Vegetarian Sloppy Joes

ooohhh owie owie owie..just blow on it, ow! bad idea..what are you thinking Neshanne blowing on a cut...okay run it under cold water.. oooh that stings, Jake could you please get me a bandaid.

This is a typical scenario in my house when it comes to me and knifes in the kitchen. I seem to almost always without fail cut my self, sometimes its a nick, no biggy or like tonight a deep cut.

 I CURSE you 60 minutes! (pumping my first in the air) if it wasn't for your damn dramatic music at climatic times in the program I wouldn't have glanced at the t.v while sliceing through the kaiser roll and the meaty part of my thumb at the same time. I guess thats what I get for watching t.v while trying to cook.

You know whats worse about cuts on your hands, you know the minute you start doing the dishes or take a shower its going to sting!  Oh well it didn't stop me from enjoying our yummy and very filling vegetarian sloppy joes, which are packed with lots of protein and some added heat with jalapenos.

By the way I love making sloppy joes because it means we will have leftovers for lunch the next day. Can't wait!

Vegetarian Sloppy Joes
By Oishii Treats

Yields about 6 Servings

Ingredients 
Whole Wheat Kaiser Rolls (or your favorite bread, hoagie etc.)
1 Tablespoon Olive oil
1 Medium yellow Onion, diced
1 Red or Orange Bell pepper, diced
1 Cup Button Mushrooms, diced
1 14.5 oz can of Pinto Beans, drained
1-2 Tablespoons Jarred sliced Jalapenos, chopped into small pieces (I used the Louisiana brand)
1 8oz can of Rotel zesty tomato and green chile sauce
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/3 teaspoon Onion Powder
1/3 teaspoon dried Basil
1/3 teaspoon dried Oregano
2 Cups frozen Morning Star beef crumbles

Directions
Heat the oil in a large pan on medium high heat. Add the diced onions, diced pepper, diced mushrooms and garlic. Saute for 2-3 minutes or until the onions are translucent and the peppers are soft.
Add the pinto beans and using a potato masher or fork, mash the beans lightly. its okay to leave some of the beans whole. Add your rotel sauce and spices turn the heat down to about medium and simmer for 10 minutes to thicken.
Stir in your frozen beef crumbles and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Serve on toasted kaiser rolls.

Well I better go change my bandaid out now.

Coconut Mascarpone Cream Parfaits w/ Angel Food Cake, Strawberries and Blueberries

Memorial Day is upon us and its a time to reflect, remember and honor those people who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our nations service. As an active duty Air Force member for us personally it's a time to recognize and remember our fallen brothers and sisters, our friends and neighbors that we have worked and fought side by side with everyday. I've had the privilege to know and befriend so many people through out my years in the service and sadly I have lost some great friends.  This weekend was nice to just take some time and thank and remember those individuals that have died while serving for our country.

Memorial day is also a wonderful opportunity to spend time with our family and friends, hanging out, having picnics and barbecues and just enjoying the moment. We worked extra hours this week so our supervision would grant us a 4 day weekend and we are not going to put it to waste.  Me and the hubby traveled 4 hours south of Misawa to Sendai to watch our first Japanese baseball game! and spent some much needed time together.

Speaking of picnics, my friend Tess from slow cooking kitchen and I wanted to do a little virtual picnic together. I am bringing this light, creamy and easy dessert, its a wonderful parfait to accommodate you to any afternoon picnic or barbecue.  Hopefully the next virtual get together we'll add some more friends, more the merrier :)

Coconut Mascarpone Cream Parfaits w/ Angel Food Cake, Strawberries and Blueberries
By Oishii Treats

Ingredients 
1 Box Angel Food Cake
1/2 Cup Blueberries (use more blueberries if your making more than 4 parfaits)
3/4 Strawberries (same as blueberries)

Coconut Mascarpone Cream
1/3 Cup mascarpone cheese
3 Tablespoons Coconut milk
3/4 Cup whipping cream
1 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
3 Tablespoons Powdered sugar
1/2 Cups sweetened coconut flakes

Directions
-Bake the angel food cake ahead of time according to package directions, once cooled cut the  cake into cubed 1/2 inch bite sized pieces.
- To make the cream, in a electric mixer combine the mascarpone cheese and coconut milk and mix until smooth.
-Add the whipping cream, coconut extract and powdered sugar and mix on medium high for 1-2 minutes until stiff peaks form, fold in your coconut flakes.
-Wash the strawberries and blueberries.  Slice the strawberries up
-Start to construct your parfaits, using a tall glass layer angel food cake, the cream, strawberries, cream, blueberries cream and repeat till you reach the top of the glass =)

Tofu Thai Wraps w/ Spicy Peanut Sauce

Is there a dish or special sauce from your favorite restaurant that you can never quite figure out how to recreate?  I have a serious problem folks, I terrible miss Anchorage sometimes, not for the majestic mountains or the crisp clean air, but for the restaurants..how sad is that, I mean really.

