Bean-A-Thon: Fare Fit for Finals

Whenever finals roll around, I find myself searching for something that will take almost no time to prepare and feed me for 5-6 meals (minimum).  Last quarter I chose to create the simple chicken, broccoli and rice dish, and this quarter I decided I wanted to put something in the crockpot.

One of my favorite parts: the simple ingredient list.

The process is easy: add all ingredients to crockpot, turn on.

           

Crockpot Red Lentils & Rice

• 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 diced onion
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 1 can diced tomatoes (drained)
• 1 cup brown rice
• 1 cup red lentils
• 4 garlc cloves, minced
• salt & pepper (to taste)
• oregnao (to taste)
• basil (to taste)
• cumin (about 1 tbsp)

Put all in the crockpot.  Turn it onto low for about 2 hours, then turn it onto high, for a few hours (until most of the liquid has been soaked up.  It will kind of look like a risotto.  And its delicious to boot.  Stir every once in a while, if you’re home.

     

It wasn’t the prettiest looking meal, but I liked the combination of flavors.  While it was kind of a ‘mush,’ which isn’t my favorite texture, it was quick, easy, I had all the ingredients on hand, and the flavor combinations were great.  I ended up adding salt at the end, but I prefer to under salt the dish and add if its necessary when I go to eat it.

I can’t wait to eat it during the long haul of the next five days.  In case you’re wondering, as this is post goes up, I will be prepping for my first exam Monday at 3:30pm pst.  And then I have exams on Tuesday & Thursday, and 60 research papers to grade for the course I TA for before I proctor that exam Friday at noon.

Basically what I’m trying to say is: have a great week, can’t wait to catch up on the weekend!  And any luck/thoughts you want to send my way, I will take it all.  Its going to be a long week, with little-to-no sleep.

What are/were your study tactics for exams in college/grad school?  Mine differ depending on the class, but I like to read the entire text that was covered as well as review all problem sets/old exams, etc.  But I’m finding this extremely difficult to do for tomorrow’s class….hopefully it goes better, but I’m kind of dreading this. 

When Frog Hollow Farm Gives you Pears…

The weekend I spent at the FoodBuzz Festival in San Francisco, there was an abundance of really ripe pears at the Frog Hollow Farm booth.  After getting to know the rep, Julia & I each scored a case of really ripe pears that were just begging to be used up immediately.  The case came from Frog Hollow Farm.

For those of you who don’t know, Frog Hollow Farm is an organic farm in North Central California.  They’re known for their peaches (and pears), and ship them all over the country.  Trust me, its worth it – the flavors their fruits have are incredible!  And the dried peaches are TO DIE FOR.  Literally.  Frog Hollow Farm was one of the main sponsors for the FoodBuzz Festival, and there were pears, cheese, dried fruits, figs, etc from the farm at almost every event.  I definitely indulged, every time.

Once I got home with my pears, I went back and forth between attempting a pear chutney, a pear jam, pear tarts, or just a pear sauce.  But in the end, my desire to try to create a pear butter, like the apple butter I made last week (twice :)), won out.  I also had a ton of jars that just wanted to hold deliciousness.

So, I contemplated what to put in my pear butter, and after reading a few recipes that included orange peel (which I’m allergic to), and lemon and anise (which I don’t have), I opted to create a more general spiced-pear butter of spices I had on hand.

The mix included a few dashes of ground nutmeg, gloves and a little more generous helping of ground cinnamon.  And when I say dash, I mean dash.  I didn’t use a measuring spoon.  And I added these spices to about a cup of sugar for the 20 something super ripe pears.

Then I followed the same procedure I did for apple butter, with the one exception of mashing the pears beforehand with my potato masher (which I got Sunday at IKEA!)

It smelled so good, but the pears didn’t end up as creamy as the apple butter.  I was a little disappointed, since pairs are naturally mushier.  And the flavor wasn’t as intense/great mixture, even though I added much more of the spices than I did to either of my two apple butter recipes.

Alas, I still enjoyed it (and will be for a while), and I hope those who receive it for gifts during the Holidays do as well (I just brought some apple & pear butter to Chi-town for Mr. K to give to his family as part of their Holiday gifts).

Pear Butter

• ripe pears (I used about 20 smaller pears from Frog Hollow Farms)
• 1 cup sugar
• nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves (all ground) to taste (I put in a few large dashes of each)

Peel, core and cut up pears.  Mash well – but not so much as it goes from pear mash to pear juice.  Put in the Crock-Pot.  Mix the sugar & spices, and pour over the top of the pears.  Cover and turn the Crock-Pot on high for about 1 hour (stirring occasionally).  Then, turn to low, and cook for about 5-7 more hours, stirring occasionally.  Uncover and let simmer on low for one additional hour.

Then either put into sterilized ball jars and cover, and complete the canning process by submerging the jars in boiling water for about 20 minutes, or put into jars and store them into the fridge, eating within 3 weeks.  If you would like a creamier pear butter, you can blend the mixture before canning/storing, but be careful not to mash too much or it will be more like pear juice.

