Crock pot beans with homhocks.

This is a very easy and cheap dinner to make and have ready the next day. 

Ingredients:
one onion
one bag of navy beans (you will use half the bag)
one bag of pinto beans (you will use half the bag)
one to two packages of hickory smoked pork ham hocks by Cook's from Safeway.
OPTIONAL:
carrots and celery cut into small chunks
or shredded carrots
bacon cooked and cut into small chunks

Cook half a bag of each of the beans in a pot with water generously covering the beans. You may have to add more as the beans cook. I precook my beans this way until they are soft. Also depending on how small your beans are you may need more or less for larger beans. At the end you can always add in some canned beans. I have done that adding some big white kidney beans because the original beans were kind of small.

Get your crock pot out and cut up one onion and add into the pot with some garlic. Then add one or two of your hamhocks. Add beans and the water that they cooked in half way then add the rest of the ham hocks. Add the last of the beans and water.

Now I just add some all purpose seasoning and a salt free garlic herb seasoning. I'll add a bit of sea salt also and or Johnny's seasoning salt plus some parsley.

OPTIONAL veggies you can add are celery and carrots. I have done that before. Also have added shredded carrots to it and cook up some bacon and chop into small pieces and add to the mix.

Let your crock pot cook till the next day stirring occasionally. The ham hocks will flavor and salt the bean soup so you really dont have to add anything else for seasoning depending on ham hocks. I still add some salt. Using the water that you cook your beans in will naturally thicken the soup too. At the end I use a slotted spoon and spoon out the fat and bones from the ham hocks. The meat will have fallen off and you can easily shred it up with your spoon and stir through the soup. Now you have meat with your beans.

ENJOY your crock pot of beans.

HOBO breakfasts then soup.

Ok so I made two packets of hobo dinners for the guys breakfast. Same ingredients as Hobo dinners I just tweeked things a bit for breakfast.

Use your ground meat and make small meat balls. Nothing fancy they dont even have to be round. Place in a bowl. Cut up your potatos very small like square hash brown style, dice up the carrots, celery and onion very small too. Cut up some bacon in pieces and add to the mix. Season and mix in the bowl. Add to foil and wrap in pouch. Cook as you want. You can get really creative with these too with breakfast items. Like maybe cutting up the small link sausages, maybe ham also.

SOUP:
Now when you have left over not cooked hobo breakfasts when you have used a ground meat we took our packets and added some beef broth into a big stock pot and cooked them all together. Then pour over some rice and it makes a really nice warm hearty soup for a cold night.

HOBO dinners

This is about the easiest meal to make for camping, the grill at home, or you can make this throw it in the fridge and pull it out to add to the oven for a quick dinner.

HOBO dinners recipe

Ground meat or chicken breast

carrots

celery

onion

potato

Optional: mushrooms, bacon

Seasonings:

Garlic Salt

Seasoning Salt

All purpose seasoning salt free

pepper

You can use almost any meat. We have used just beef, chicken and elk/deer.

If you decide using a ground meat just make a large thick patty. Or if you choose chicken a nice large chicken breast is good to use.

Place you meat in the center of a large long piece of foil. Season it top and bottom. 

Cut up your veggies into slices. Not too large cause it takes longer to cook.

To make it easy you can cut up all your veggies and place them in a bowl and then add your seasonings and stir it all together.

Add your veggies to the top of the patty. Season if you havnt already. Cut up a couple slices of butter and top it off. Wrap up in a foil pouch.

If your cooking over a camp fire I recommend wrapping in foil a few times making a thick pouch. If not then just throw the packet in a pan and in the over 350-375'. Poke small holes on both sides for air ventilation.

When its done open up your hot packets and eat away.

Homemade noodles recipe

So you can make the soup but now you need the noodles. Yes, you can use some other noodles if you wish. Egg noodles or if you can find the noodles that look like home made they work pretty close too.

Noodle recipe:
1/4 c milk
2 eggs
2 c flour
1/4 tsp crushed sage
3/4 garlic salt

Beat all your ingredients together except for the flour which you will add 2 cups to make a stiff dough. Cover and let rest for about 10 minutes. Divide dough in half and on a flour surface roll out your dough.

I use a small rolling pin and cut my dough into fourths just because I have a smaller working space. If you have a larger area to work then dividing in half is the way to go. Next I use a pizza cutter to cut slices to make my noodles. Cut one way then the other depending on how long you want to make your noodles.

Next take your noodles and lay them on a cookie sheet or some kind of flat surface to put your tray in the oven on warm so they just start to get crusty or dried...not hard though.

While my noodles are in the oven I usually take the meat off the bone of the drumsticks at this time and do all that. Once the noodles are ready get your stock pot of broth boiling. Add the noodles and let them boil until they swell up and are soft then add your chicken. Now you can keep cooking and add you carrots/celery or transfer over to a LARGE crock pot.

Now you can cut up your celery and carrots unless you get them pre-cut while your drumsticks cook down or you can do them at any time. You can add them to the mix in the stock pot and continue cooking or add everything to the crock pot and let it simmer on high for the day until veggies are tender. On the stove top this all goes faster. If you pre cook your veggies then once you add everything together and boil for awhile your soup is ready.

I say experiment and try out what different things work out for you. Have fun cooking and enjoy your soup !!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

This recipe is for that like mom or grandma would make homemade chicken noodle soup from scratch with make your own noodles. This is a more advanced recipe and it does take a big chunk out of your day. When you feel more comfortable making this then you can find ways to become speedy and have it made in a few hours.

