Friday, December 30, 2011

Crockpot (Healthy)Refried Beans & Homemade Whole Wheat Tortillas

 

Quick, easy, healthy and so delicious!  Nothing like the canned stuff.  You will never go back Winking smile 

Okay, I must be honest…the beans are quick and the tortillas take a little work but are well worth it, and for us make extras for breakfast burritos in the morning and quesadillas for lunch.  You can even freeze them.

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Easy Crockpot Refried Beans

(It’s no secret I love Lisa @ 100 Days of Real Food…thanks for more great recipes!)

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 onion, peeled and halved
  • 2 cups dry pinto beans, rinsed
  • ½ fresh jalapeno or other hot pepper, seeded and chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • ¾ teaspoons salt
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • One big pinch of cumin
  • 6 cups water

DIRECTIONS

  1. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker.
  2. Cook on high for 8 hours or overnight while you are sleeping.
  3. Remove the bigger onion chunks and drain the excess liquid. If desired, save excess liquid until the final product is desired consistency.
  4. Mash remaining beans with a potato masher and voila! You have homemade refried beans.

 

Whole Wheat Tortillas
YIELD: 12 TORTILLAS

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour (I used King Arthur’s white whole-wheat flour)
  • 1/2 cup oil (I used avocado oil)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup warm water (heat in the microwave for 1 min)

DIRECTIONS

  1. Looking for an easy way out? Throw all ingredients at once into your bread machine to kneed (like I do) or in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer set with a dough hook, pour in the flour, oil and salt. Beat with the paddle until crumbly, about 3 to 5 minutes. Scrape the sides as needed. If your hand-held mixer comes with dough hooks those can be used as well.
  2. (Skip this step if you used your bread machine) With the mixer running, gradually add the warm water and continue mixing until the dough is smooth, about 3 minutes.
  3. Take out the dough and divide it into 12 equal sized pieces. I do this by rolling out a log shape that is about 8 – 10 inches long. Then I cut it in the middle. Then I cut each of those pieces in the middle and so on until you have 12 pieces.
  4. Roll each piece into a ball and flatten it out on a baking tray or board. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for at least 15 minutes or up to one hour.
  5. Heat a cast iron skillet, griddle or 12-inch skillet over med-high heat. The pan should be fairly hot before you begin cooking the tortillas.
  6. On a lightly floured board or countertop, roll each ball into a 8 to 10 inch circle. Be careful not to use more than a teaspoon or two of flour when rolling out each ball of dough because too much excess flour will burn in the pan.
  7. Place one tortilla at a time in the pan and cook until puffy and slightly brown, do not overcook or they will be crunchy! Eat within an hour, refrigerate or freeze.

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I separate mine with wax paper after I roll them out.

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Quesadilla for lunch!

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Breakfast burrito with eggs, cheese and green chile sauce!

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Enjoy!

3 comments:

rsingh said...

Your refried beans are so healthy :-). Another option is to use masa harina for the tortillas. It's the traditional tortilla flower and less work- at least for me. The breakfast burrito looks yummy.

Brigit said...

Healthy and so yummy! The kids love them and when all the tortillas are gone they will just have a bowl of beans, cheese and fresh pico. Thanks for the tip for the tortillas. They are a bit of work but well worth the effort =)

rsingh said...

Ah, it's much easier when you own one of this
http://www.latinmerchant.com/productdetail.asp?ProductID=NF0015

The green smoothies remind me of being a kid. This is what my mom did with the fruit and veggies that were getting mushy.