Black Bean Vegetable Soup

My sister-in-law got this from Allrecipes and I am in love with this soup. It is simple and healthy and has a great flavor. The recipe calls for canned beans. I like to make my own beans and freeze them for soups. They are firmer and less slimy and I can add my own spices. I have a new pressure cooker and have been cooking my beans in that and they are done in 30 minutes. So that is another option if you have a pressure cooker. We added lime, cilantro, a little plain yogurt, and tortilla strips to make it more like a tortilla soup.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 carrots, chopped
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
4 cups vegetable stock (I just use my chicken base from Costco)
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (8.75 ounce) can whole kernel corn
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes (I like crushed tomatoes instead)

1. In large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat; cook onion, garlic, and carrots, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until onion is softened. Add chili powder and cumin; cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add stock, 1 can of the beans, corn, and pepper; bring to boil.

2. Meanwhile, in food processor or blender, puree together tomatoes and remaining can of beans; add to pot. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until carrots are tender.

This tastes
164 calories, 3 grams fat per serving. I like to double this one too.

Mahi Mahi Fish Tacos

My camera is broken, and this is the last picture we were able to get out of the one my Sister in law graciously let us use before she needed it back. So this is dark, but you get the idea.

These were good and my kids liked them so I am sure we'll make them again soon.

I love fish tacos with cabbage. The cabbage makes everything crunchier. When we lived by the beach, our neighbor loved to go deep sea fishing, and hated seafood. So we were always feasting on Mahi Mahi and barracuda.

On our own little deep sea fishing excursion in Ensenada, we tried these yummy fish tacos at a taco shop. I love this with the lime and chili seasoning. I've really only found it at mexican food stores though or in mexico. It is really yummy on mangos too. Sounds weird, but it was my favorite thing to eat on the street in Mexico.

Here are the ingredients:

10 corn tortillas

5 mahi mahi steaks (these were about the size of my palm)

Lime and Chile seasoning (or lemon pepper would work fine too if you can't find the other)shredded cabbage--I try to shred this very fine

2 avocadoes mashed--salt to taste

lime wedges--1 for each taco

Pico de Gallo

Pico de Gallo:

3 tomatos diced

finely diced onions to taste

chopped cilantro
lime juice from 1-2 limes

Mix together and squeeze lime juice on top. You can add salt or garlic salt.

Optional:thin roasted salsa with plain yogurt (kinda has a sour cream flavor)

I used frozen fish filets, so I put them under a warm tap for a few minutes to thaw. Cut off the plastic, then rubbed lime and chili seasoning on both sides. I put these to cook on the indoor grill since it is freezing outside. They only take a few minutes to cook. I then cube the fish and set all the ingredients in bowls so each person can add what they like. I had six bowls: fish, avocado, pico de gallo, lime wedges, cabbage, roasted salsa mixed with plain yogurt.

Warm corn tortillas in a nonstick pan on the stove. Spread the tortilla with avocado, add the cabbage, fish, and pico de gallo, etc. I used the Ezekial Sprouted Corn tortillas that you find in the refrigerated section of the health food store. I like their texture, but regular ones work great too.
These are tasty! I think it has been too long since we've had this. You can use chicken in place of the fish, and for vegetarian, black beans work great.

Broccoli Garlic Pasta

Yeah, I know my titles are original!

This is another really easy one. It is one of my favorites, and came from my mom's friend that is Italian. I get my whole wheat spaghetti at Costco. This has tons of garlic in it, and I think that is why I like it so much.

1.5 lbs broccoli florets
1 pkg Whole Wheat Spaghetti
1 head of garlic
2T olive oil
Salt to taste

Steam the broccoli in 3 cups water until bright green. Remove the broccoli from the cooking water and set aside. Keep the bright green cooking water in the pot and add water as needed to cook spaghetti. Cook spaghetti until tender (mine is 11 minutes)
While spaghetti is cooking, dice garlic and add to 2T olive oil. Saute. Add garlic to broccoli and toss. Then as the spaghetti is done, toss broccoli mixture with spaghetti.

Easy Taco Salad

This is a vegetarian taco salad that is very fast. I like to do it buffet style so each of my kids can add what they like. It is super easy. I usually have some cooked rice on hand since we use the rice cooker a lot.

Basically, it is:
One can of kidney beans
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 can sliced black olives
grated cheese
cilantro
tomatoes
lettuce
avocados
shredded romaine lettuce

the dressing is just ranch with a bunch of cilantro, lime, and garlic blended in.

