Saturday Info and Contest Info

Saturday I spent the whole day out, and that meant eating every meal but breakfast out. For breakfast we had strawberry buckwheat pancakes with strawberry guava syrup made here in Hawaii. I used the recipe for blueberry buckwheat pancakes from The Gluten-Free Vegan and instead of adding blueberries, I added fresh strawberry pieces. I cut the strawberries up pretty small so they would be distributed nicely throughout the pancakes.

On top of my pancakes I also added some tsubushian(sweet red bean paste) that I had leftover from the ichigo daifuku I made on Thursday night. Oh, I didn't post about those because they were a disaster in their appearance. They tasted quite nice, but the mochi became too cold by the time I could get the strawberries semi-coated in in the tsubushian and into the mochi to be wrapped. However, everyone ate their treats happily. Thank goodness a guest brought some more strawberries and some whipped cream for dessert.

Today I am posting about a contest that is being held over at $5 dinners. You could win a fifty dollar gift card to use at Home Depot. They are promoting the spring planting season, and are giving this away for people to start their own home gardens. I wish you all, and myself, luck in winning!

Cowboy Beans and Rice

Tonight I made the Cowboy Beans and Rice from $5 Dinners.

I accidentally added the corn and salsa to the dish, instead of making them into a side dish. The ingredients list included them, and being in a rushed mood I put everything into the pot. It wasn't until I got to a later step in the directions that I found my error. Oops.

The beans and rice turned into more of a goulash, which is fine by me. I think it was probably better that way. The beans and rice would have been extra bland on their own. I did find the overall dish pretty tasteless, and I put in 2 jalapeno peppers instead of the canned green chiles. I also used TVP instead of meat. The rice took longer, and a lot more water, to cook than the recipe stated it would. I blame the TVP for this issue.

However, I think the dish is a reasonably good one if you're money is stretched a little tight. I do have leftovers of it in the freezer, but it probably won't be the first thing I reach for from the freezer until I get some hot sauce.

I didn't get any photos, but I wouldn't say it was worth pulling out the iPhone for a snap shot anyway. It certainly wasn't as pretty as much enchiladas. I'm thinking I need to get another shot of them for posterity.