Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Beans, Peas and Cornbread fit for MY king Tracy!

I LOVE
the thrift of taking dried beans or peas and cooking them all afternoon and have it turn into a YUMMY dinner! Even more, I am grateful that 2 of Tracy's favorite meals
to eat are Beans and hamhocks and Split Pea Soup!

We had Beans and hamhocks last week and we had Split Pea Soup tonight with yummy Cornbread!

Sometimes, I think we should have been born in Pioneer days because some of our most filling dinners are "Simple foods" such as peas, beans, soups and homemade bread.

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Pinto Beans and Ham hocks

4 cups pinto beans washed and cleaned soak these overnight
Drain off water and add in clean water and fill pan 3/4's full.

Cook beans for 1 to 2 hours until tender
Then add in:
Ham hocks (OR chopped ham)
1 large onion chopped
1-2 cloves garlic minced
Cook for 2-3 more hours until really tender and thick.

SALT and PEPPER to taste!

Great served with cottage cheese and hot pepper sauce!
*******************
How frugal is this meal?
Well the pinto beans cost $1.12
the
Ham hocks were .50
the
onions were .29
the
garlic was .02
SOUP cost: $1.93

Cottage Cheese
$1.00
Total cost--$2.93
(with cottage cheese)
This fed 4 people 1 dinner and 3 people 1 lunch!!
********************
Green Split Pea Soup

Ham hock
(OR 1/2 cup chopped ham)
8 cups
water

1-1/4 cups
green split peas

1 large
onion chopped

1 clove
garlic minced

2 cups
diced carrots

1 or 2
potatoes diced

(salt and pepper to taste)


Combine
water and peas in a large pot and bring to a boil. Add in ham hock and simmer gently for 1 hour. Add in onions, garlic, carrots, potatoes and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer gently for 1 more hour until peas are tender and soup is really thick.


YUMMY! Great with a dollop of cottage cheese,
hot pepper sauce and not to forget "Corn Bread"!
************************
How frugal is this meal?
Split Peas cost---.68
Ham hocks were---.50
onion/garlic---.31
carrots/potatoes---.30
Total Cost--$1.79

(if you add in cottage cheese it will add another $1.00 to the total)


This fed 4 people 1 dinner and 3 people 1 lunch!!
****************************

Sweet Corn Bread
½ cup butter
1/2 cup
sugar

2
eggs

¾ cup
cornmeal

1 ¾
cup flour

2 tsp
baking powder

½ tsp.
Salt

1 ½ cups milk (I use powdered milk)

Cream butter and sugar.
Add
eggs and stir.
Add cornmeal.

Sift dry ingredients and add alternatively with milk.
Put in greased 9x9 pan. Bake 350* for 45 minutes.

***********************
This is WONDERFUL and tasty
and kids and dads don’t seem to mind eating soup or a “bean” dish
if they have yummy cornbread to eat.
YUMMY and one of Jades favorites!

4 comments:

Ann Marie said...

I love how frugal you eat..
I have never tried split pea soup.. I think I'll have to try it somewhere before I make it though because I am the least pickiest in this house..

That cornbread looks delish!

We sound so much alike.. We try to buy seperate artichokes also.. so there is no fighting! My Tenney loves them like I do..
Hey.. Any way to get a kid to eat Veggies is good!!

CB said...

I love split pea soup. With the economy the way it is my husband and I were just talking this morning about how we need to get back to basics.
These are great recipes - Thanks so much for posting them!

P.S. My word verification is ratshimi - true story!

Tracy Smith said...

Hey Kimmie... It's your hubby here, just letting you know, the spit pea soup was even better the second day! I shared it with John here at the office and he really liked it as well.

Yummy!

C Smith said...

I made your split pea soup tonight for dinner with the ham bone left over from Christmas. I also added a red pepper. I had one and if I didnt use it, I was going to have to toss it. On the back of my split pea bag there was a recipe for vegetarian split pea and it had a red pepper in it. I'll let you know if it's any good. I also made your buttermilk biscuits. They are good but I messed up a little. I didn't have any buttermilk so I put the TBSP of lemon juice in the one cup of milk but then without thinking I added the whole cup (recipe only calls for 2/3 C)..I thought the dough was extra sticky. haha. Well, that required me to use a little to much flour when rolling them out so the outside was a little dry but nevertheless they were delicious. Better luck next time. They were super easy though.