Weekly Recipes: Brazilian Black Bean Stew and Baby Food

Yesterday, we had a fantastic and easy slow cooker brazilian black bean stew.  I made it up based on multiple recipes but here's the idea:

Ingredients:

Two cans of black beans, with water

.75 lb Italian Sausage (ground is best, but I suppose you could slice up a kielbasa if you wanted)

Hot salsa of your choosing (I used safeway's deli brand)

sweet potato cut up into small chunks

Mango slices (Del Monte does all the hard stuff for you)

Cilantro (chopped)

Directions:

Take all ingredients except mango and cilantro.  Put into slow cooker on high.  Make sure there is enough water to just cover the ingredients -- if not, add water by filling up one black bean can.  Cook on high for 3-4 hours, or until sausage is not pink inside.  Plate with mango slices on top and chopped cilantro.  Yum!

Baby Pasta with sweet potato chunks:

Note: I used sweet potato chunks from the stew above.  One key to baby food prep is identifying baby food components in your regular meals, and putting aside those components.  Slow cooker made the sweet potato soft, so I didn't have to individually steam/bake the sweet potato.

Ingredients:

one handful chunks of baked sweet potato (soft according to baby palate)

two handfuls Baby Farfalle Pasta (bow-tie, but you could use macaroni as well)

dab of butter

dab cream cheese

two tablespoonse shredded cheese

Cook the farfalle to instructions while you find the rest of the ingredients.  Drain the pasta and put into a medium sized bowl.  Throw in your butter, cream cheese, and shredded cheese while it is still warm and stir.  It should form into a cheese sauce.  Throw in your potato chunks so they get cheesy too.  Yum!

For Breakfast:  Apple, banana, strawberry, mango smoothie

Note:  Again, used the sliced mangos from the meal above.  The rest of the ingredients we had on hand.  Use less cider than you think you need; mangos hold a lot of water.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup apple cider

two bananas

two strawberries

four slices of mango

squirt of lemon

This one's easy.  Spin with your immersion blender, add apple cider to your desired consistency. To freeze, scoop into ice cream trays and place in freezer.  Transfer into ziplocs once solid.