Cuban Black Beans in the Instant Pot

I have always loved the Insant Pot. Hubby has taken some time to love it. But when I make him spicy dishes, he gets on board. Tonight I made Cuban Black Beans. Yum

1 green pepper, roughly chopped
1 Spanish Onion, roughly chooped
10 cloves of roasted garlic
1 lb ham hocks
16 oz black beans, rinsed and picked over
1 tablespoon roasted cumin
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons Mexican Organ
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 quarts vegetable broth

Turn instant pot to saute. When hot add oil, onion, green pepper, garlic, and ham hocks. Sweat for about 10 minutes stirring.

Add cumin and tomato paste. Saute for 5 minutes.

Add beans, oregano, sugar, salt to taste, and vegetable broth.

Pressure cook for 35 minutes. Normal pressure release for 10 minutes.

Remove ham hocks and cube any meat on the bone. Discard bones.

You can take out a cup of beans and mash them or immersion blender some of the beans. I used my immersion blender.

I stirred in a leftover pork chop that I cubed up and served over white rice.

Hubby had 3 bowls......

Balsamic chicken in a crockpot, dinner is served......

Wow! What can I say, dinner was fantastic! I made balsamic chicken in a crockpot, found on the crockpot girls facebook page, posted by Leslie.  Wow. Just a tad bitter, so I added a few teaspoons of sugar and it ROCKED. I made it over organic whole wheat linguine and shredded the chicken in the crockpot. I made 8 meals and will be having leftovers when I go back to work next week. Plus Dad will get some, so he'll be happy!

Balsamic Chicken:
4-6 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
2 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1 onion thinly sliced (Not chopped)
4 garlic cloves
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tblsp olive oil
1 tsp each: dried oregano,basil, and rosemary
1/2 tsp thyme
ground black pepper and salt to taste
2 tablespoons of sugar.

Pour the olive oil on bottom of crock pot.  Place in chicken breasts, salt and pepper each breast and put sliced onion on top of chicken.  Then put in all the dried herbs and garlic cloves.  Pour in vinegar and top with tomatoes.

Cook on high 4 hours, serve over angel hair pasta.

I think it holds up to linguine. And the pasta mixed with the balsamic sauce and thickened it up.
Yum!

Cirque du soleil without the glitter

Back to the slaughter, I mean gym. It's my week off and I'm back to the gym after an embarrassing amount of time off. It's embarrassing when you think that I have an entire week off at a time and did very little but cardio my last week off. Sigh.

Today was a day with the trainer. I love my trainer, he's great. He kicks my butt all the time though. Today, we did a TRX/full body workout. TRX is something not from this world.

TRX, how do I describe TRX? It's like cirque du soleil without the glitter.You're up, you're down, you're flying through the air. It's mainly him flying through the air...... Just kidding, not that there was a lot of flying through the air, it was just tough. Body weight workouts are a killer.

Inertia is also a killer. I'm sore (and walking tomorrow is probably going to be the hardest thing I'm going to do), but it's a good sore. A sore I like..... So why, when he doesn't feel well and has to bail and then I have a once in a lifetime thing come up and have to bail, I just don't go an hour or 2 earlier?

At some point I have to stop beating myself up for the decision to not go. But I also need to decide that I'm worth it. Imagine the glitter at THAT point!

Chicken tortilla soup in the slow cooker!

Today I wanted to make something delish for the weather that is turning cooler.  YAY! I love fall!  I had a friend over for dinner and she said "a bit spicy" but I really liked it!

I adapted this recipe from an allrecipe recipe.  A tiny bit spicy, but not bad!

Ingredients

• 1 pound chicken breasts
• 1 (15 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, mashed
• 1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups water
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn
• 1 cup rinsed canned black beans

          

Directions

1. Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a slow cooker.
2. Pour in water and chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper.
3. Stir in corn. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours.               
4. 30 minutes before finishing, throw in black beans. Fish out chicken breasts, shred or finely chop the breasts.
5. Serve with avacado, sour cream, tortilla strips.

I did it on high and the onions were VERY al dente.  Next time I will sweat them a bit in a pan before I put them in the crock. I know, I know, another step, but it's screaming for less crunch.

I put it in the recipe maker and 4 servings are 6 PP, I doubled this and made 8 servings. I'm going to freeze some for next week when I go back to work and send some home to Dad! He'll love the spice, Mom not so much!

Introduction

I craft, I cook, I quilt, I knit, I blog. I use sarcasm as a weapon. I try to exercise, but sometimes I fail. I'm working on not beating myself up about it. I crack myself up. I'm really witty. I'm going to combine this all in a blog......