Beans 101

Beans are full of protein, fiber and antioxidants. And they are cheap! You can make 12 cups of heatlhy filling food for about $1--even cheaper when you buy in bulk. No wonder people around the world are eating legumes as a staple of their diet. So if you are trying to eat healthy, and not blow your budget, legumes are a really great resource.

I love black beans. I learned to appreciate them on my Mexican Adventures. So when I went away to college, and was donating plasma to buy groceries, I bought some, and tried cooking them. I soaked the beans all night. Then I cooked them all day. It was a pain. I don't like things that take all day to cook. Mostly because I don't think that far ahead when deciding what to have for dinner.

So I learned a quick way to cook black beans. It takes 1 hr 45 minutes from start to finish. Not bad. I make a big batch of black beans, and I freeze a bunch. Cheaper than the canned beans, and they are not slimy. Plus they have the yummy spices.

Generally, I don't measure anything when I cook beans. I just throw a bunch of beans in a bunch of water and I bring it all to a boil. But, I know that it drives some people crazy not to have exact measurements. So I measured yesterday.

1--4 cups of black beans, add water to cover the beans by about 4 inches (I like to have LOTS of water when I am cooking beans, because nothing stinks as bad as burned beans, except maybe burned broccoli.)

2--Bring to a boil, then boil for 15 minutes

3--Drain the water and rinse the beans. I do this because a friend told me it helps reduce gas. :)
Just an FYI, your body produces an enzyme to digest fiber, and when you start eating a lot more fiber, your body needs a little time to start producing that enzyme. So the result is gas. But it shouldn't take long for your body to adjust the enzyme production.

4--Add lots more water--I probably cover the beans by about 8 inches of water. Bring to a boil again. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer until beans are splitting, or as soft as you'd like. It took about an hour and 15 minutes for mine.

5--Drain the water--I leave some of the water. I drain to below the beanline though. If you want a bean soup, just drain less water out. Take one or two cups of beans out, blend it up in the blender, then put it back in the beans for a creamy texture.

6--Add:
1 T salt
2 T cumin
1 T ground chili powder

7--Then I mix it all up again, let it stand for about an hour until cool. Then I divide it into containers for freezing and eating.

4 cups dry beans makes about 12 cups cooked beans. 1 cup cooked beans contains 227 calories, 15 g fiber, 15 g protein, 1 g fat.

My kids LOVE beans. It is an especially easy finger food for young babies. We call Simone "beaner" cause she goes crazy when she sees them, and it is pretty cute to see her covered in them. Black beans are nice and soft and small enough not to be a choking hazard.

There are lots of different types of beans. Here are a few that I have experience withand keep on hand:

Adzuki beans are very small red beans, and they have a great antioxidant content. Adzuki beans are used a lot in Asia. If you've had bean dessert, it was probably made with Adzuki beans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azuki_bean
Black beans are also high in antioxidants. These are used a lot in Latin American Cuisine.
Kidney beans are a great finger food. My sister opens a can of them, rinses the beans of the slime, then puts them in a baggy and her dairy allergic son eats them as a snack. They are great on salads!
Mung beans are small green beans that are easy to sprout. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mung_bean
Pinto beans are common in mexican food and are what refried beans are generally made of. They are also used to make baked beans.
Great Northern beans are white beans and are delicious in soups and can be ground into flour to use as a thickener. I have a delicious cream of broccoli soup recipe with ground great northern beans.

Beans are also great for food storage. They last a long time. Costco has big bags of Pinto beans for about $12. 330 servings in those bags comes out to about 3.5 cents per cup. That is as cheap as it gets!

I love to put about a cup of beans in a bowl and add cheese, lettuce, tomato, avocado, cilantro, onion and lime. Hmm. Very quick and tasty. You can put them in burritos. Blend it into a dip or spread. Add beans to your quesadillas for more nutrition and fewer calories.

Fiesta Salad

This recipe is very simple, filling and low calorie. There are lots of variations too. You could substitute tomatoes for the peppers. Avocadoes would be wonderful too. I actually bought this salad at Real Foods Market the other day and went home to try it on my own because it was so tasty! I love bell peppers, and so do Miles and Monet, but Elise and Jared would have preferred it with tomatoes instead. The picture above is of the recipe doubled.

Here are the ingredients:

1 can of Kidney Beans

1 cup rice

1 cup corn

small amount of green onions

cilantro

2 bell peppers diced

Taco seasoning. I use the kind pictures that Vita Mix sells at Costco when they do their demonstrations. You could use regular taco seasoning.

Juice from 1 lime

This makes 5-6 1 cup servings.

Each serving is 127 calories, 5.5 grams protein, 6 grams of fiber and 0 g fat.