There was a place called Bears Tooth that my husband and I could never get enough of, hell he even proposed to me there, thats how much we loved this place : )
Now when I say they had great food, I really mean they had kick you in the teeth slap you on the ass great food!!
I'd have day dreams of infiltrating their kitchen to steal their recipes like some food ninja spy. I actually contemplated taking a second job in the kitchen while I was stationed in Anchorage just to learn how to make their menu and gain all their delicious secrets.
Another reason why this place was so fantastic was their health conscience and vegetarian/vegan conscience menu.  You could sub any meat dish with tofu or they had a giant menu with items that didn't contain meat at all.

This Tofu Thai wrap with peanut sauce was always a favorite of mine and my husbands.  They originally make it with chicken but we could always order it with tofu.  My true favorite part of the wrap was the peanut sauce, I could seriously drink it straight, it was that good.  We would always try to save enough of the sauce to dip our chips in, but that rarely happend.  Why do dipping sauces come in such tiny dixie cup sized containers, its never enough!

 So tonight, after another food fantasy about Bears Tooth I thought I should finally give it my best shot, the ingredients for inside the wrap were pretty dead on.  Though the peanut sauce just wasn't as excellent as the original.  Still looking for the best Peanut sauce. Though this one will have to do for now.

Tofu Thai Wrap with Spicy Peanut Sauce
By Oishii Treats inspired by Bears Tooth


Yields 3 Wraps
Ingredients
3 Large flour tortillas
1/2 Red Pepper sliced thinly
1/2 of a large cucumber sliced thinly the long way
1/3 of the tofu block from a 14oz package of extra firm tofu
1/4 Cup of cashews
a handful of green cabbage sliced thinly
a handful of red cabbage sliced thinly
a handful of dried Japanese somen noodles (used for cold noodle dishes)

Spicy Peanut Sauce

Ingredients
2 Tablespoons smooth peanut butter
2 Tablespoons coconut milk
1 Tablespoon Lime Juice
1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red peppers

Directions
-In a small bowl whisk all your ingredients together for the peanut sauce until combined.
-Preheat the oven at 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
-Drain your tofu and cut about 1/3 of the block from the package and set onto some paper towels
-Cut the tofu into 1/4 inch thick piece, once the tofu is cut, place another paper towel on top and gently apply pressure to the tofu to help drain excess water.  do this for about 1-2 minutes.

                    

- place your sliced tofu on the cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and apply with a brush some peanut sauce to the tofu and bake for 10 minutes, turning once, brush again with peanut sauce and bake for another 10 minutes.
- Remove your tofu and set aside to cool.
- Cook the somen noodles according to package directions, takes literally 2 minutes and rinse in cold water.
Now assemble your wrap.
-Brush the middle of the wrap with peanut sauce and add some red peppers, cabbage, cold noodles, cashews, tofu and cucumber, add some more peanut sauce and fold into a wrap.  use the extra sauce for dipping.


On another wonderful note I have a couple people I need to sincerely thank.  Chris from My Mother's Daughter for passing on the One Lovely Blog Award.  She has such a beautiful blog with wonderful stories about her family and I was honored she would think of me and pass on such a sweet award. Second CJ from Food Stories for nominating me for the very first monthly Food Stories Award, how cool! Seriously I'm always surprised to receive these awards from my blogger peers, its so wonderful to be recognized by some amazing bloggers and to have the opportunity to pass on the love.

                               

                     









There's only a couple of rules to the One Lovely Blog Award first write 7 random facts about yourself and second nominate some blogs that you enjoy.

1. I have minor hearing loss from working around F-15, F-16 fighters. Not to mention the same equipment I worked on had small jet engines in them.
2. My border collies name is Ardie.  We named him Ardie because as a puppy he looked like a rodent or tiny aardvark with his long snout and pink dotted nose.
3. I drive the coolest Japanese car ever, a 1996 Nissan Rahseen. Looks like a tiny jeep cherokee
4. Cannot stand mayo, love miracle whip but hate mayonnaise.
5. I almost didn't enlist in the military because I was offered a partial scholarship to run cross country at a college back in OR.
6. Speaking of running, I set a record in basic training for the fastest 5k and 1.5 Mile for females. 18:20 and 9:06
7. One day, hopefully a couple of years from now we will be stationed somewhere in Europe.

