Crock-Pot Carne Guisada and Refried Black Beans

 If you have more than one crock pot or slow cooker get them out! Today you will need to crock pots, one for the carne guisada, and the other for refried black beans.

 

 

So what is carne guisada, it is a Mexican style beef stew served over rice or in tortillas. This is a simple recipe, not a lot of vegetables and the meat is extremely tender. We ate this on tortillas, spooned in steamed white rice and the refried black beans. Add a little lettuce, shredded cheese, sour cream and cilantro to dress up your tortilla and expand the flavors.

 

 

 I like to cook dishes like this in a crock-pot or slow cooker. The smell of it cooking all day, keeps anticipation of a great dinner coming our way. I warn you now that you will have to guard your crock-pot while this cooking. The drool worth smell drives people to want to remove the lid and savor the scent. With slow cookers and crock-pots, removing the lid is a very bad thing! It takes almost half hour plus for them to regain the heat that is lost from removing the lid. If you ever needed an endorsement for these recipes, they did win a “you’ve got to put this on the blog” comment from the kids.

 

 

Another plus of cooking this stew in a crock-pot, is during the summer you can have a fantastic meal without heating the oven or your house!

Want The Recipes? Click Here!

Hot and Sour Soup…

My daughter and l love hot and sour soup. I had been looking for a while for a recipe that was simple, and had the right balance between hot and sour.  Some were to hot others to sour, the balance has to be just right.

Most Americanized versions of the soup have cornstarch in it. There are no health benefits from the cornstarch, and it is only there to thicken the soup. Traditional Asian versions do not add the cornstarch. I have had it both ways; I actually prefer it with a thinner broth.

To me hot and sour soup is the Asian version of Chicken Noodle Soup. This tastes so good when you are sick and congested. The more congested I am, the spicier I make soup.  If you have ever eaten Wasabi and had your nasal passages cleared out, hot and sour soup reacts the same way. It usually takes about ten to twenty minutes and you are breathing out of both nostrils.

 There have been several articles written about the health benefits of eating the soup. The soup is typically lower in salt than chicken noodle. The tofu is a low fat wonderful way to add protein into your diet. This recipe does not have the traditional lily buds and for black fungus, I have chosen to use straw mushrooms. The only reason is this recipe is meant to be easy, quick and ingredients easy to find. I was thinking of my dear friends, Cheryl and Victor, living in rural Kansas when I put this together.

 I do not use any meat in the soup; this is also the only time I can slip Tofu into the family diet without much protest. If you are an Ovo-lacto Vegan, you can replace the chicken broth for vegetable stock.

**One side note, when you purchase the tofu try to find it already cubed. This will cut one step and make the prep-time quicker**

Follow This Link For The Recipe!