Best Ever Refried Beans (& a great soup, too!)

This recipe makes enough for a large batch of burritos and some left over. Feel free to halve it if you don't need that much.

3c Thrive Instant Pinto Beans
1c Thrive Instant Black Beans
1/2c Thrive Chopped Onions
1t Garlic Powder
1 Jalapeno, seeded and diced OR 1 small can diced green chiles (optional)
5c Water
1t Thrive Salt

In a large crock pot, combine beans, onions, garlic, jalapeno or chiles and water. Stir, cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally so the beans don't burn on the bottom. Puree with a stick blender (or in a traditional blender in small batches) and season with salt and any other desired seasonings. Refrigerate in an airtight container for one week or freeze for up to 6 months.

Or... make refried bean soup!

2c Refried Beans (from recipe above)
1c Thrive Chopped Chicken or Chicken TVP
1/2c Thrive Instant Pinto Beans
1/2c Thrive FD Corn
2T Thrive Red & Green Bell Peppers
1T Thrive FD Celery
1T  Taco Seasonings
1T Thrive Tomato Powder
2c Water

Combine all ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes. Serve garnished with shredded cheese and tortilla chips.

Making Stock from Scratch

Sorry, but there is not one single Thrive ingredient in this "recipe". Okay, it isn't even really a recipe - it's more of a method. But I think it is really important that every cook knows how to make their own chicken stock from scratch. Sure, you can buy it in a can or a box, full of things your can't pronounce, for a couple of bucks. Or you can use the things you already have on hand to make yourself a nice big batch of chicken stock for FREE! How is it free? Well, because you're going to make it out of things you otherwise might throw away.

Don't worry - I'm not telling you to make chicken stock out of garbage.

The truth is, everyone is starting to feel the financial squeeze of our current economy. I find myself making different choices at the grocery store - choosing generic over brand name, going without a few luxuries, and making things from scratch when I can. So here's a great way to save yourself a few bucks and make a base for a fabulous meal all a the same time. And the best part: your crock pot does all of the hard work while you sleep!

Are you convinced yet? Good, let's get started.

First, get yourself a gallon sized freezer bag. For the next week (or more) throw all of your vegetable scraps in this bag and keep it in the freezer. By vegetable scraps, I mean the tops you cut off raw onions, the ends of the zucchini, potato peels (as long as they aren't dirty), a wilting celery stalk, that sad little limp carrot in the bottom of your vegetable crisper, even the "guts" out of bell peppers. When your bag is full, it's time to make a chicken for dinner.

Put a whole chicken in your crock pot and cook it on low all day. Don't worry about adding water - it will cook in its own juices and be deliciously tender by dinner time. As you serve the chicken, add all of the skin, bones and discarded meat back into the crock pot that still has the chicken juices in the bottom. Pour in the bag of veggies you've been saving and add enough water to cover everything by about three inches. Put the lid back on and cook it on low all night long. In the morning, pour everything from the crock pot through a large strainer with a large bowl underneath it. Discard all of the solids and put the stock in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours. Skim the fat solids off the top of the stock, and you're done!

Several interesting things can happen at this stage. One, your stock could be green. This will happen if you use a lot of green vegetables, or vegetable greens (like carrot tops). Don't worry - it's perfectly fine and will taste delicious. Also your stock might be very thick and gelatinous. This is also perfectly fine.

You've got a couple of options when it comes to storing fresh chicken stock. I generally use mine right away and make a big pot of soup. You could freeze it in small containers for later use, or even freeze it in ice cube trays. Once the cubes are frozen solid, pop them out and store them in a zip top bag for up to 6 months.

This recipe could easily be adapted to make beef stock (collect beef bones from steaks and roasts until you have 6 or 8 of them), seafood stock (use shrimp and/or crab shells) or just use the veggies to make a vegetarian stock.