Some blogs I would like to pass this on to.

Willow from Will Cook For Friends, Anna from Crunchy Creamy Sweet and Tess from Slow Cooking Kitchen

For the Food Stories nominee you share one randome fact about yourself and nominate 5 other bloggers that you enjoy reading. I think im good on the random facts about me tonight ;)

My Nominees are:

Kit from I-Lost in Austen, Chris from My Mother's Daughter, Serena from Serena Bakes Simply from Scratch, Canadian chicky VIMWAC, and Zoe at Bake For Happy Kids

Orange Infused Cupcake w/ a Orange Mascarpone Cream Filling and Dark Chocolate Buttercream

Hello cupcake where have you've been all my life! I missed out last week on making a weekend dessert due to the sickness.  But I made it all up this weekend with this amazing cupcake.  I wasn't expecting it to really wow me, the flavor combination sounding pleasing. But after taking my first bite  I knew I would be making this again.
Some of the cupcakes I've made before were a little on the sugary sweet side for me so this time I made sure to reduce the sugar in the cupcake recipe and substitute the butter with coconut oil and I was so happy I did. Now the cupcake part was pretty delish but the ingredient that puts this cupcake over the top is the Orange mascarpone cream filling, that with the dark chocolate buttercream was just heaven. I'm contemplating not sharing them with my co-workers there're just that good lol.

Orange Infused Cupcake w/ a Orange Mascarpone Cream Filling and Dark Chocolate Buttercream
Flavor combo by Oishii Treats


Orange Cupcake
adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publication 2012
Bake Time 16 Minutes

Ingredients
3/4 Cup Coconut Oil
3 Eggs
2 1/2 Cups Flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 Cups Sugar (original calls for 1 3/4 cups)
1 1/2 teaspoons Orange extract
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1 1/4 Cups Almond Milk

Directions
-Preheat your oven for 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan with your paper cups
-Combine your flour, salt and baking powder together in a medium bowl and set aside
-In a large bowl whisk together your coconut oil and sugar once combined add your eggs in one at a time until completely mixed.
-Add your orange extract and orange zest to the mixture and whisk
-Alternately add your flour mixture and almond milk to the batter, whisking after each addition.  just until combine (the less you mix the batter the more moist and fluffy the cupcakes will turn out)
-Fill your paper liners till 3/4 full and bake for 16 minutes, immediately remove from oven and place on a cooling rack.

Orange Mascarpone Cream Filling
Adapted from Giada de Laurentiis

Ingredients
1/4 Cup Mascarpone cheese (room temp)
2 Tablespoons fresh squeezed Orange juice (i used simply oj juice)
1/2 Cup whipping cream
3 Tablespoons Powdered sugar
1 teaspoon Orange zest

Directions 
-In a electric mixer beat together the mascarpone cheese and oj until smooth
-Add your whipping cream, powdered sugar and orange zest and mix until soft peaks form about 1-2 minutes. Keep in the fridge until your ready to use.
- Make a hole in the middle of your cupcakes. I used a pointed frosting tip to make a hole in the top of the cupcake and used a small 1/2 teaspoon to scoop out some of the cake from the middle.
- Fill a piping bag with your cream filling and pipe into the hole.

Dark Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Adapted from Martha Stewart 

Ingredients
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter (room temp)
4 Cups Powdered Sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 oz Cream Cheese (room temp)
3.5 oz dark cocoa bar (melted)
1 Tablespoon Almond milk

Directions
-In a electric mixer beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth
- Add your vanilla extract and powdered sugar mix until combined.
- Add your melted (cooled) dark chocolate and mix, use a spatula to help scrap the sides of the bowl.
- If the frosting is very thick use 1 tablespoon almond milk to help thin out the frosting.
- Fill a pipping bag and pipe buttercream onto your cupcakes.

Spicy Vegetarian "Meatball" Subs

This past week I've been nursing a cold, I tend to catch every cold that every person at my shop gets.  Seriously though if someone gets sick at work I will no doubt have it in 3 days, don't ask me why I have no freakin clue. I take my vitamins, eat relatively healthy and exercise.  But I seem to have a terrible immune system.  Basically people at work look at me like I have the plague. The minute I start to sniffle or cough they want to quarantine me or soak me in purell.  I don't blame them I do get sick a lot, it just sucks always being on the rebound of getting better.

