Kitchen DIY: Beans as Butter

Kitchen DIY: Beans as Butter
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There are lots of reasons to use beans as butter substitutes in recipes.

The first one is that it is cheap!

A pound of beans is less than a quarter but a pound of butter is over three dollars. Beans are also full of protein, fat free, and with more fiber they make you feel more full with less calories.

They don’t add a bean taste to food, and make a moist cake.

Now, if you aren’t ready to go full bean, mix it half and half with your butter in recipes and make the switch gradually.

I think trying a little is better than not trying at all.

Here are some tips for using beans as a replacement for butter and oil

  1. If your recipe calls for oil, use a bean puree. (cooked beans with enough water to whirl in your blender.) If you simply dump a can of beans (juice and all) in a blender and puree you have it.
  2. If your recipe calls for butter, you are going to use cooked, drained beans.
  3. For substituting beans for both butter and/or oil you are going to use a 1 to 1 ratio.
  4. Match beans to color: white cake use white beans, Chocolate with black beans, It doesn’t affect the taste, but if you use black beans with white cake you will see little spots.
  5. Add the beans however your recipe says to use the butter and/or oil. For example, if your recipe says to cream the butter with the sugar-you’re going to cream the beans with the sugar.
  6. If you are using beans in something like brownies or cookies that are supposed to be chewy, the beans will not make it chewy-it will be cake like. This means if you want the chewiness use half oil/butter and half beans.

Recipe: Sausage Sunshine

Recipe: Sausage Sunshine
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As I talked about in an earlier post I love cooking egg sunshine on the weekend, well I figure if the recipe is good with toast, how would it be with meat?  With a burning desire to know (and to have breakfast) – I created Sausage Sunshine.

I simply made large patties out of a roll of sausage, and used a small mason jar to cut out a circle in the center, and then cooked it in a skillet with an egg cracked in the center.

Sausage Sunshine was VERY good, but I did learn two things, the patty needs to be thin and the sausage should be cooked for a little while before adding the egg or otherwise the egg will be under cooked or the sausage overcooked.

This is a great recipe to fuel a day out working on the homestead, but it is a little rich to sit around watching TV.

How to Make Waffle Iron Hash Browns

 

Recipe: Waffle Hashbrowns
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When I saw waffle hashbrowns on chow.com I had to try it.

Waffles are my wife’s favorite, but i don’t particularly like them, now I can cook something with the waffle maker.

Besides the fact that I now have something to do with my waffle iron besides making waffles from scratch.

This was a very cheap, filling, and easy meal – plus the boy liked it…

Waffle Hashbrowns are tasty, cheap, and filling

This is just what a prepper meal should be.  If you have one of those campfire waffle irons, then this would make a great camping recipe.

I can imagine how good it would be with ketchup and a nice fire.

To make waffle iron hash browns:

  • Heat the waffle iron to its medium setting.
  • Peel your potatoes and grate them on the large holes of a box grater.
  • Squeeze the mixture by the handful to release as much moisture as possible.
  • When the iron is hot, fill the bottom half with 1/8 inch vegetable oil (about 1 tablespoon).
  • Combine the potato with some black pepper, and mix until well combined.
  • Place about 1 cup of the taters in the iron, sprinkle some salt over top, brush with vegetable oil, and close it
  • Cook until the hash browns are golden brown and crisp, about eight to ten minutes.

Waffle Hashbrowns are tasty, cheap, and filling – this is just what a prepper meal should be.  If you have one of those campfire waffle irons, then this would make a great camping recipe – I can imagine how good it would be with ketchup and a nice fire.

Award Winning Dutch Oven Dump Cake Recipe

 

Recipe: Dutch Oven Dump Cake
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Like many of the recipes I share on this site, this is not a “food storage recipe” exactly, but many of the ingredients can be found in food storage, or adapted from food storage. But just because it needs adapting, does not mean it is not useful.

The concept and method of making an easy dump cake in a Dutch Oven over a fire can come in very handy in an off-grid situation, as well as make a fine dessert to eat around the fire while out camping (aka practicing your bug out skills)…

Once you make a dutch oven dump cake you will be ho0ked.  This dump cake recipe is easy, tasty, and cheap.

Last year I made an Pecan Apple Caramel Dump Cake in a dutch oven inside a $30 kettle smoker and won first place statewide Annual BBQ contest for corrections in TN.  The dump cake was entered into the “anything goes” category.

I could not believe how easy this recipe was to adapt and use in a BBQ grill.  I do know the Dump Cake tasted Awesome.

If you want an even better recipe than the one below, add some pecans stir fried in butter, a can of homemade caramel “dulce de leche”, and fresh apples in an apple pie filling for the BEST Apple Dump Cake ever.

Ingredients for a Dutch Oven Dump Cake

  • Butter
  • 2 (16 oz.) cans of fruit pie filling (your choice)
  • 1 box cake mix (your choice)
  • 1/2 C. Water

Procedure

  • Butter the inside and bottom of the lid of a Dutch oven.
  • Next pour the pie filling in the Dutch oven.
  • “Dump” in the cake mix.
  • Spread evenly.
  • Dot top with butter.
  • Pour the water on top.
  • Place lid on Dutch oven.
  • Place Dutch oven in coals.
  • Shovel some coals on top of the lid.
  • “Bake” for approximately 30-45 minutes.
  • Lastly, test cake for doneness. If necessary, place back on coals, checking every 10-15 minutes.

NOTES:

Dump Cake recipes like the one above can be used with any combination of fruit and cake mixes.

Some recommendations are:

  • cherries w/ chocolate cake
  • apples w/ yellow cake
  • peaches w/ white cake
  • and of course pineapples and yellow cake