Tuscan Bean Soup

I saw this recipe on the Pioneer Woman's blog when I was on my cleanse, and I decide to adapt it to fit with what I was eating, so here is my version of her soup. I will have to try it the way she makes it now that I am no longer on my cleanse. Here is the link to her version: Tuscan Bean Soup with Shrimp.

Start with some coconut oil in a pan on medium heat. Add in one medium sized onion, diced, and about 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced. Let this cook for a little bit.


Then add in a small can of tomato paste and stir around. Also add in some cayenne pepper, chili powder, dried basil, and dried oregano (which I did not have on hand sadly). Allow this to cook for a little bit.


Add in 6 3/4 cups water (or vegetable broth whichever you prefer), 1 large can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes, and 3 cans Great Northern Beans. Simmer, stirring occasionally.


Add in an entire bunch of kale that you have washed and torn up. Yes, it looks intimidating, but it will shrink as it cooks.


Then add in a bunch of fresh basil that you have also torn up.


Allow to cook so the flavors can combine. This soup is excellent reheat as leftovers because it gives the flavors more time to mingle and get to know each other and achieve a perfect balance.



Absolutely delicious and a nice, hearty winter soup.

Veggie Chili

You know how much I love good food that is good for you. . .well, I decided a couple months ago to do a cleanse/detox for four weeks this month. No this has nothing to do with a New Year's Resolution (I don't believe in making them) nor does it have to do with a desire to lose weight (I like my curves, thank you very much). What this does have to do with is a great desire to be healthy and treat my body well because I only get one and this one is on loan to me from God. So I've been feeling a bit sluggish, and I thought that this would be good for me. I did something similar to this about three years ago, and I loved how I felt when I finished.

Basically, I'm just eating a lot of fruits and veggies, some whole grains, nuts, seeds, and beans. Just easy to digest foods, so my body doesn't have to work as hard and can get rid of the extra junk in my tissue. It's actually quite easy to cook foods to go along with this, and I've been enjoying some old favorites as well as trying some new recipes to go along with it. I made this last night for dinner, and it was delicious!!


Start with about a tablespoon of coconut oil and add in a couple of cloves of minced garlic and a medium sized diced onion. Let cook for just a moment and add in about 3 stalks of sliced celery. Continue cooking over medium low heat until onions are slightly translucent.


Add in a large can of chunky tomato sauce and a large can of diced tomatoes. I think my diced tomatoes had garlic in them as well. Stir and allow to simmer.


Add in one can each: black beans, great northern beans, kidney beans and pinto beans. Stir and season with chili powder, garlic salt, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, fresh grated nutmeg, basil, turmeric, and pepper.


Allow to simmer until heated through and if you can let it simmer for a while to allow the flavors to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings to taste. I like my chili a little spicier, so I add extra chili powder and cayenne pepper to just my bowl.


You can serve this with fresh sliced avocado on top. You could also add diced red bell pepper and zucchini to this recipe and it would be good as well. Super delicious and super nutritious. Enjoy!!

chili for chilly weather

The weather hasn't been very spring like the last couple of days, so today I made chili. Yum! This is how I make chili. . .

Start with about half an onion diced up and a clove of garlic and some olive oil in a pan. This time I added some celery and mushrooms because I had some on hand. You can also add Worcestershire sauce if you want (I happen to be out right now so I didn't).


Add seasonings. I like to season twice. Once when the base ingredients are cooking and once when all the ingredients are in the pan. I feel like it gives the dish a nice depth of flavor (but that could just be me, feel free to season however you want to).


Then add a pound of ground beef. You can also use deer or elk meat here for a slightly different flavor. The benefit of wild game meat is that it generally is much leaner than beef, but then again, we have lean beef, so it's whatever you like.


While the beef is browning, place three tomatoes in a pan of water on high. I use roma tomatoes because I like the flavor and the low acidity of them. This is just to blanch the tomatoes so that you can remove the skins easily. You don't want to overcook them or they will turn to mush.


Once the skins on the tomatoes have split, remove them from the heat and bathing them in cool water remove the skins. Chop them up and add to the meat mixture.


Then add one can each, tomato sauce, black beans and red beans. Give it a good stir.


Add the second set of seasonings, and check the flavor. I usually add a little more chili powder and cayenne pepper because I like a little spice. Depending on how spicy you want your chili you can add more or less of both these spices.


And there you have it. I like to let it sit and simmer for a little while so all the flavors mingle nicely, but this is also a great leftovers dish because the more it sits, the better the flavor gets (until it goes bad, then it's just no good).

why the oscars were invented

I'm not entirely sure why the Oscars came to be, but I do know why I think they did. I think the Oscars were invented so that my friends and I would have a great excuse to get dressed up and throw a party. I didn't do the best about taking pictures of everything I made, but I did try. . .I will hopefully get better about that as this project continues.

The first thing I made were tiny chocolate cakes. My roommate has this fantastic mold for tiny cakes, so we thought we would try using it. I made chocolate cake to use in the molds, and the cake turned out well. I adjusted it a bit to accommodate my roomie, but sometimes you just can't win all fights. One of the things that my roommate is allergic to is chocolate, so these cakes were already against the rules, but I was going to try to make them as good as possible.

I started with a favorite chocolate cake recipe: Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake. Yum. I did a half batch because the full batch makes enough for two 9" layers and I just needed enough for a pan of baby cakes. I went ahead and used unbleached all-purpose flour, but I chose not to use eggs. Instead I used applesauce and a tiny bit more baking soda than the recipe called for. I also added a touch of coconut rum, Kahlua, cinnamon and nutmeg.



The cakes turned out well with the ultimate verdict being that they were okay for my roommate. She is allergic to wheat and chocolate but those were the only things she was allergic to in these cakes. I also liked the cake without the eggs. I might have to try that when I make this as a cake again.


I love all things British, in case you don't know that about me. I especially love the tradition of afternoon tea. Taking a bit of a break in the afternoon to just have a cuppa and enjoy life for a moment. So, yes, I took a it of a tea break in the middle of my cooking.

Okay, moving on. . .I also made a beef and bean dip to eat with tortilla chips. I didn't have a recipe, so I just kind of made it up as I went. I started with half of a yellow onion diced up (I used the other half for guacamole), a clove of garlic diced, and some olive oil in a pan over medium low heat. I like to let these cook for just a little bit before adding the beef.


Let's talk about seasoning for a minute. I love using seasonings. Almost every time I cook, I use nearly every spice in my cupboard. I'm not even kidding you. I added all of these to my onion and garlic mixture. One of my pet peeves about American cooking is that we don't use spices enough. There is so much salt and sugar in everything we eat that we don't taste our food enough to know if there is seasoning in it. If you cut the sugar and salt out of most American food, there is no flavor. I love flavor. I love seasonings. Amen.


Then I added the beef and browned it. Just a side note, this is one of the first things that I learned to do in the kitchen. I have been browning beef for most of my life. It's kind of like second nature to me at this point.


After I drained the grease off, I added one can of black beans and part of a can of tomato sauce. Make sure you check the seasonings at this point. If you need more of anything add it. I usually do another round of all the spices and taste it to make sure I like the flavor. Then I let it simmer for just a bit so that it thickens a bit.


I put it in an oven proof bowl and covered the top with cheese. Let's be honest, can you really get too much cheese? Load it up! I then put it in the fridge and about 15 minutes before I put it out, I put it in a 350* oven until the cheese was melted. I then flipped the broiler on high and let the cheese get brown and bubbly.


The party was a success, and I was happy to have an excuse to cook for my friends and savor their presence in my home. So fun!