Anywho :) I had a lovely surprise when I went to the commissary last week.  They had a new Morning Star product...Meatballs! I usually make my own but it does take some time to prep.  Both me and the hubby snatched a box right away and I immediately knew I would be making some meatball subs.  Its been awhile since we had veggie meatball subs, this was super easy and took about 30 minutes from start to finish. The sauce was my favorite part, I love anything spicy and had found a new tomato sauce by Rotel at the store, it gave the sub the prefect amount of heat with a little help from some crushed red pepper flakes.  Meat eaters will never know the difference ; )

Spicy Vegetarian Meatball Subs
By Oishii Treats

Yields: 2


Ingredients 
2 Whole wheat hoagie rolls
10-12 Morning Star Meatballs (about 1 box)
3/4 Cup red onion
1 teaspoon Olive oil
14.5 oz can of Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes (Huntz)
8 oz can of Rotel Zesty Tomato Green Chile Sauce
3/4 teaspoon Minced Garlic
1/3 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
3/4 teaspoon Dried Oregano
3/4 teaspoon Dried Basil
1/3 teaspoon Dried Parsley
Shredded cheese (I used Tillamook garlic pepper cheese)
2 Large fresh basil leaves chopped

Directions
Bake the meatballs according to package directions. While the meatballs are baking start the sauce. Saute your onions in olive oil in a medium size pot on medium high heat for 3 minutes.  Add your roasted diced tomatoes and Rotel sauce, garlic, pepper flakes, dried oregano, dried basil and dried parsley.
Turn the heat down to medium and cook for 10 minutes.  Once the meatballs are done set the oven to broil to toast your hoagie rolls.  Toasting takes about 1 minute. Add the meatballs to your toasted hoagie roll top with your spicy tomato sauce sprinkle with fresh basil and cheese.

Nana's Potato Salad

Happy Mother's day to all you moms out there and to my nana, mama and lil sister =)
There's those recipes that your grandma makes thats a family staple.  The one dish that shows up at every holiday and BBQ.  Everyone has a favorite, for me its not a dessert or a baked goodie, it's my nana's potato salad.  It's absolutely hands down the best! I love the tangy dressing that tickles the back of your throat, making her potato salad always reminds me of spending time with her in the kitchen, learning from her, and being her personal taste tester.

Anytime I go home to visit she always has a giant bowl waiting for me.  I remember as a kid leaving her house after the holidays with tons of left overs and me and my dad would fight over the potato salad, I would sometimes catch him eating it at night for a late snack just so I couldn't get to it before him lol.

I've tried so many times to replicate my nana's potato salad she's given me the recipe (well the ingredients, she's a little hazy on the measurements) its one of those special recipes that she makes just by taste, a little of this and little of that, taking a small lick of the back of the spoon to test it until its just right.  I try my best, but hers will always be better. But thats how it always goes when your nana makes you something special.

This recipe is also my contribution to Very Good Recipes, May Recipe Challenge. The theme for the month of May is Family Recipes, a recipe that was handed down to you by another family member like a mother or grandmother etc. I will also be helping out as a judge for the May challenge along with 4 other bloggers.  If you would like to participate please click on the link and submit your family recipe.

Potato Salad
By Oishii Treats

Ingredients
About 20 Small new potatoes washed and peeled
1 Cup sliced Celery
1 Cup sliced Black olives
6 hard boiled eggs (only use the whites, sliced)
Dressing
1 Cup Miracle Whip (the secret ingredient ;)
a pinch of sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 Cup + 1 Tablespoon Evaporated milk
2 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar

Directions
Boil your potatoes and eggs in sperate pots for 15 minutes. Meanwhile make your dressing in a small bowl and set aside.  Once potatoes are done boiling, drain and rinse under cold water for a minute and set aside to cool enough to handle. Peel your eggs and cut in half discard the yolk and slicing the egg whites add to a large bowl with your sliced celery and black olives.  Cut up your potatoes to 1/2 inch bite size pieces and add to the large bowl.  Stir in the dressing with a spatula and mix well, chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours and enjoy the best ever potato salad.

