Steamed Bread With Molasses Sweetened Red Bean Paste Filling

Anthony and I ate a variety of steamed breads this past summer in Nanjing, China. Red bean was Anthony's favorite flavor. This evening I created my own recipe for steamed bread with red bean paste filling. 

I just used the dough setting on my bread machine to make the dough. Feel free to refer to some of my other posts about steamed breads for more info about making them: Vegetable Filled Steamed Bread, Chinese Dumplings And Baozi, and Anthony's Favorite Chinese Food: Baozi!

For my filling, I drained and mashed a can of red beans. I added granulated sugar and then molasses. The molasses improved the color, texture, and taste of my filling. Not to mention, it was fun to throw in an American southern ingredient.

Steamed Bread With Molasses Sweetened Red Bean Paste Filling:

1 cup Water

2 3/4 cups Self-Rising Flour

1 can of Red Beans

2 1/2 Tb Granulated Sugar

2 1/2 Tb Molasses

Pasta With Creamy Sweet Potato Sauce

This is a very quick and easy supper to throw together. Just boil your pasta while your sauce is simmering on the stove. Strain your pasta. Add it and the room temperature sweet peas to your sauce. Stir and serve!

Pasta With Creamy Sweet Potato Sauce:

2/3 Box of Vegetable Rotini

Leftover Savory Sweet Potato Soup

1 1/3 Cans of Sweet Peas

(On a side note, I had to open a second can of sweet peas because I ate 2/3 of the first can while I was cooking my pasta and sauce!)

Succotash Pie

I made succotash pie and side salads for dinner. Upon tasting the pie I knew it had to be too good to be low-fat. I immediately arose from the table to check the refrigerated pie crust box label. Yep, it had more fat than the Ranch salad dressing Anthony was using on his salad. I decided to save half of my portion of the pie for tomorrow so that I did not eat too much saturated fat in one sitting.

I questioned Anthony as to what he thought of the meal. I thought the pie was amazing and I loved the crunchy romaine lettuce. It was quite edible even without salad dressing. To my pleasant surprise, Anthony said that he does not usually like succotash but that it was pretty good tucked inside the pie pastry. I began to lightly chide him saying that he was a southerner, how could he not like succotash? I said my Gramma liked to make succotash and would put sausage in it. He said his Mom had made it too.

Succotash Pie:

1 Pie Crust

1 can of Succotash

Sweet Potato Chili

I just love using my own homemade processed ingredients! Today I incorporated half of a bowl of leftover homemade sweet potato soup from last night into a delicious vegetarian chili for my lunch! I liked the outcome of my sweet potato chili even more than my savory sweet potato soup.

Sweet Potato Chili:

1 cup Savory Sweet Potato Soup

1/2 can of Red Kidney Beans

1/2 Onion

Salt

Cayenne Pepper

Thyme

Savory Sweet Potato Soup

I wanted to make something with the sweet potatoes in the bottom drawer of my fridge. First, I thought of making a soup out of sweet potatoes and succotash. My second thought was instead making a soup with sweet potatoes and red kidney beans. The latter seemed preferable since it would lend itself to being more savory than the former which with corn would be pretty sweet. I began making my soup but ran out of room for the beans when I poured a third of a gallon of spoiled milk in the recipe. The soup was great for something new and different.

First, I peeled the ginger and onion and put them through the juicer. Next, my dear husband gave me a hand chopping the sweet potatoes. They are a little difficult to manhandle. Then those choppings also went into the juicer.

Juicing the sweet potato proved slightly eventful. The machine balked at one particular chunk of sweet potato so I ran it back and forth a couple times to unclog the machine (the helpful advice of my husband). I poured both the juice and the pulp into a pan and then added milk. Upon cleaning our juicer while the soup cooked I found a thick 1 in. x 1 1/2 in. sized piece of sweet potato still whole.

While I was shooting photos of the pot of soup cooking on the stove, a volcano began forming in the pot. I quickly grabbed the pot, put it on the back burner then turned down the heat. Not a drop of soup was lost in the incident.

The overall flavor of this sweet potato soup was not unlike some curries I've had at a Thai restaurant, pretty, sweet, and savory. The fresh ginger and onion in the soup were so overwhelming in a good way that I hardly needed salt and pepper. Upon adding these two however, this soup did become even more savory. We crumbled toast on top for texture and balance. 

Because of the smashing success of my flavor combination, I can't wait to use the leftovers from this meal! I might try making a chicken sweet potato curry with the rest of the soup, and then put that over rice. 

Savory Sweet Potato Soup:

2 Sweet Potatoes

1 Onion

1 Piece of Ginger

Water

1/3 a Gallon of Milk

Half Veggie Half Pepperoni

I wanted to make my half of the pizza with no saturated fat. I did. I also decided to leave out some other things. Guess what. I made dough with no oil, no sugar, and no salt. Don't try this at home. What I had on my hands was just shy of tacky glue. It was all over my bread machine canister too. I did put some Italian herbs in my dough for a flavor factor. A little salt wouldn't have hurt the recipe.

On to toppings. I used leftover sauce I had from the other day. Then, I put mozzarella and pepperoni on Anthony's half. On my side, I put yellow squash, onion, and mini peppers all of which I had artfully sliced.

My half was so amazing I did not even miss the cheese! My veggie half quickly rose to all-star status in my experience with veggie pizzas. Gonna try this one again.

Dark Chocolate Grits

I had leftover chocolate sauce that I had made the other day. I was trying to think of what I could do with it. Chocolate grits! Why not? The recipe was delicious. Powerful but good. I'm saving half for tomorrow.

Ingredients:

Leftover Shari's Dark Super Secret Citrus Chocolate Sauce

1 cup Water

2 small handfuls of Grits

Healthy Protein

I made a wholesome lunch today of brown rice and black-eyed peas. Rather tasty. I wouldn't mind eating it again. 

Apple Lime Gingerbread

We had a mid-afternoon meal today. It included soup and apple lime gingerbread. I added the leftover pulp I had from juicing yesterday to my gingerbread recipe. We loved this gingerbread with fresh apple, lime, kiwi, and ginger fibers in it! I used the gingerbread recipe from my Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook Celebrating The Promise Limited Edition. I think every kitchen should have such a reference tool. I got this big thick book when I was living on my own. I had frequently given similar large books to friends and family as wedding gifts. It's the gift that doesn't stop giving. Timeless. A kitchen dictionary.