Three Bean Minestrone with Pesto

I realize I have been MIA from this blog for a long while, but this soup was too good not to document. This is truly a ‘meal soup’, especially when served with a simple prosciutto, baby arugula & provolone panini like we did. So, so good.

Herby Kale Soup with Chickpeas and Sausage

I am digging this recipe out of the archives because it’s one of my favorites and I make it all the time as soon as the weather dips a little. It’s super simple, hearty, and when served with some crusty garlic bread, makes a perfect meal.

13 Bean Soup with Chorizo (slow-cooker)

My slow cooker. I’m really starting to love that thing. Especially when it welcomes a pile of raw ingredients and, while I’m at work, turns it into something awesome. Something dinner worthy and that justifies a long-ass Monday. This soup is definitely going to be a stand-by, which is a good thing, because this makes a BIG batch. I plan on banking the remaining 8 servings in the freezer for a couple more effortless meals. Win win.

Mediterranean Rice Salad

This is a great summer dish to feed a crowd. Bring it to your next BBQ or potluck – people will love it!

Chicken Sausage and Kale Soup with Cannellini Beans

I would like to start this whole shebang by saying this type of dish is my favorite kind. One, it’s loosely inspired by a recipe, but really much more based on ingredients you already have in the fridge that you didn’t have a plan for. Two, it comes together in about 20 minutes. Three, it’s freaking delicious. And finally, it’s healthy! Made with flavorful andouille chicken sausage (Trader Joe’s), a bunch of chopped kale, and some other pantry staples, this is a weeknight winner.

Easy Fiesta Beans

This is the perfect bean side dish to go along with mexican food. Easy and delicious. Definitely going in the favorite file.

Middle-Eastern Spiced Beans (Fasoulia)

I love eating beans with eggs for breakfast, so now that the temps are dipping a little lower, I thought now would be a good time to make a big pot of these Middle Eastern-spiced beans to eat throughout the work week for breakfast. Topped with a fried egg, of course.

The recipe calls for kidney beans, but I used a mixture of kidney beans, chick peas, and black beans to use up what I had on hand.

Lentil Soup in August

It’s the end of August and I made the best veggie lentil soup for you. Actually, I made the best veggie lentil soup for you and ten of your friends. This recipe makes a TON of soup. I plan on eating it everyday for lunch this week and freezing the other half. I love Ina, but I did change the recipe a wee bit. I added some curry powder and chopped kale to the recipe to veg it up a bit – other than that, it’s pretty close to the original. And it’s awesome.

Three Bean Salad

This recipe jumped off the page of my latest Cooking Light mag and I will be making it a lot. We’ve been buying big bags of trimmed haricot verts from Costco and I always have these other ingredients on-hand. Side dish no-brainer.

Orange-Chipotle Black Beans

I love to serve beans alongside mexican (ish) fare, and this was a great find. This recipe comes from weight watchers and is yummy and easy! I did make a few changes to boost the flavor a bit.

Zucchini Pappardelle with Cannelini Garlic Sauce

It’s zucchini fest at my house this week. First the veg lasagna a few nights ago, now this pasta…not to mention the stuffed zucchini boats I’ve got made-ahead for tomorrow night. About this pasta dish: It is the best thing I’ve made/eaten in a long while. A huge pile of thinly sliced long zucchini ribbons mimic my favorite pasta – pappardelle – all wrapped up together in a garlicky and creamy (and healthy…) sauce. To die.

Black Bean and Quinoa Burgers

I realized yesterday that all of the meals I planned for this week were vegetarian – totally unintentionally. Well, not 100% unintentional, I suppose. I have been trying to eat less meat, especially since poultry has begun to ick me out. I even briefly considered doing a full-on 2-week vegan experiment for kicks, but, alas, cheese won out in that debate. My real goal for this week’s meal plan (a process on which I intend to do a separate post) was to cut the grocery budget a bit, and cutting meat is the best way to do that.

This black bean and quinoa burger appealed to me as soon as I saw it in its reincarnated form as quesadillas on foodgawker. I love the idea of “round 2” recipes, especially since I have less and less desire to spend an hour in the kitchen at the end of a long day.

We both really enjoyed the burgers, but since I didn’t change much about the recipe, I hesitate to post it here. BUT, then I remembered the original purpose of this blog for me – to document recipes that I would like to make again. These burgers definitely fit in that category. We served them on toasted english muffins (probably my favorite sandwich vehicle) with some cilantro-lime mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato. Avocado and sriracha would have been nice additions too.

