Cooking is so much easier now!

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Our floor is finished and I have a kitchen table out of my living room and into my kitchen!  Even though my cabinets are on back order until Mid-July, I have folding tables where the cabinets should be.  It’s a lot of space :).  I’ll be happy to have a dishwasher and kitchen sink again, but we have a stove now and life is feeling more normal.

Also we found a “new” table and chair set on Craigslist for a mere $50.  Normally the craigslist table wouldn’t have caught my eye, but I had already seen this one from a link at www.knock-off wood.com:

It’s worth a click on the photo to go to Little Bits of Bliss and see how she refinished this table to make it the beauty it is today.  I was so inspired by her post that I immediately went to Craigslist and found this:

I was so excited!  I plan to copy Little Bits of Bliss on their redesign, but at this point I’m planning on it being a year or more before I even think about it.  We are enjoying the unusual colors for now.  (If you can’t change it, love it–right?)

Homemade Refried Beans: Frugal and Fabulous

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These refried beans are fat free, delicious and super easy!

2 lbs pinto beans, sorted (remove dirt clods and stones) and rinsed

12 cups water

1 Tablespoon salt

2 teaspoons of garlic powder (Or 2 cloves of fresh minced garlic.)

Place all ingredients in a large crock pot.  Cook on high for 3-4 hours.  Or cut recipe in half and place in a pressure cooker for 25 minutes on high pressure. If your pressure cooker can hold the whole thing without being more than 3/4 full, do the full recipe. Use a ladle to scoop half the cooked beans and liquid into a blender.  Puree until smooth.  Transfer beans to another dish and process the other half.  This freezes well, works great as a dip, is delicious just with a spoon, and great for any recipe calling for refried beans.  This makes about 15 cups of refried beans.

I ate mine with chips and with a spoon, then rolled some up with rice and cheese in flour tortillas and topped with hamburger mixed with salsa with a final layer of cheese for dinner.  These rice and bean enchiladas were delicious! And so easy.  You could easily make them vegetarian by leaving the hamburger out of the topping.  You could also substitute tomato sauce with chili powder, canned tomatoes with green chilies, or enchilada sauce for the topping.