Cooking Sundays

In case you haven't noticed, I make a lot of stuff from scratch. There is something wonderful about knowing that each meal I make for my family came from my own two hands. I know what's in it, and more importantly, what's not. But creating all of these meals from scratch can take time - a lot of time. Since I'm primarily a stay-at-home-mom, I don't mind spending an hour or two in my kitchen in the morning preparing meals, but I realize that many of you may not have the same luxuries. It is for this very reason that I am going to share one of my secrets with you: Cooking Sunday.

Cooking Sunday is the Sunday once or twice a month when I spend the afternoon in the kitchen, usually with my 5 year old daughter, preparing a variety of meals for the days and weeks to come. Many of my favorite "from scratch" items can be made ahead and frozen, or simply assembled into small containers for use on a busy day. Cooking Sunday is a great time to bond with your kids. Take the opportunity to teach your children about the benefits of cooking from scratch, how important it is to cook with whole, healthy ingredients and how to save money by working with your own two hands instead of paying someone else to do it. You can even sneak in a few math and physics lessons!

In order to make Cooking Sunday fun and relaxing, I urge you to plan ahead and shop a few days before. Make sure you have all of the Thrive ingredients you'll need on hand, clear out some space in the freezer, and start with a clean kitchen. Here are a few of our standard Cooking Sunday recipes:

Spaghetti Sauce - make a double batch of your favorite recipe, or just brown ground beef, sausage or ground turkey and pour in two jars of sauce. Mix well and divide into two freezer bags. Make sure to label the bags with the contents and date. Freeze flat for quick thawing!

Homemade Bagels - make several batches and flavor each batch differently! You could make half a dozen chocolate chip, parmesan and herb, onion and poppy seed, cinnamon and sugar, or even spinach and cheddar. Freeze them in zip top freezer bags.

Homemade Pancake Syrup - one batch of syrup will last our family of three for at least 2 months.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough - make three or four batches. Before allowing the dough to rise, divide it into two equal portions. From those two portions, divide one portion into dough balls roughly the size of a soft ball, wrap with plastic wrap and freeze in a zip top bag. To make a pizza crust, simply thaw a dough ball and roll it out. From the other portion, make meal pockets.

Meal Pockets - make a large batch. Fill half with breakfast stuff like scrambled eggs, cheese, bacon, sausage and ham. Fill the other half with lunch stuff - leftover lunch meats, shredded or sliced cheese, cooked veggies, pepperoni, taco meat, leftover pot roast, etc. Bake before freezing. To reheat, microwave for 2 minutes. 

Instant Oatmeal Packets - make a couple dozen in a variety of flavors. Label each clearly and store in a basket in the pantry.

Meatballs - combine 2lbs of ground beef (or mix with ground sausage, ground turkey, or ground chicken) with 1/2c bread crumbs or oats, 2T Thrive Whole Egg Powder, 2T Thrive Chopped Onions, 2T Thrive Tomato Powder and up to 3/4c water. Mix well and form into meatballs. Freeze on a cookie sheet. Transfer frozen meatballs to freezer bag. To reheat, bake desired number of frozen meatballs in a greased dish for 45 minutes at 400.

Herbed Ricotta Gnocchi - make two batches. Freeze all of the gnocchi spread out on a cookie sheet, then transfer to two freezer bags.

"Cream of" Soup Mix - make two batches. Store each in a bag or jar labeled with cooking instructions.

Soft Sweet Rolls - make a couple batches of these to use as sandwich rolls, hamburger buns or dinner rolls.

Meatloaf - combine all of the meatloaf ingredients but don't bake it - just put it into a freezer bag, pat it flat and freeze it. To use it, thaw the mixture and shape it before baking. Alternative option - freeze the meatloaf mixture in a well-greased muffin tin. Pop the frozen meatloaves out and store them in a freezer bag. To use, bake on a greased cookie sheet. You'll have individual little meatloaves!

Taco Soup - put all of the ingredients in a zip top bag. Write on the bag how much water needs to be added and how long to cook it. Store it in the pantry until you're ready to make soup!