Easy Bean Enchiladas

This is an old standby-very easy and quick.  Leftovers taste even better for lunch the next day :)

Ingredients:
1 can refried beans (I use meijer organic)
1 can enchilada sauce (red)
4 large tortillas
mexican cheese

Preheat oven to 350.  Spread 1/4 of the beans on each totilla and roll into an enchilada.  Pour some sauce to coat the bottom of glass baking dish.  Place the 4 enchiladas in the pan, seam down, and cover with remaining sauce.  Top with cheese.  Cover and bake 30 minutes.  Serve with yellow saffron rice and guacamole.

Chili Soup

This is Mike's mom's chili soup recipe, with some modifications by us of course :)

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef (or turkey)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can Brooks Chili Beans (I use hot)
1 can tomato sauce
1 can beer
chili powder to taste
uncooked spaghetti (about the size of a quarter)

Brown beef and drain.  In large saucepan, combine all ingredients and simmer at least 1 hour.   About 1/2 way through, add the spaghetti and cook until tender. Serve with corn muffins.
You can make this in a crock pot and simmer several hours (or all day).  I usually double this recipe because it makes great lunch portions and freezes well (two pounds of beef and large cans of the rest of the ingredients)
Our friend Megan's advice on a great pot of chili: use beer, and simmer all day.

Pasta with Sausage, Pepper and Onions

This is one of Mike's favorite dishes.  I created it after seeing him order it time and again at various italian restaurants.  This is also an easy one and makes great leftover portions for lunch!

Ingredients:
2 italian sausages (turkey regular)
1 green pepper, chopped
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped, optional
crushed red pepper
1 jar pasta sauce
12-16 oz wheat penne pasta, cooked

Boil water and cook the pasta.  Cook sausage in large skillet over medium-high heat.  You can either take it out of the casing and brown or just saute the whole link and slice when almost cooked.  Add the peppers, onions and garlic.  Saute 2-3 minutes.  Add the pasta sauce and crushed red pepper and heat through.  When the pasta is ready, add to the skillet and toss together with the sauce.  Top with fresh grated parmesan cheese. 

Spicy Beef Noodles

For our first recipe, something easy and very flavorful.  You can add more or less red pepper to your desired spice level. 

Ingredients: 
1 lb lean ground beef (or turkey)
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 carrots, shredded
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 cup beef broth
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 to 1 tsp dried crushed red pepper
8 oz whole wheat spaghett, cooked
1/4 cup green onions, sliced
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
chopped peanuts, optional

Cook beef in large skillet over medium-high heat until browned.  Add peppers and next seven ingredients (to the crushed red pepper) and saute 6 to 8 minutes until vegetables are tender.  Toss beef mixture with hot pasta, green onions, sesame seeds and peanuts. Serves 4 to 6

(adapted from a recipe by Laura's Lean Beef)

Time for dinner!

Mike and I are on a mission to prove that eating healthy can also be DELICIOUS. We plan to post one or two recipes a week, although if we don't have any good dishes in a certain week we won't waste anyone's time. Not all will be super healthy-we all deserve a spluge once and a while! We try to use organic and natural foods and our goal is to find fairly easy recipes that still have lots of flavor and health benefits! We attempt to minimize the use of processed foods and to reduce our meat consumption by subbing in lots of veggies, beans, etc.

We encourage readers to share ideas, comments, variations and inputs on coking techniques. We have no formal cooking training, athough we did watch Julie and Julia once!

We think you will agree, you don't have to sacrifice good flavor to eat healthy. And in the words of my wise father, "if you can eat like this at home, why go out?!"
we hope you will enjoy our kitchen tested recipes! Bon appetit!