Sunday, September 16, 2012

Best Bean Soup Ever!!


This is my bean soup recipe for canning.  It is amazing.  If you don't want to can it, you will have to change the cooking time.  Simmer it until the beans are tender.  Adding in the carrots and celery about ten minutes before they are done.
 
Ingredients:
1 pound bag of 16 bean soup bean mixture
3 cloves garlic
3 small onions
6 carrots
3 stalks celery
Apx 2 cups raw bacon pieces cut into bites
1 box (32 oz) chicken stock

Instructions:
Soak the bean mixture in the refrigerator over night.
Mince garlic, chop onions.  Chop carrots and celery into chunks.  Set aside for later.  Fry garlic and onions in pan with bacon pieces.  Cook until bacon is done and onions are translucent.  Drain fat.
 
Drain and rinse the beans.
 
Put the chicken stock in the pot.  Add in the beans.  You should have enough liquid to cover the beans.  Stir and bring to a boil.
Turn down and simmer for 30 minutes.
Stir in celery and carrots.
 
Scoop into pint size jars leaving 1 inch head space.  Should make 6 jars of soup.
Process according to your pressure canner instructions at 10 pounds pressure for 75 minutes.
 

Breakfast Cookies!

These are lovely moist cookies that make for a healthy quick breakfast. They were a huge hit with all the children in the household.

This is my inspiration for this recipe. I didn't have any applesauce on hand, but I did have plenty of frozen mashed bananas. None of my children will eat raisins, so I put in chocolate chips instead.

My version is this...

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:
2 C uncooked rolled oats
2 C mashed banana
1/4 C whole milk
1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinamon
2 tsp sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 350*F.
Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
Let the ingredients sit for about five minutes so the oats soak up some of the moisture.
Spoon the mixture onto a greased cookie sheet. You can put them pretty close to each other. The cookie will not spread out as it cooks and will keep the shape you put them in.
Bake for 18 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to cool a bit before you eat.

One batch makes approximately 24 small cookies.

I'm thinking these would freeze very well, though we don't have any left after four kids ran through the kitchen a few times.