ENJOY 🙂  And if you can – you have wonderful gifts for the holidays!

Buttah on My Mind

Apple buttah that is 🙂

Today I started out with 10 minutes on the crosstrainer, followed by my second BodyPump class!  I LOVE that class.  My goal is to go 1x/week in November.  In fact, I’ve come up with a number of goals for November:

• Go to the gym more than 8x (if I go for 8x, then I get a free 50 minute personal training session or one free month of membership when my year-membership expires next fall! – talk about incentives!)
• Go to BodyPump 1x/week, and do weights 2x/week on my own.
• Run a 10k Turkey Trot in under 50 minutes.
• Only buy fresh fruits/vegetables & almond milk for the month (I have enough grains/legumes/frozen meat to last me the month).
• Keep my apartment clean and livable by putting things away every night.
• Do laundry 1x/week.
• Cook my second turkey ever for Orphan Thanksgiving!  (The first one I cooked was actually for a homeless shelter Christmas Eve dinner two years ago in Chicago when I didn’t go home and had no place to go.)
• Get down to my pre-marathon training weight.

So, we’ll come back at the end of the month and reevaluate!

Anyways.  After BodyPump, I went on a search for an apple peeler.  Luckily, as I was wandering through Bed, Bath & Beyond, I randomly happened upon one!!  And I squealed, causing the woman who was also looking at them to look at me strangely, but the apple peeler down, and walk away.

Oh well, at least I got my apple peeler?!

eeeee.  Apple Peeler!

Then, began the process of apple peeling…

And some video…

 

This is how apple peeling should NOT look.

A few apples later…

And I attempted some video again…

Much better 🙂  See how easy it is?!

(Sorry for the lack of music/talking…and the headless apple peeler.  This is my first video, I had no one to help me out, and I needed both hands.)

Anyways, after peeling, coring & slicing about 5 pounds of a mix of McIntosh, Cameo & Braeburn apples, I chopped them all up, and put them in my CrockPot, and then ground up some cloves.

And mixed it with just over a cup of sugar and just over a tsp of ground cinnamon.

I poured the sugar/spice mixture over the apples, covered the CrockPot and put it on high for about an hour.

After an hour, I stirred the mix, lowered the temp to low, and cooked it, stirring occasionally, for about 6 more hours.

After the 6 hours, I removed the lid, and cooked it for one more hour on low.

Then, I put the mixture into the blender, to give it a ‘buttery’ consistency, and then put it into 7 sterlized pint jars, put on the sterlized lids, and immersed them into a large pot of boiling water for 20 minutes.  (Its only necessary to boil them for 5-10 minutes, but I prefer to be thorough.)

And then once they were done, I removed them and put them on the counter…where the lids have been sealing with ‘pops’ ever since!

I definitely took a finger to the leftovers in the blender.  Verdict?!

It tastes sooooooooooo good.  Like a really rich, creamy apple sauce.  I can’t WAIT to use it in my breakfasts 🙂  Thanks to my good friend, Lauren, who graciously gave me the recipe, which I adapted to my own needs (I have a smaller CrockPot, and we have different apples in California than they have in Minnesota.)  Thanks Lauren!

Apple Butter (Makes about 7 pints)

• 5 pounds of apples (I used a mixture of Braeburn, Cameo & McIntosh – you need a soft apple like McIntosh because it helps make it ‘mushier’)
• 1 – 1 1/3 c sugar
• 1 tsp (roughly) of ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground gloves

Peel, core and chop up the apples.  Put them in the CrockPot.  Mix up the sugar, cinnamon and ground cloves.  Pour over apples and cover.

Cook on high for 1 hour.  Stir.  Cook on low for 6-7 hours, stirring occasionally.  Remove lid and cook for 1 more hour on low.  Pour into a blender (or use a hand blender in the CrockPot) and blend until its a creamy buttery consistency.

Put into sterlized jars and cover with sterlized lids.  If you’re planning on eating it all within the next two-three weeks, you can just put it straight into your fridge.

If you’re canning it, you will need new and sterilized lids, and sterilized rings & jars.  And a large pot of boiling water.  Pour the apple butter into the jars, making sure that the rims are clean.  Put on the sterlized lids & rings, and seal tightly.  Submerge the jars into a large pot of boiling water, making sure there is at least 1 inch of water above the top of the jars.  Boil for a minimum of 10 minutes – I like to be thorough, and boiled for 20 minutes.

Remove from the water, and set on the counter, upright, to cool.  Don’t shake them or move them around.  You should hear ‘popping’ sounds, which mean that the jars are sealing.  The other test to make sure they have “sealed” is to, once the jars have cooled, press down on the lid.  If it makes a pop sound, put it in your fridge and use within the next two to three weeks, or get a new lid, head up the butter again and try to reseal it.

What is your favorite fall food?! Mine is anything with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and pumpkin.  Mmmmm…