Sunday, September 23, 2012

Football Dips

Cheesy Black Bean Dip by Aggie's Kitchen
Ingredients
1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes with chiles
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese or cheese of your choice
Toppings: fresh cilantro sliced black black olives

Instructions 1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 2.Combine black beans, tomatoes, peppers, seasonings and 1/2 cup of the shredded cheese in a large bowl. Pour bean mixture into a large (I used 8x8) baking dish. Top with remaining 1 1/2 cups cheese and place in oven. 3.Bake for about 20-25 minutes until dip is bubbly and cheese has melted. Pull dip out of oven and top with fresh cilantro, sliced jalapenos and sliced black olives. Serve with your favorite tortilla chips.

If you need a smaller amount of dip like me use a smaller baking dish and bake only half the amount. I have smaller glass pyrex baking dishes I use to do this. Since you are making a smaller amount of dip it will probably cook faster so bake for 10 minutes and check every 5 minutes after that until done. Then put the remaining half in a small aluminum pan or Ziploc bag to freeze for later use. Do not add toppings to frozen batch.

Cheesy Salsa Dip
For the easy version add equal amounts of salsa and Velveeta cheese to a crock pot. Stir when cheese is melted. Enjoy

For the "healthier" version (This makes 2 cups intended for use in a little dipper crock pot)

Make a cheese sauce. Adapted from Allrecipes Tim's Mac and Cheese
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
ground black pepper to taste
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese or cheese of your choice
1 cup salsa

Melt butter in a sauce pan. Add flour and cook 5 minutes or so stirring while it cooks.
Add milk and pepper and cook until sauce thickens. Add cheese and stir until melted.
Pour salsa and cheese into crock pot and keep the heat on low or add salsa to the saucepan until salsa is warm. Enjoy with chips, tortilla chips or veggies

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Vegetarian Goulash

I just made the easiest goulash and it was pretty tasty too. I made a large batch which seems to have about 5 servings. I looked up recipes nonlinear and tweaked a few to make it the way I wanted. You will need 2 cups macaroni or other pasta Olive oil 2-3 bell pepper (I used green) 2-3 garlic cloves minced 2 15oz cans diced tomatoes or about 3-4 diced fresh tomatoes 1can 15oz tomato sauce 2 cups corn 1tbsp paprika 1 tbsp Chili powder Pepper to taste In a medium saucepan cook macaroni using box directions. In a large saucepan add a splash of olive oil. Over medium heat add diced bell pepper and garlic until soft taking care not to burn the garlic. Add remaining ingredients and simmer 20 minutes. Stir in macaroni. Enjoy!