Crock Pot Spicy Beans and Turkey Sausage

I was looking for something healthy and came across this recipe.

Ingredients:
* 1lb turkey sausage (whole links or sliced)
* 1 can (16oz) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
* 1 can (15.5oz) great northern beans, rinsed and drained
* 1 can (15oz) black beans, rinses and drained
* 1.5 cups frozen corn
* 1.5 cups salsa
* 1 large green pepper, chopped
* 1 large onion, chopped
* .5 - 1 cup water
* 3 garlic cloves, minced
* 1 tsp ground cumin

Directions:
In a 5 qt. slow cooker, combine all ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or until meat is tender. Stir before serving.

When I make this again, I will add less water. I added the full cup and the spiciness was a little watered down. Also, I wouldn't be a wimp and use 'mild' salsa - I'd go for the spicy. We ended up sprinkling our full plates with Frank's hot sauce, which gave this dish a good kick. Overall, very healthy and full of protein! We also steamed up some brown rice and served this crock pot concoction over the rice. Delish!

Chocolate Chocolate Cake from Scratch!

Thou shalt never make a cake from a box again! It was my birthday this week, and I LOVE baking cakes, so I made myself a birthday cake. We were snowed in under 15" so I couldn't go to the grocery store to buy my usual Duncan Hines mix. I scoured the internet for a recipe encompassing all of the ingredients I already had in the house and found an AWESOME recipe for the cake and icing from Hershey's! I had Hershey cocoa in the house.

The cake turned out to be extremely moist and the icing was so chocolaty! It was worth the effort to bake this cake from scratch and I will be making this again ... and again ...

Cake Ingredients
# 2 cups sugar
# 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
# 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
# 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
# 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
# 1 teaspoon salt
# 2 eggs
# 1 cup milk
# 1/2 cup vegetable oil
# 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
# 1 cup boiling water

Cake Directions
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.

Frosting Ingredients
# 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
# 2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
# 3 cups powdered sugar
# 1/3 cup milk
# 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting Directions
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Slow Cookin' Meatloaf

We are about to get a huge snow storm, yielding 8-16" of snow, so I figured baking a meatloaf would be a good way to ensure we had plenty of food for the weekend. We used to make cold meat loaf sandwiches with my mom's meatloaf leftovers. Delicious!

I don't have my mom's recipe (although I don't think there is much mystery to meatloaf), but I found this one for the slow cooker and it turned out to be very delicious - mostly because of the tasty topping.

Ingredients:

* 2 beaten eggs
* 3/4 c. milk
* 2/3 c. seasoned bread crumbs
* 1 tsp salt
* 2 T. grated onions
* 1/2 tsp. ground sage
* 1 1/2 lb. ground meat (I used ground beef)

Sauce
* 1/4 C. Ketchup
* 2 T. brown sugar
* 1 tsp. dry mustard
* 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients for the loaf. It may seem a little 'soupy' at first, but the bread crumbs will soak and absorb the liquid. Put loaf in Crock-Pot on low 5-6 hours (Longer is OK.) Pour sauce over meat in the last 15 minutes on high. You can also double the recipe for more people or more leftovers!