing the not so pleasant effects of beans.

•Sprout the beans first. 

•Include them slowly in your diet to help increase tolerance.

•Use Beano. 

•Discard the soaking water. 

•Use bean flours to gradually introduce beans and increase tolerance.

•I have read that you can use epazote, kombu seaweed, vinegar, or baking soda in the water to help, but have not personally tried any of these.  I have seen epazote and kombu in books, saw all 4 mentioned online today.  Vinegar did warn about it making the beans stay hard.   I’m no expert here.  Really they don’t cause me any problems. 

Ways to cook beans

•Soak first –  Then rinse, drain, and simmer for the amount of time listed in chart on page 2. Choose 1 of the following soaking methods

•Soak overnight

•Soak 24 hours /begin and/or begin to sprout

• quick soak by boiling  for  2 minutes then let soak covered for  1 hour.

•Avoid the soak completely and just cook them extra time –  For example black beans take about 2 ½ hours to cook from dry.  I have tried this and it works fine.

•Cook in a jar – discussed at class.  Basically cook in side a canning jar in a canning pot in a water bath.  Takes about 2 ½ hours but you can cook multiple jars/variety of beans at a time.

•Slow cooker –approximately 6-7 hours on high, or 12-13 on low

•Pressure cooker  - sorry, not an expert here. 

•Boiling water over bean powder – Nearly instant mashed beans.  

•Bring 1 cup water to a boil, whisk in  1 cup bean flour and 1 cup cool water.  Cook and stir for 1 minute.  Season as desired.  Or use as a oil replacement in recipes. 

Other ways to incorporate beans

•Grind dry beans into flour either in a grain grinder, or a good blender if you have one.    Use in place of up to ¼ of the white or wheat flour in baked goods.  I usually go somewhere between 1/8.  If something has 3 cups flour, I’ll use ½ cup bean flour and 2 ½ cups regular flour.  I will warn you, this changes the taste of the dough, and I don’t like the dough, but once cooked, the item tastes normal.  Can’t tell the beans are there.

•Make bean purees by pureeing cooked beans with a little bit of water.  Use the puree to replace oil in recipes.  (I don’t do this as much and haven’t done it lately, but I have tried it in the past and it does work.)

•Use as a meat extender or replacement.  For example add beans to taco meat to make it go further.  I’ve even made a sloppy joe type dish with baked beans.

•Toss cooked beans into a salad

Bean cooking/sprouting chart

Bean	# cups of water per cup of beans	Overnight soak?	Cooking time   (simmer)	sproutable
Adzuki	3	No	90 min	Yes (w & S)
Anasazi	4	Yes	90 min	Yes (w)
Black Eye Pea	4	Yes	1 hr 15 min	Yes (w)
Black bean	3	Yes	90 min	Yes (w&S)**
Cranberry	3	Yes	1 hr 15 min	Yes (w)
Canelli	3	Yes	90 min
Fava	4	Yes + peel skins	3 hours
Garbanzo	4	Yes	3 hours	Yes (W &S)
Great Northern	3	Yes	2 hours
Kidney	4	Yes	90 min
Lentils	2	No	25-45 min	Yes (W&S)
Lima	2	Yes	60-90
Mung	4	No	1 hr 15 min	Yes (W&S)
Navy	4	Yes	2 ½ hrs
Pinto	4	Yes	2 hrs	Yes (S) **
Red	4	Yes	2 hrs
Soy	3	Yes in fridge	3-4 hours	Yes but hard **

Most of this information comes from a book called A Word of Wisdom by Amy Cox Jones. (referred to in the chart as W)

Another book I have and like called 366 Delicious ways to cook rice, beans, and grains gives cooking times at about half the ones listed.  If find the ones above to be a bit more accurate. 

For additional information on sprouting, sproutpeople.com is an excellent resource. (referred to in the chart as S)  ** - sprout people advises cooking the sprouts before eating for better digestion. 

Bean nutritional value charts can be found here http://www.dietbites.com/Diet-2/beans-calories-nutrition-info.html or here http://www.healthalternatives2000.com/legumes-nutrition-chart.html

These are the recipes I shared

Taco pizza

Slow cooked black beans

Gluten free chocolate cake (made with garbanzo beans)

Sweet pineapple and red beans (just the beans and rice, not the bundle)

waffle mix

waffle mix zucchini muffins 

black bean pasta