Wednesday, March 18, 2015

My Three Bean Salad


  I love a good Three Bean Salad!  The traditional recipe calls for green beans, wax beans and kidney beans, but I've found that replacing the wax beans with chickpeas gives you a similar taste, the same pretty color combination...and more fiber!  
  I just made a bowl of this salad yesterday and because chilling it overnight in the fridge melds the flavors, it's ready for dinner tonight.  This recipe is great when you need to make something ahead that travels well!

Three Bean Salad
1 can of cut green beans
1 can of dark red kidney beans
1 can of chickpeas
1/2 C chopped onion (sweet or red onion)
1/4 C chopped bell pepper
Drain the beans and toss together with onion and green pepper in a mixing bowl.  Toss with dressing and chill in refrigerator for several hours or overnight.

Dressing:
1/2 C sugar (or Splenda)
2/3 C  cider vinegar
1/3 C  oil (I use vegetable or Canola oil)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Toss again right before serving!

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Easy-Cheesy Pepperoni Rolls in Minutes!



  I'm a person who doesn't like to cook big, involved meals on the weekends if I don't have to...unless, of course, we're fortunate enough to have out-of-town visitors, or all three of our sons are here for a holiday. In that case,  I'm happy to,"cook big" on the weekend!  But, usually, I make simple meals that are easy to throw together...same goes for snacks and desserts (unless I bake something special on Friday).
  This Friday evening, I realized that I had thawed a loaf of Rhodes bread dough in the fridge and it needed to be used.  I originally thawed it with the intention of making hot rolls with dinner Thursday evening, but our dinner plans changed and so here was the dough sitting on the top shelf.
  I decided to experiment.  First I cut some mozzarella string cheese sticks in half.  Next, I pinched off the dough into pieces the size of my thumb, rolled each piece out flat and filled each with two slices of pepperoni (you could use turkey pepperoni, if you like) and half of the cheese stick.  I folded the rolled dough over the meat and cheese, rolled it, crimped it closed and folded the ends under.  I placed the rolls side by side in a greased square pan and covered them with waxed paper.  The pan was placed in a warm, draft-free area to rise.  Once the rolls had doubled in size, I baked them in a 350 degree oven until golden brown.  These turned out flaky and delicious.  It is Sunday and they are all gone!

You'll need:
1 loaf of Rhodes frozen bread dough-thawed
1 package of regular or turkey pepperoni
1 package of mozzarella string cheese sticks, cut in half
Cooking spray
Square baking pan