Adidas on Barefoot Shoe

Nay or yay???

Personally, its nice :)

Cheese and Bean Quesadillas

ingredients

• 1/4 cup refried beans
• 4 6- to 8-inch flour tortillas
• 2/3 cup shredded colby-and-Monterey Jack cheese
• Salsa (optional)

directions

1. Use a table knife to spread half of the refried beans on 1 tortilla.
2. Place bean-topped tortilla in a medium skillet or griddle with the bean side up. Put skillet on a burner. Turn the burner to medium heat. Sprinkle half of the cheese over tortilla. Top with 1 plain tortilla.
3. Cook over medium heat about 3 minutes or until cheese begins to melt. Use a pancake turner to turn quesadilla over. Cook 2 minutes more. Use pancake turner to remove quesadilla from skillet. Repeat with remaining tortillas, refried beans, and cheese. Turn off burner. Remove skillet from burner. Use pancake turner to remove quesadilla from skillet.
4. Use scissors to cut each quesadilla into 4 triangles. Serve with salsa, if you like. Makes 4 servings.

*www.shine.yahoo.com

1.  

Refried Beans

This is in preparation for the Quesadillas that I want to try. Since I still don't know how to make refried beans, I might as well make a separate post about it.

So here it is..

• Cook time: 45 minutes

We use bacon fat in this recipe, though you can easily use olive oil or lard. Although the recipe only calls for 2 Tbsp, we find that the flavor is greatly enhanced with the addition of a couple more tablespoons of bacon fat, just for flavor. You can also get some smokey flavor in the beans by adding a bit of chipotle powder, sauce, or chipotle Tabasco.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/2 cups of dry pinto beans (about 1 lb or 450gm)
• 3 quarts of water
• 1/2 cup chopped onion (optional)
• 2 Tbsp (or more to taste) pork lard, bacon fat, or olive oil (for vegetarian option)
• 1/4 cup water
• Salt to taste
• Cheddar cheese (optional)

METHOD

1 Rinse the beans in water and remove any small stones, pieces of dirt, or bad beans.

2 Cook the beans in water.
Regular method Put beans into a pot and cover beans with at least 3 inches of water - about 3 quarts for 2 1/2 cups of dry beans. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to simmer, covered, for about 2 1/2 hours. The cooking time will vary depending on the batch of beans you have. The beans are done when they are soft and the skin is just beginning to break open.
Pressure Cooker method Put beans into a 4 quart pressure cooker with a 15 lb weight. Fill up the pressure cooker with water, up to the line that indicates the capacity for the pot. Cook for 30-35 minutes - until the beans are soft and the skins are barely breaking open. Allow the pressure cooker to cool completely before opening. If there is resistance when attempting to open the cooker, do not open it, allow it to cool further. Follow the directions for your brand of pressure cooker. (See safety tips on using pressure cookers.)

Strain the beans from the cooking water.

3 Add the onions and lard/fat/oil to a wide, sturdy (not with a flimsy stick-free lining) frying pan on medium high heat. Cook onions until translucent. (Note the onions are optional, you can skip them if you want.) Add the strained beans and about a 1/4 cup of water to the pan. Using a potato masher, mash the beans in the pan, while you are cooking them, until they are a rough purée. Add more water if necessary to keep the fried beans from getting too dried out. Add salt to taste. Add a few slices of cheddar cheese, or some (1/2 cup) grated cheddar cheese if you want. When beans are heated through (and optional cheese melted) the beans are ready to serve.

Note that many recipes call for soaking the beans overnight and discarding the soaking liquid. We don't. We discard the cooking liquid and just add some water back into the frying pan when we are frying the beans.

*www.simplyrecipes.com 

Graham Cake| Vhen and Sasha Style

Last weekend my tot and I was in the mood to make graham cake. Its been awhile since the last time we have eaten a slice.

This of course is not new to most of you or probably everybody knows this already. Since this is a simple recipe and easy to prepare, I also let my kiddo help me do the preparation.

Here are the ingredients, I added marshmallows to be more attractive.

And here's how I did it.
I guess there's no need for 123 directions :)

Easy-peasy.
We made 6 and we added a piece of apple because the fruit cocktail was not enough.
But over all, its a success! ;)

Bento

I'm seeing food blogs doing bento and I'm kind of curious what is it really.

Pardon my ignorance please :)

So to feed my curiosity, what's the use of Google right? lol

Bento (弁当 bentō^?)^[1] is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container. Containers range from disposable mass producedto hand crafted lacquerware. Although bento are readily available in many places throughout Japan, including convenience stores, bento shops(弁当屋 bentō-ya^?), train stations, and department stores, it is still common for Japanese homemakers to spend time and energy for their spouse, child, or themselves producing a carefully prepared lunch box.

Bento can be very elaborately arranged in a style called kyaraben or "character bento". Kyaraben is typically decorated to look like popular Japanese cartoon (anime) characters, characters from comic books (manga), or video game characters. Another popular bento style is "oekakiben" or "picture bento", which is decorated to look like people, animals, buildings and monuments, or items such as flowers and plants. Contests are often held where bento arrangers compete for the most aesthetically pleasing arrangements.

There are similar forms of boxed lunches in the Philippines (Baon), Korea (Dosirak), Taiwan (Biandang), and India (Tiffin). Also, Hawaiian culture has adopted localized versions of bento featuring local tastes after over a century of Japanese influence in the islands.

OK, that's it...

I think I have to do this since my kiddo is bringing snack in school. Sometimes I run out of ideas what to prepare everyday. And she seems too bored already with the foods in her snack box and left untouched.

Now, I am looking for cute bento boxes as well as those bento stuffs that I can use to attract my picky eater.