First thing I do is get my ingredients at the store, some of this stuff you may already have on hand:

One big package of chicken drumsticks (un-thawed)
2 big cartoons of chicken broth
one bunch of celery
one bag of pre cut carrots (they have ridges like Ruffles chips)
one large onion
garlic salt
all purpose seasoning
basil
italian seasoning
celery salt
extra powdered chicken or beef broth as needed
and any other seasoning you may want to add depending on your tastes

Cooking down the chicken:

dump both of your cartons of chicken broth into a big cooking pot
add your chicken drumsticks
now you will need to probably add extra water covering the drumsticks in liquid
at this time I add like 2 chicken bouillon cubes
take your celery and cut out the leaves and add them to the pot
cut your onion in half and I take out the center cut it up and add it to the pot
now add all your favorite seasonings...Im pretty generous with them

 

This is what the start of your stock pot full of chicken will resemble. 

 Now boil away stirring occasionally. 

Cook until the meat pretty much falls off the bone.

Now I use some sort of slotted spoon to take out all the drumsticks and any long celery stocks.

 Transfer your drumsticks into a colander or I use this nifty strainer that stretches across the sink. This way you can get air all around the drumsticks and they cool faster to take the meat off of the bone. I place a bowl underneath and then drop my bones and skin in it and put my meat into another bowl. Now you can take those pieces and chop it up a bit or just use as is. I stir in some garlic salt and stir the meat up a bit.

Now your ready to make your homemade noodles !!!

That recipe next !!! Stay tuned. 

Advanced Beef/Pork Roast Recipe

This is a more advanced way to cook your roasts that I like to do. I will list each way to do them.

BEEF........

Get your slab of meat that you want to use as a roast...dont worry about the size.

Get fresh cloves of garlic.
Unwrap or unhusk your garlic cloves.
Slice each clove lengthwise into small slivers.

Now take your sharp knife and cut slits in your roast and slide in a sliver of the garlic all the way into the slit until you can not seed the garlic anymore.

Do this all over the meat on both sides everywhere here and there. You can opt out in this garlic step to make is easier.

Brush olive oil over the whole roast. You can opt to not do this. Sometimes I do and sometimes I dont.

Now season your roast heavily with these spices....
Montreal Steak Seasoning
Garlic Salt
Seasoning Salt
Pepper
Tyme
Rosemary
All Purpose Seasoning
McCormicks Steak Rub....just sprinkle this

Now put your roast in a pan and place in over on like 350'.

We like our beef roast rare when we do it this way. So I will cut a slit in it and look to see where it is in cooking. Take out when you like the color.

Now you can also take all of this and putit in a cooking bag for the oven. I add some worchestershire sauce and some soy sauce in the bottom of the bag/roast when i do it this way. And cook well done or whatever texture you like.

When we cook it rare we like to eat it with horseradish sauce and drizzle of gravy.

PORK..........

I do the same thing as above as for garlic and for seasonings I use:

Garlic Salt
Seasoning Salt
Pepper
McCormick Grill Mates Roasted Garlic and Herb Seasoning
All Purpose Seasoning
McCormicks Pork Rub

Now I turn this all into a heavy rub all over the pork roast.

Place pork in a pan and cook away around 350-375'.

With pork you want it well done and you can crisp the outside of the roast so you get crusties as we call them. Crusties are so yummy on your pork roast.

You can also palce all of this in a bag and cook it. No water needed as pork usually produces its own juices for this in the bag.

Using a bag is just a more intermediate way of cooking until you are more framiliar with your roast cooking times and so forth.

Practice makes a better roast and it may take a few times and combinations of your own to get your roast down to where you like it.

For Veggies in with Pork/Beef:
Now if you want to add veggies you can around your roast in a big pan. No need to cover it. I cut up potatoes, carrots, celery, and onion and place all around the roast.( Not under the roast though) And I will season my veggies with garlic salt, seasoning salt and slice up slivers of butter and place on top of veggies all over. This will melt and coat the veggies. For healthier version which we do is to get the "I cant believe its not butter" Spray. And spary it all over the veggies. You'll have to check things and spray more part way through the cooking process so the veggies dont burn or over cook.

Any questions feel free to ask !!!

Beginner roast recipe below....keep reading.

Beginner Beef/Pork Roast...easy how to.. with veggies !!

This is an easy beginner way to do your roast....Either Beef or Pork.

McCormick's now has a bag and seasonings you can purchase from your local store. Inside you get a bag to cook your orast and seasonings.

We use this for a easy quick roast.

Get your roast...dont get too big of one...
Place inside the bag with veggies and water to what the recipe reccomends which is:

You Will Need
1 package McCormick® Bag 'n Season® Beef/Pork Roast
3 to 4 pounds chuck, bottom round or rump roast, trimmed.
4 cups cut-up fresh vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots and onions
1/4 cup water

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Arrange opened Cooking Bag in 13x9-inch baking pan or dish. Place roast and vegetables into Bag.

STIR Seasoning Mix and water until well blended. Pour over roast. Close Bag loosely with nylon tie. Cut 4 small holes in top of Bag to allow steam to escape.

BAKE in lower half of oven 2 hours.

Now we use 2 seasoning packets so you will have an extra cooking bag which we then use for different things. I reccomend 2 packets to have it seasoned correctly but we also add more veggies to this also.

You will notice if the meat starts to fall apart its done. You can tell through the bag. Then its done !!

Empty contents out into a big serving pan or your choice and EAT UP !!!