Spicy Fajita Quesadillas

I can never get enough cheese, beans and avocado add some onions and peppers wrapped in a delicious tortilla and I'm in heaven. Sadly I'm a little late on the Cinco De Mayo party this year but I gotta say I love Mexican food/ Tex Mex you name it. Its so quick and easy to make something delicious wrapped in a tortilla on those night (like last night) when you don't feel like cooking a big meal. Plus mexican food is so easy to make without meat, you don't notice the meat missing when you have a tortilla packed with fiber and protein rich beans and tons of sautéed veggies.

Spicy Fajita Quesadillas
By Oishii Treats

Ingredients
1 (15oz) can black beans, drained
2 large flour tortillas (your favorite brand)
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1/2 Red Onion
1/2 Red Pepper
1/2 Green Pepper
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 Chipotle Pepper in adoba sauce
2 teaspoons adoba sauce (from the same can the peppers are in)
1/4 teaspoon Ancho chili powder or chili powder
1 Cup Chili garlic Tillamook cheddar cheese (Shredded)
1 Cup Shedder Cheese (Shredded)
1/4 Avocado

*Not shown Olive oil and Ancho Chili Powder

Thinly Slice your red onion, red pepper and green pepper

Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to a large sauté pan on medium high heat and cook the veggies for 6-8 minutes. 

While the veggies are sautéing take you can of black beans (drained) and add to a microwavable safe bowl, chop 1 chipotle pepper in adoba sauce add to bb, add your garlic, ancho chili powder and extra adoba sauce to the black beans and mix well. Microwave for 2 1/2 minutes

                         

Mash the black beans until you get the same consistency as refried beans, set aside till the veggies are done.

after veggies are done, assemble the quesadilla. only add to one side of the tortilla layer first with cheese, beans, veggies, more cheese and fold in half

Using the same pan you sauteed the veggies in, cook each side of your quesadilla for 3-4 minutes

Top it off with some sliced avocado and enjoy

 

Frozen Banana S'mores

Why is it when you have to work all through the weekend the weather is gorgeous, the sky is crystal blue and your just itching to play hooky from work (ha can't do that in the military its called AWOL).  All your hoping for is when the next weekend rolls around the weather is just as gorgeous.  Um yeah finally Saturday came and so did the grey sky with rain showers through out the weekend.

Unfortunately it was the last weekend for Cherry Blossom viewing at Hirosaki Castle also called Golden Week in Japan, because of the constant rain showers we decided to forgo the 2 1/2 hour drive and just stick near base and take some photos around Misawa AFB.  At least the base has hundreds of cherry blossom trees planted on every sidewalk and park.

                                                                                                 

The dreary weather can't stop me from making my weekend dessert today. I needed something to brighten up my weekend and Chocolate frozen bananas seemed perfect, simple and guilt free. Plus its so easy to be creative with toppings I had so many different ideas. Coconut, almonds, sprinkles etc.  But the little light bulb went off in my head and I thought ooh why not do a S'mores inspired banana. Dark chocolate, graham crackers, and melted marshmallow....Yes please!

What toppings would you use?


Frozen Banana S'mores
By Oishii Treats

Utensils
8 Wooden Skewers (shorten to 5-6 inches)
1 Cookie Sheet
Wax paper
Plastic zip lock bag
1 Large Container

Ingredients 
4 Large Ripe Bananas (cut in half)
3 Cups Dark chocolate chips
1 Teaspoon Coconut oil (to thin out chocolate)
Graham crackers (about 12 crackers or one package from the box, crushed and crumbled)
1 Jar of Marshmallow Fluff

 Next take your bananas that were cut in half and skewer each one with a wooden dowel. Place on your cookie sheet lined with wax paper and freeze for 1 hour. This will help the stick adhere to the banana, so when the time comes to add chocolate and toppings the added weight won't cause the stick to slide out.

Next take your chocolate and melt in a medium glass bowl in the microwave for 2-3 minutes.  stir every 30 seconds to keep from burning the chocolate. Add the coconut oil and blend well.

Remove your bananas from the freezer and set up your assembly line.  Take your banana and dip into the chocolate, use your spatula to help cover the banana completely. Remove excess chocolate lightly with your spatula and immediately dip into your crumbled graham crackers. Times like this I wish I had my nephew here to help dip the bananas in the toppings he would have so much fun with it.

Set on your cookie sheet and repeat with the rest of your bananas.

After all your bananas have been dipped in chocolate and graham crackers.  Heat your marshmallow fluff in the microwave for 30 seconds and add to a zip lock bag.  

