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!

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!

I was reading my daily dose of blogs yesterday, and came across this suggestion to go into my backyard in search of some magic. Well, magic I did find!

I am so excited! My raspberries are getting ready for us to eat!! These are the first three that ripened, and they were so yummy. I can’t wait for more to ripen! Raspberries are my absolute favorite fruit, I love anything that has to do with raspberries! I am going to try and make some freezer jam with them this year. My favorite way to eat them is right after they’ve been washed…just wash them and pop them!

So tell me, what’s blooming in your garden? What’s your favorite fruit and your favorite way to eat it?

This is my absolute favorite pasta salad. I made this up in my college days, although I’m sure I’m not the first with this brilliant idea! It is a perfect salad to bring to your summer barbeque!

It is so quick and easy to make and it always tastes delicious. You can’t forget to add the key ingredients… trust me, it just does not taste as good without them! The secret to the success of this salad is celery salt and dill, lots of it!

Summer Pasta Salad

1 (12 ounces) box tri-color rotini pasta
1 (15 ounces) can black beans, or kidney beans
1 can black olives, drained
1 small or medium cucumber, chopped
1/4 to 1/2 cup bacon pieces (ie. Hormel brand)
1 large roma tomato, chopped
1 cup broccoli, chopped small
1/2 to 1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 to 2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup Ranch dressing, more or less to taste
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 teaspoon celery salt
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
Lots and lots of dill, trust me!

Fry the bacon pieces until crispy. This brings out the flavor and is much better than just tossing them in! Cook the pasta according to directions and drain. Rinse with cold water to cool just a bit.

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Use as much or as little dill as you like. I love it with a bunch in, it gives it a very unique and bold flavor that is to die for!

Can be served warm or chilled. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you have a favorite summer salad recipe? Any favorite summer memories? I’d love to hear them!

I love tuna sandwiches. They are one of my favorite “easy” foods to make. I am dying for summer to get here soon so I can enjoy all the fresh veggies out of my garden. For now though, the store-bought variety works just fine! I have just recently begun adding veggies to my tuna salad, normally I would do the trusty mayo and sweet pickle recipe. But one day last fall on a whim I added some leftover celery and cucumber to my tuna (minus the pickles!) and discovered it was quite delicious! So here is my recipe for tuna salad, sophisticated!

Summer Tuna Salad Sandwich

1 can (7 ounces) tuna
1/8 cup celery, chopped
1/8 cup cucumber, chopped
1 small clove garlic
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil mayonnaise
1 to 2 teaspoons fresh lemon or lime juice
1/2 teaspoon dill
1/4 teaspoon sea salt or seasoned salt
Red or green onion, chopped, to taste
Tomato slices
English Muffins

Drain the tuna lightly, leaving some of the juice. This leaves the tuna moist so you don’t have to use as much mayo. Combine all ingredients except tomato and mix well. Toast english muffin slices, if desired. Layer tomato slices on half of the muffin, followed by tuna mixture. Top with the other half of the muffin and enjoy!

Makes 3 to 4 English muffin sandwiches.

Last week I did a 5 day cleanse with days 1 and 5 eating raw fruits and veggies and days 2 through 4 doing  a juice fast. Kudos to those people who do 30 day juice fasts, I don’t think I could do it! I was so ready for food on the third day!

In the mail on Wednesday came a flyer for Papa Murphy’s pizza with a gigantic picture of their new Taco Grande Pizza. (Picture to the right is from Papa Murphy’s.) Holy cow that thing looked good! Normally I would never, ever think taco stuff on a pizza looked good, but for some reason that pizza looked so good! It was all I could think about for three days while I finished my cleanse!

On Saturday when I was free to eat normal food again, I begged Aaron to let me get this pizza for dinner! He looked at it and said “Are you sure??” Heck yes, I want it! I need it! So he reluctantly called in the order, making sure they only put green onions on half of the pizza! We got it home and cooked it up and let me tell you, that pizza is delicious!!! Holy cow! I love it! I am hoping they keep it on their menu because it is now my second favorite of theirs!

Well, this week I am doing another 5 day cleanse and I’m on day 3 and craving this pizza again! Thank goodness for leftovers frozen in the freezer! I don’t think Aaron would go for ordering this one again so soon!

As I was browsing some of my favorite blogs a few weeks ago, I came across a recipe for Strawberry Banana Muffins. They looked so delicious I just had to try them! I altered the recipe just a bit, and they still turned out great. The original recipe was a gluten-free recipe, but I didn’t have the kind of flours it called for. So I just substituted white flour. I can’t remember where I saw the recipe, so I’m sorry I don’t have the original to post.

Strawberry Banana Muffins

*Make sure your berries are ripe and sweet. That goes for your bananas, too. You want them fragrant and soft, as they provide much of the sweetness in this low sugar treat.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or line a 12-muffin baking pan with paper muffin cups.

Beat together the wet ingredients:

1 cup banana puree- I used 3 medium bananas
1/3 cup coconut oil or olive oil
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs

In a separate bowl, whisk together:

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon or nutmeg

Add the dry ingredients into the wet and stir until well combined. If the batter is stiff add a tablespoon of liquid at a time to achieve a lighter, somewhat sticky batter.

Add:

2 cups sliced fresh organic strawberries

Stir till combined. Drop by spoonfuls into the prepared muffin cups.
 
And if you adore a sugary crusty muffin top, sprinkle the muffins with organic raw sugar crystals before baking.
 
Bake in the center of a preheated oven until they are done in the center, about 25-28 minutes.