The Perfect Soup For Spring!

Spring is here and summer is near!  So many people believe that once it starts warming up outside that soup is off the menu.  In this house, we eat soup and chili all year long.  I've never understood why people find those to be seasonal meals.  I mean, every meal you eat is cooked hot and ready right? So why is soup any different?  So, despite all the spring/summer soup haters, I am posting my newest obsession: great northern bean and kale soup!  Actually, I am posting a 3 bean rendition of my great northern bean soup because I made it tonight for the week's lunches and I didn't have enough white beans, so I improvised and used 1/3 white beans or great northern beans, 1/3 pinto beans and 1/3 red kidney beans.  Needless to say, this is one healthy soup!  And I must say, this 3 bean version might actually trump the original recipe I came up with! 

Here are a few little health facts on beans for you all. 

Kidney beans and pinto beans are a very good source of cholesterol-lowering fiber, as are most other beans. In addition to lowering cholesterol, kidney beans and pinto beans high fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from rising too rapidly after a meal, making these beans an especially good choice for individuals with diabetes, insulin resistance or hypoglycemia.
People who have high intakes of legumes/beans are at 82% less risk for heart attack! (Beans, beans, good for the heart indeed! hehe)
1 cup of great northern beans supplies 21% of your required iron intake daily, 48% of your daily fiber, and 20% of your potassium.

These facts alone should convince you to make this soup!  Beans are also low in fat and high in protein!

Photo for convincing? Ok. :)

Yum Yum-Cook You Some!

 

As I have mentioned before, I cook a big pot of soup on Sunday night for lunch for Monday through Wednesday.  Then another pot on Wednesday night for Thursday and Friday.  Aaron takes some to work and Sophie and I eat it daily for our lunch as well. 

This is a great way to:

a.)always eat a healthy lunch

b.)save a ton of money on eating out while you are at work, and...

c.)your lunch is already prepared for the week, so you save yourself from worrying about one more detail in life-what to eat for lunch!

 

 

Okie doke, recipe time!

 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry great northern beans
• 1 cup dry pinto beans
• 1 cup dry kidney beans
• 1 tbsp. of salt
• 4 cloves of garlic

 

Cook all three types of beans and seasonings in one big pot for about 1.5-2 hours or until they are tender.  I always throw a few cloves of garlic in with my beans while they are cooking for flavor. 

 

Now, on the side in a sauté pan cook until tender:

 

• 1 bunch of kale
• 3 carrots sliced
• 1 onion sliced
• 1 cob of corn-I cut the kernels off and threw them in. You can also use a can, drained.
• 2 tomatoes cubed
• 1 tbsp. of garlic powder
• 1 tbsp. of onion powder

 

Once all these vegetables are tender and the beans are cooked through, drain the beans, but do NOT wash them.  Put all ingredients back into the pot you cooked your beans in, fill with 2-3 cups of water.  Add another tsp. or so of salt to your taste and 1 tsp. of pepper or to taste to season the soup broth.  Simmer on medium-low heat for 20 minutes just to marry all the vegetables in flavor. 

That's it! Easy as that. :)

 

 

 

Doesn't that look delicious?

Super healthy. Super easy. Inexpensive.  And so very yummy!

 

Now, I have made this soup several times with my homemade bone chicken broth as the base and personally, I recommend that the most if you have some chicken bone broth.  You can use some free range chicken broth from a carton if you prefer and I know the flavors will be great!

 

Please try this one folks!  I most definitely encourage you to follow my soup lunch train :)  This is an easy way to maintain a healthier lifestyle and stay on a cheaper food budget.

Enjoy!



Tonight's dinner + Strawberry Sundae = happy belly!

I was recently inspired by a blog I follow to create my own Strawberry Sundae for my readers.  In her recipe, she uses all different ingredients, except for the Strawberries.  I didn't have any of her ingredients in my pantry, so I created my own.  It was so good, I had to blog about it.

First, I want to share what we had for dinner.  I've posted about both separately in the past, but tonight I combined the two.  I won't include the recipe here, you'll have to look back in my archives for that :)  Tonight I combined my veggie burger and my zucchini cakes into one meal.  The zucchini cakes served as my bun, and the veggie burger, was well..the burger :)

Now, I will admit I had to remove the top "bun" in order to pick it up and eat it like a burger, but it wasn't as messy as it would appear to be. Even if it were, still try this meal.  It's great!


Now, for the Strawberry Sundae.

Yea. It's that good too.

Ingredients:

3 Frozen Strawberries
1 Frozen Banana
2 tbsp. of milk
1 tbsp. of peanut butter
1  tbsp. of agave nectar
1 regular ice cream cone-optional
1 high fiber brownie-optional

Method:

Throw the first 5 ingredients in your food processor and blend until it forms into an ice cream. Done.
I topped mine with half an ice cream cone and half a high fiber organic brownie(I had some on hand because it's one of the snacks I keep on hand for Sophie-they can be found at whole foods).