Cut a tiny hole in the corner and holding one end of your banana on a stick, pipe the warm marshmallow fluff onto your chocolate covered bananas. Twirl the stick the same time your pipping to create a swirl all down the banana. Set back down onto your cookie sheet and put back in the freezer for 4 more hours.

Honestly my hubby couldn't wait the whole 4 hours, about 2 hours later he was asking for a banana and I gave in.  The banana wasn't completely frozen yet but still amazing! Once your bananas are frozen move them to a air tight container to keep in the freezer for up to 2 months. 

Portobello Mushroom Chili

Today was the untimely death of my blender.  It was a complete and innocent accident, honest I swear! I woke up with the soul intentions of making myself a healthy smoothie at 4am before work. Even though its a pain in the ass to make a smoothie, since I have to use a wooden spoon to mash down the the ingredients to get close enough to the blades. Yes I won't lie I've been irritated with my blender for awhile now, but I didn't have murderous intentions at 4am.

I had set it down on the counter and went to retrive a container from the top cabinet when I closed the door, my elbow came down on the blender knocking it off the counter smashing it into a million pieces onto the kitchen floor.  Truthfully though the minute it happen the first thing the popped into my head was...YES I can order a new blender! YAY lol plus since it was truly a mistake, because who would want shards of glass all over their floor at 4 in the morning? I was happy to know I can finally order a new and much better blender.

So I barely had time to clean it up before having to go to work to wear a gas mask for over 2 straight hours!  oh yeah, for 2 hours we were sucking plastic just sitting, sweating and miserable. It's really gross when you start becoming so hot that your breath is fogging up your mask and there is condensation building up on the inside..nasty.

oh yeah thats me in the gear and all. Sweating up a storm in my office 

Luckily I was looking forward to my crock pot mushroom chili. I couldn't eat take out anymore and had to bring out the crock pot and slow cook this chili the day before while I was at work for 12 hours.  There was nothing like coming home last night and immediately smelling the delicious aroma from the elevator door. Plus I had a great lunch to take to work today.  Though I had to wait till my gas mask was off the eat it =)


Portobello Mushroom Chili
Adapted From Allrecipes.com submitted by the gourmetguy
Cook Time: 8-12 hours in a Crock Pot

Ingredients
2 Yellow Onions diced
2 cloves garlic minced
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 pounds portobello mushrooms, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (or your favorite mushrooms)
1 (28 ounce) can of intalian style diced tomatoes
2 cans of Red kidney beans
salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions
Add all the ingredients into your crock pot, stir to mix everything up and set on low for 8-12 hours. 8 is plenty of time, but it can slow cook longer depending when you get off work.

I also haven't had the proper time to truly say thank you to Maggie at Kitchie Coo she had passed on the Kreativ blogger and Sunshine award to me last week and I just now had the time to sit down and express how honored and excited I was to find that she would think of me. Thank you Maggie =)
By the way I love her blog so much, there is always a tasty recipe I'm drooling over every time I visit her page.

For the Sunshine award I'm supposed to answer the questions below and pass it on to 10 other bloggers and for the Kreativ blogger award I'm supposed to give a random fact about myself.

1. Favorite Color-  It use to be blue but now its purple
2. Favorite Animal- Wolf
3. Favorite Number- 12 thats been my favorite number since I was in grade school
4. Favorite non-alcoholic drink- Funny its the same as Maggie at Kitchie coo, seltzer water
5. Prefer Facebook or Twitter- Facebook, I have no idea how to use my Japanese cell phone
6. My Passion- Traveling and food. I like that in the military I've visited countries that I probably would have never seen in my life if I didn't enlist.
7. Prefer getting or giving presents- I love giving presents to family and friends. I like making gift baskets during the holidays that are customized for each person.
8. Favorite Pattern- um tie dye? not really
9. Favorite day of the week- Friday, can't wait to get out of work and start the weekend
10. Favorite Flower- Lilac I love the color and the scent

Random Fact about me
I cannot manipulate my fingers to make the Live long and Prosper sign like Spock does in Star Trek lol.


I would like to pass this wonderful award package onto these 10 great bloggers.

Tess at Slow Cooking Kitchen, Kit from I lost in Austen, Richard at What's Cooking at Richards?, CJ Food Stories, Kaitlin at The Garden Grazer, Eating with Zombies , Annie What's Annie Making?, Jessica at A Kitchen Addiction , Becca at Keep Guessing, Dawyne No Ideas