Stewed Black Beans

I love beans. Breakfast, lunch or dinner – I would like a side of beans, please. One of my favorite simple breakfasts, in fact, is a dish of over-easy eggs with some black beans and spicy green salsa on the side. Yum. But that’s neither here nor there (even though these stewed beans are great with eggs the next day…as I had this morning). These quick stewed black beans are a perfect side dish to anything even remotely tex-mex flavored. I will be making these often.

Bacon & Egg Quesadillas

This breakfast was sooooo good — perfect for a day when I’m home sick with a little bit of a cold. The only good thing about feeling crappy and being home is that I get to make a slightly more involved breakfast than I would on a normal weekday. Since I bought a package of about 2,000 tortillas as Costco last week, I’ve been trying to come up with ways to use ’em up. Now, I’ve certainly made egg quesadillas before, and I’m usually less than impressed. I think it’s because they seem too wet or something — probably from the scrambled eggs. The over-easy egg is definitely the way to go! Throw in some cheese, bacon, and black beans — YUM. Combine this with the fact that Feds circa 1988 is on TV right now (one of my favorite movies ever!), I’m a happy, albeit sick, girl.

Warm French Lentil Salad

I’ve been craving lentils lately, which is extremely random. It all started with a purchase of prepared lentil soup from Trader Joe’s. I typically avoid prepared soups because of their horrible sodium content, but I had read some good things about this soup and decided to give it a go. It was de.lic.ious. And so good for you! Just that same week I saw a re-run of Barefoot Contessa making a warm lentil salad. I knew I was on it. Well, like two weeks later I was on it. And despite questions from the peanut gallery/brian, which included “what IS a lentil, anyway?” and “what the heck is in that pot?”, the dish was enjoyed by all. And, after reviewing some of the humble lentil’s fantastic nutritional info, we might just be making these on a regular basis.

Tuna and White Bean Salad

I’m always on the look out for healthy lunches that can be made with ingredients I always have. This salad is a perfect example — delicious!

Ina’s Chicken Chili

I definitely have a love/hate relationship with foodnetwork.com. First, the website is generally awful and it’s often impossible to actually locate a recipe you might have seen on any given show. They have a knack for naming them something totally different than that on the show itself. Am I right? Second, and I admit that this is largely my own fault, I am often convinced into changing the recipe from how it was originally written based on user comments. Which is kind of dumb, since I don’t know these people and virtually any person can write a comment. After reading lots of reviews that said this chili was super bland as written, and that many people tripled the spices, etc., etc., I caved and decided to double the spices and take it from there. Let’s just say I should have trusted Ina (who I love anyway), because it was way too spicy! I can only assume that those commenters have really old, weak spices because I think it would be very flavorful as written (and that’s how I’ll write it below, except for my addition of white beans, which I really liked).

Overall, the recipe is very tasty and light, but just be careful not to overcook the chicken during the roasting process as it will continue to cook in the stew.

Bean, Sausage, and Spinach Soup

I’m a big fan of a veggie (and usually sausage) filled soup — especially for a weekend lunch. Make a big batch on Saturday or Sunday and then have the leftovers in the fridge when you need a little snack or an impromptu lunch to bring to work. This soup is creamy and oh-so-healthy.

Spanish “Rice”

I’m trying to avoid carbohydrates for a while, and have been curious about some of the faux-cauliflower recipes out there. This faux-rice is kind of awesome! I mean, if someone fed you this blindfolded, you wouldn’t necessarily know it was rice, but it sure looks like it! And you can flavor it however you like. To go with my stuffed peppers tonight I wanted a mexican/spanish flavor, so I went with some onions, peppers, salsa, tomatoes, and taco seasoning. I will definitely be using this method again…probably this weekend to go along with beef and broccoli for the kids! Let’s see if the kids will buy it…that will be the true test. 🙂

Clean Eating Pulled Pork Chili Verde

I’m sure I join many people in starting the new year with healthy, real food after so much holiday junk. This chili is definitely different from the chilis I’ve made before, but it might be my new favorite. Essentially it’s a big bowl of delicious limey pulled pork with beans and it’s absolutely awesome. Serve it with a nice big salad and you’re good to go.