Shelter in place box - week one recipes and ideas

If you ordered our shelter in place box this past week - THANK YOU!  Here are some ideas and suggestions and recipes for you for the box. 

In the kale salad you will find a dressing that is made with the orange marmalade.  marmalade is great for making sauces and dressings and we included some jars for you to try out!  Get adventurous!  You can also get creative with the chili and use it in many different ways....in a wrap, on top of a baked potato.  Here are some recipes for the rice and beans to try.  We hope you love your box!

Black beans or cranberry beans -

This weeks box included some great dried beans.  A lot of people out there do not know how to cook beans and there are a lot of different techniques.  One of my favorites is to simply put them in a crock pot in the morning and then cover with two inches of water and let them simmer all day on high until they are tender.  It makes the whole house fragrant with cooking without ever having to worry about burning the beans!!!  I add salt at the end and let them sit for another half an hour and then drain and use the beans for all sorts of dishes.  The bean water is a great addition to soups and stews.

Here is another method...You can soak beans for about 8 hours before cooking them, but I often don’t have the time/organization to plan ahead! The next preferred scenario is to soak them in hot water for an hour before cooking them. In either soaking method, I like to drain the water off and cook with fresh water. In a pinch, just cooking dried beans works just fine – the only difference is that they take a bit longer to cook (possibly as long 1- hour, but also varies depending on the bean and the freshness. 1-pound dried beans water 2 to 3 teaspoons salt optional aromatics: garlic clove, ½ onion, carrot If the beans have been soaked, drain the water and add fresh water. Cover the beans with an inch or so of water. If you have not soaked the beans, add more water. Bring the beans to a boil and immediately lower the heat to a gentle simmer and cook. Once the beans have softened and are almost completely cooked through, add salt, turn the stove off and cover the beans. Let them sit for at least 15 minutes. This is a little trick to avoid over cooking the beans (especially if they didn’t get to soak beforehand) and let them absorb the salt. If you will be storing additional beans in the refrigerator, keep them in some of their cooking liquid. They will keep for at least a week.

Spanish Rice

There are so many ways to make rice.  Rice is a staple for almost all cuisines the world over and there are so many takes.  We love to make a Spanish rice in our family using the spicy tomato juice from Happy Girl.

1 cup of rice

1 cup of spicy tomato juice

1 cup of water

1/4 cup of diced carrots

1/4 cup of diced celery

1/4 cilantro coarsely chopped cilantro

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon olive oil

Rinse your rice three times to remove dust and starches from the outter husk.  Add all ingredients to a rice cooker (my favorite method so that I do not need to worry about rice burning!).  Rice cooker will turn to warm once finished.  Or you can put in a pot on the stove top and cook for 20-40 minutes depending on the type of rice you are cooking.  Cook on simmer with lid on.  YUM!!!