Man Food: Episode One: Mini Bean Pies

I am interrupting my regular broadcasting of all things girly to bring you a hearty and easy "Man Dish". My Guy likes meat, potatoes and beans. Finding different ways to feed him meat, potatoes and beans is my mission in life. The best part about this recipe is it literally takes five minutes to prepare, nine minutes to cook and you will look like you have been slaving all day. Lets dig in!

What you will need:
2 muffin pans (or one large one)
1 can of eight biscuits. (what ever brand you love best)(regular size 
    biscuts not jumbo)
1 can of baking spray
1 can of black beans (or your favorite kind of beans)
   (For the black beans: The great part about making mini pies like  
    this is you can put what ever you want as filling. Here I am using
    black beans but I have filled them with tuna and cheese, crab    
    rangoon mix, shrimp and barbecue sauce. After sharing this with 
    my partner at work she immediately went home and filled it
    with taco mix, topped it with cheese and had awesome taco pies.
    I have put a layer of Nutella in the center and filled it with
    fruit. The only limit to this recipe is the limit of your  
    imagination.)
   1 cup of shredded cheese (your favorite kind of cheese) (also you
   can slice little chunks of cheese and lay them on top of the pies
   if you don't want to shred the cheese.)

Spray your muffin pans with the Baking Spray and set to the side. (HINT: always spray your pans with a light coat of baking spray when baking just about everything. Even if it says place on non-greased pan or your pan says it is non-stick.)

Preheat Oven to 350degrees.

Open your can of biscuits and separate along the pre-divided line into eight biscuits:

Take one biscuit and using a sharp knife (not a butter knife) cut the biscuit dough in half like this:

Divide all your biscuits like this. When your finished you should have sixteen biscuit halves. Placing a whole biscuit in the muffin pan and trying to fill it will not work properly. The dough will not cook consistent and it will overflow the sides once you add your filling. Plus this gives you more mini pies!

Place one of the halved biscuits in the bottom of one muffin section. Pull the edges of the dough up along the sides like you are making a pie. Try to get the dough as close to the top edge as possible without ripping the dough.

Once you have all your biscuit halves placed and fitted to the muffin pans it is time to fill them! If you are using black beans (or any beans) open the can of beans and drain the liquid. Spoon small amount of beans inside the mini pies. Do no over fill or the filling will leak of the top of your pies.

Top the mini bean pie with your favorite cheese and they are ready to place in the oven! (You can use Parmesan cheese/Velveeta cheese/shredded cheddar or what ever Chef likes!) If you can't have cheese just skip this step and they still taste amazing!

Place muffin pans in the oven and bake at 350degrees for about eight minutes. The biscuit dough will bake quicker because you cut them in half. After eight minutes check the biscuits to see how they have progressed. Baking time can vary depending on many things like which type of oven used or altitude of where you live. The first time you make them I would check every minute after eight minutes until the edges are nice and golden and the cheese is melted. When they appear ready pull out of the oven and let sit two minutes. Take a fork and run it along the edge of one pie to lift mini pie out of the muffin pan. Check to make sure it is cooked all the way through and ENJOY!!!

ready to be taken out of the oven

I hope you enjoy and remember you can fill these mini pies with anything your heart desires so get that apron on and get to baking up something yummy!