If we live good lives, the times are also good. As we are, such are the times. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo
This week at I Heart Faces the theme is Beef! Yum, I love beef!
A little while ago, I did some experimenting to try and recreate a black beans and rice dish. This is the closest I came to it and I had to get a picture!
*Edited to add… Due to popular demand 
here is the recipe!
Black Beans and Rice
3 tablespoons olive oil
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 to 1 1/2 pounds stew meat or any cut of beef you like, cubed
2 teaspoons oregano, divided
2 teaspoons ground cumin, divided
2 (16 ounce) cans black beans, undrained
Salt & pepper
Pinch chili powder
Juice of 1 lime
3 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups white rice
Chopped green onion
In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium heat and add garlic. Saute for 1 minute. Increase heat to medium high. Add beef and stir until cooked. Season with salt and pepper. Decrease heat to medium, add 1 teaspoon oregano and 1 teaspoon cumin. Simmer for 1 minute.
Add black beans, remaining spices, and lime juice. Blend and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. While beans are simmering, bring broth to boil in a pan. Add rice. Decrease heat to simmer, cover, and cook 20 minutes until rice is fluffy.
Serve the beef and black beans over rice. Garnish with green onion. Enjoy!
Check out all the yummy beef dishes at I Heart Faces and enter for your chance to win a $250 gift certificate for Nolan Ryan’s beef!
by Michelle on May 5, 2010
in food
I love a good sweet bread recipe, and I love easy sweet bread recipes even more! I came across this yummy recipe in an email from Vita-Mix last fall. My Vita-Mix blender is one of my very favorite appliances! It is seriously one of the most coolest inventions! I mainly use it to make smoothies, but as you will soon see, you can use it for tons of other neat things!
So, on to the bread. This is the perfect balance of sweet and tart with just the right amount of crunch on top. I’ve made a couple modifications. The original recipe called for an orange instead of lemon and doesn’t call for raw sugar. The first loaf I made I used the orange and no raw sugar and it was delicious! Then after I ate that loaf, 
, I thought “Hmm, this would probably be yummy with lemon!” So I tried it with lemon and I love it!
Note: If you don’t have a Vita-Mix blender, any blender or food processor you have should work.
Lemon Cranberry Bread
Ingredients
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
2 small-ish lemons or 1 orange, peeled with a 2-inch strip of peel remaining, halved
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 cup fresh cranberries (I use fresh ones that I have frozen. Just defrost before you add them)
Raw sugar, enough to sprinkle over the top
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray an 8 1/2-inch x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
2. Combine baking powder, baking soda, salt and flour in a large mixing bowl. Mix well and set aside.
3. Place lemons (or orange), oil, sugar and egg into the blender container and secure lid.
4. For Vita-Mix blenders – Select Variable 1. Turn machine on and quickly increase speed to Variable 10, then to High. (For other blenders, start out with a slow setting, then quickly turn to a high setting.)
5. Blend 35 seconds.
6. Pour lemon (or orange) juice mixture into the dry ingredients, mixing by hand until ingredients are just moistened.
7. Gently stir in cranberries.
8. Spread the batter in the prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle raw sugar over the top.
9. Bake for 60 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
I love a good bargain! A couple years ago I did The Grocery Game, took a couple years off, and now I’m back into it! I’m so glad I signed up again, I love saving money! Albertson’s had a great deal this week. They had couple money-back catalina promotions so I did three transactions.
The first transaction I got:
5 boxes of Fruit Gushers
With the sale and coupons I paid $4.80 (including tax). I got back a $3.50 catalina.
__________
The second transaction I did the same:
5 boxes of Fruit Gushers
With the sale and coupons I paid $4.30 (including tax). I got back a $3.50 catalina.
__________
The third transaction I got:
6 Pantene Hairsprays
4 Pantene Shampoos/Conditioners
3 bottles of ketchup
1 bottle of Dawn dishwasher liquid
They had a “buy $30 of certain products and get back a $10 catalina” promotion. So I used the 2 $3.50 catalinas I just earned, and with the sale and coupons I paid 13.99. Plus I got a $10 catalina for next time!
So, the total for all of this would have been $84.46 and I only paid $23.09 with a $10 catalina! So in essence, I really only paid $13.09! Awesome!!
I love smoothies! I make them nearly every morning for breakfast and they are so fast and easy to make! And they are very healthy for you which is a big plus! A little over a year ago I bought a Vita-Mix blender and that is what is use to make my smoothies. It is such a neat thing! It pulverizes everything you put in it!
This is one of my favorite smoothie recipes. I basically just throw in whatever fruit I have on hand, some spinach and carrots, ground flax and honey. I didn’t have any spinach this morning, but if this smoothie had it in it would be a little darker in color.
This smoothie has:
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 3 baby carrots
- 1 whole lemon
- 2 clementine oranges
- 1 whole red delishious apple
- 8 large strawberries (frozen)
- 2 whole fresh prunes (not the dried ones. I bought fresh and then froze them)
- 1/2 peach (frozen. I ususally throw in a whole one, but I’m almost out of my frozen stock so I’m rationing!)
- a large drizzle of honey
- 3 scoops (6 T) ground flax
Whiz it all up and enjoy! The flax blends right in and you can’t tell it’s in there. It doesn’t have any texture. Other things I’ll throw in when I have them are: bananas, pineapple, cantelope, blueberries, cranberries, pears, spinach, and there’s probably some I’ve forgotten about!
They are so yummy and SO very healthy for you! This amount makes enough for a large glass for me and two small glasses for Autumn and Summer. It’s so nice to have a bunch of your fruit and veggies eaten and out of the way for the day!
