I Heart Crockpoting!

It has taken me a long time to making this but I finally did and it was GREAT!
I made Crock Pot refried beans! Yeah!

I am very into cheap and/or free food and making my own beans seamed to make "cents"!

I always fallow CrockPot Lady's blog and have been wanting to try her recipe for refried beans for some time now.

I always try to make in bulk and felt that 2 cups was not enough for my 6qt. but I did it anyways.

FYI- 2 cups dry beans = about 4 cups soaked (24 hours with 3 water changes) and around 4 cups of finished beans.

L and I washed and sorted the beans as the boys played outside working on bicycles, or model rockets, or some other big-boy toys. (Pasta bake was cooking in the oven!)

I let them soak overnight and then all day and cooked them overnight last night. In all they cooked on low in my Crock for about 9 1/2 hours. I didn't have any onions or garlic in the house so I used

• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cumin
  
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  

I used the blender as someone in the comments suggested and started with a good amount of beans and 1/4 cup or so of cooking water. Started blending and that was VERY watery. I added more beans until most were used and it was a great thick uniform constancy.

I poured them into a container and mixed in the rest of the whole beans for thickness. Stuck the container in the fridge and headed to work!

I ate a cup tonight with 1/8 cup of shredded cheddar cheese and a bunch of leftover tortilla chips! Great full dinner! Tomorrow we might have bean and cheese burritos, or maybe some taco bake, or maybe taco pizza!

Next time I will use 4 cups of beans and double the spices. For all the work I did I should go ahead and make a full crock worth. I had to buy a 8 lbs. anyways and now have 2 huge pickle jars waiting to be crocked!

On a side note:
S was a little worried about fat content after we figured out the waffles I made this morning had a LOT (14 grams or so!). Pinto beans are fat free! Yeah pinto beans!

Wow! Time moves so fast!

I just read my last post and couldn't laugh more! The goals for that weekend are strangely similar to today! I have had Saturday, Sunday and now today off.

Saturday was the TREK Breast Cancer Awareness Ride hosted by the bicycle shop S works at. Some ladies from the club have been working on this since March! I have been helping a lot and did a lot of the last minuet work. My mother, a 4 year survivor made the 8 hour drive up here for the even. It was so much fun and we raised right around $2,000 for the Breast Cancer Research Fund. I am so proud that it all came off so well!

Sunday, my mom was still in town and we celebrated S's birthday which was on Thursday.

In reality- today is my day off.

I have already
Done 2 loads of laundry
Gone and opened my store for the traveling Manager
Ran/walked 3 miles
Filled my car up with gas ($2.54 a gallon! Yeah!)
Showered

Things I still need to do
Bake bread
Cook dinner (thinking my super easy pasta bake)- L&J are coming for dinner
Clean the ENTIRE house
Wash sheets/ living room blankets
Vacuum
Take the trash out
Tackle the mountain of dishes
Cook pasta (for lunches this week)

From last (months) post I still haven't tried to make refried beans in the crock pot, I might do this tonight! I also have 2 *NEW* sweet potatoes to try the recipe I wanted to try last time!

Oh how time flys!

And in an update in life--- I QUIT MY JOB!!! My last day will around the end of the month. Oct. 25th is my 6month anniversary and I get 1 week of paid vacation so I am sticking it out till then an then I AM DONE!

- Have been looking for new jobs at some non-retail places to get us though the holidays! yeah!