White Chili

Ingredients:

4 lg. chicken breasts, cooked and cubed

2 (15 oz) cans white beans, juice and all

2 (4 oz) cans diced green chilies

2 (14 oz) cans chicken broth

2 (15 oz) cans white corn, juice and all

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp lemon pepper

1 tsp gound cumin

1/4 cup minced, dried onion

4 fresh limes, cute into wedges

1 bag white corn chips

grated Cheddar & Monterey Jack cheese

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together except for the limes, corn chips, and cheese. Bring to a boil, turn down and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve by putting corn chips into the bottom of the bowl, ladle chili over the top to the corn chips, sprinkle with grated cheese, and squeeze fresh lime juice over the top. 

Note: The lime juice really makes this chili good. 

Conversion dry and cooked beans

 I often use dried beans instead of canned. Here are the conversions:

2 cups of dried beans = 1 lb of beans

1 cup of dried beans = 3 cups of cooked beans

1/2 heaping cup of died beans = one 15-ounce can of beans

Black and Pinto Bean Chili

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced
1 green pepper, seeded & chopped
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 - 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 14.5 oz can black beans, rinsed & drained
1 14.5 oz can pinto beans, rinsed & drained
2 14.5 oz cans diced/chopped tomatoes

Directions: 

Precook the ground beef in a pan
Add the other ingredients in the order listed.
Add about 1/4 can water to each of the tomato cans, swish to rinse, and pour the water into the cooker.
Cook on high for 4 hours or low for all day.

I often use dried beans instead of canned. Here are the conversions:

2 cups of dried beans = 1 lb of beans

1 cup of dried beans = 3 cups of cooked beans

1/2 heaping cup of died beans = one 15-ounce can of beans

Black Bean Salsa Soup

"This soup is one of those last minute things I tossed together one night. It's very simple and it takes about 5 minutes to put together."

Ingredients

• 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed

• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth (you can use any broth)

• 1 cup chunky salsa

 

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 4 tablespoons sour cream

Directions

1. In an electric food processor or blender, combine beans, broth, salsa, and cumin. Blend until fairly smooth.

2. Heat the bean mixture in a saucepan over medium heat until thoroughly heated.

3. Ladle soup into 4 individual bowls, and top each bowl with 1 tablespoon of the sour cream.

Other things that we like to put on top are:

diced red onions

diced avocado

cheese

tortilla chips

Homemade Refried Beans

Ingredients

2 lb dry pinto beans
1 large onion, chopped
2 quarts of water

2 bay leaves
2 T.  lard or coconut oil 
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
5-6 tsp. salt
1 T. ground cumin
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon of chili powder
Bean juice as needed

Directions

Combine the pinto beans, onion, bay leaves and water in a crockpot. Add additional water to cover the beans, if needed. Turn crockpot to high and cook until beans are very tender (probably 5 hours) Once cooked, drain the liquid from the beans, reserving the remaining bean juice.

Add the vinegar, salt, ground cumin, garlic powder, chili powder and lard to the beans. Adding reserved bean liquid as needed, mash or blend the beans using an immersion blender until they are to your preferred consistency. Remember that as the beans cool, they will thicken up a great deal. I generally use just a little of the bean liquid and add it to the hot beans as I mash and end up with something just thicker than Mexican restaurant-consistency refried beans.

When they are to your desired consistency, taste and add additional salt as needed.

I have to admit that I don't follow recipes really well. Once I make a recipe once I just kind of add the ingredients by taste and it always turns out very well. 

Note: 

For the lard I always use the leftover grease from bacon. When I cook bacon I pour the grease in a glass jar and keep it in the fridge (I just keep adding to it). It stays good for a really long time.