This little Strawberry Sundae was seriously better than ice cream. Yes, I am not crazy.  I am a huggggeeeee ice cream fan too.  But this baby will definitely cure the ice cream blues for those of you who are trying to eat a healthy diet.

As always, enjoy folks!! :)

"Fried" Zucchini Cakes

Whew! Life has been busy to say the least!  For those of you who know me, know that I am working for a local author doing her marketing, event coordinating... Well, we recently partnered with one another and are now creating a whole new business.  It will be a bit before we are launched, but this blog will play a big role in what we are doing.  We are starting a media company called New Family Living.  I am in the process of building this from the ground up.  It is requiring a lot of research on my end, a lot more than I anticipated.  But, it's a fun new adventure that is a life changer! :)  I am very blessed with the opportunities I have been given, so I am not complaining one tiny bit! I am busy, but blessed! So, with all that said, I apologize if I don't get my recipes up as frequent as I use to.  I still plan on posting one weekly for you all to enjoy!

Today's post is "fried" zucchini cakes!

I had dinner guests last week and made these for them and they loved them!  They've become one of our favorites too!  Super healthy, super easy, and a great way to incorporate a vegetable into any meal for those who aren't big vegetable eaters!

Yummy!

Ingredients:

• 2 medium zucchini squash (grated or shredded)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of oat flour
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 1 tsp. of salt
• 2 tsp. of garlic powder
• 2 tsp. of onion powder
• pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp. of good olive oil or sunflower oil to cook them in

Method:

Shred your zucchini.
Mix all ingredients together.
Heat your oil.
Take a good scoop of the mixture in your hand and form it into a patty.  They may feel like they won't stick together, but once you cook them, they will.  Just make sure you pat them together as solidly as you can.
Cook for about 5-7 minutes on each side on medium heat, or until golden brown.

That's it! Pretty darn easy!

 

 

I'm serious.. These things are so easy, and so delicious that you will be making them weekly!

Inexpensive, healthy, and filling!  Oh, and EASY!!

 

As always, I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did coming up with it.  Like I said before, we have these at least once a week now! :) 

Rice & Broccoli Cakes-My New Favorite Creation!

So, I usually blog on Mondays now that my life is so busy with several work projects, school work, being Sophie's mommy, being my husbands wife, being a maid for my home, and being a chef for my family. (I am very blessed, so I am not complaining one bit)  But when I tasted this creation that I made for our supper last night, I could not wait to get the word out to you guys! This recipe was created in a panic of sorts when I realized I didn't have any quinoa left for supper, or enough rice to split between the 3 of us.  I had 1/4 cup of rice for 3 people who love rice. (No pun intended since my last name is Rice-ha)

I mentioned a few blogs back about my husbands sudden food allergies.  We thought it was gluten, and it's not.  We then thought it was dairy, and we still aren't sure, but we do know now he had a reaction to apples. Yes apples! Crazy.  So, reason I say all that is, I didn't include any cheese in this recipe, but I am sure it would be delightful if you added some cheese in there and still a healthy recipe if you use some skim mozzarella.

Oh yea! Delicious looking right?? Well, the photo doesn't do any justice!  These little rice cakes are full of flavor and completely and crazy healthy for you!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of cooked rice (you could definitely use quinoa here too)
• 6 good sized broccoli florets chopped pretty fine
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup of oat flour(I didn't grind it down too fine, I left it pretty coarse)
• 1 tsp. of garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. of salt
• 1/4 tsp. of pepper

*Like I said, you could totally throw in 1/4 cup of mozzarella in here and it'd be great!

Method:

Cook your rice, and steam your broccoli.  I cooked my broccoli in the microwave in water for about 5 minutes.  Drain the water and squeeze as much water out of the broccoli as possible. 

Then either throw the broccoli in your processor or chop on your chopping board until pretty fine.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl.  Once mixed well, form into patties.

Throw some good oil in a pan, about 1-2 tbsp. (I recently splurged for some good Olive oil, but you can use sunflower too)

See, just enough to coat the bottom of the pan.  You don't want to "fry" these cakes. You just want enough oil to cook them in.  Place your patties in your shallow amount of oil and cook until brown on each side. (about 5 minutes each side-cook on medium heat)

As you see, this recipe makes 7 decent size rice cakes. 

 

 

I can't stress enough how good this recipe is! It was an accident too :) ha ha. Just needed to do something with the 1/4 cup of rice I had. :)

 

This is such an easy recipe to make too! I would rate it beginner level for sure.   

As always, thank you all for reading!! I hope you enjoy this one as much as we did! It will be in our menu at least once a week :)