Slow cooker black bean soup

Now that its officially Fall, I think the weather has made up its mind and brought the chill for good. Wish I would have gotten that memo when I decided to wear a dress today with sandals sans tights. Brr! Hopefully it will warm up a teensy bit by lunch time. But now that the weather is finally requiring those fashionable neck scarves and sexy blazers, I thought I would dust off the old crock pot for some good, hearty, and steaming hot soup. Without much time to shop, I pretty much just decided to clear out the pantry and make a soup of whatever I had on hand.

Those are my favorite!

I decided to make a black bean soup with rustic chunks of carrots and turkey bacon for some smoky flavors.

Ingredients:

1 lb turkey bacon (cut into bite size pieces)

1 medium red onion (chopped)

2 carrots (peeled and rough chopped)

1lb dry black beans (rinsed)

5 cups of water

1 T salt (more or less according to your preference)

I started by cooking up the turkey bacon to get it crisp. ( I would later learn this was a dumb move on my part. Next time I will be mincing the bacon and then cooking it before adding it to the soup, or just adding it after- but it adds such a delightful smokiness to the soup that I dont want to omit it.)

When it was browned and crisped to my liking, I added it to my 6 qt slow cooker- drippings and all. YUM! (you say FAT, i say FLAVOR)

To the crockpot, i added the carrots,

The very fragrant red onions,

the beans, and all the water. I covered it and let it cook on high for 4 hours (or on low for 8). I checked in on it every so often to make sure it was seasoned to my liking. Thats when i added the salt. Personally, i like salt so if you like a milder soup, you might not even need the salt at all!

My roommate and I could not wait to dig into this hearty and comforting soup! We noticed that the turkey bacon turned black cooking with the beans for so long- the flavor was great but black bacon is not that attractive. By itself, the soup is great but to really make it amazing add this garnish:

Garnish

1/2   small red onion (finely chopped)

1 bunch of fresh cilantro (cleaned and roughly chopped)

Non Fat Plain Greek Yogurt

We sprinkled the garnish liberally on the soup. The cold freshly chopped onions gave it a fresh burst of flavor and the addition of cilantro really tied this all together. Such an easy meal to put together on a lazy sunday!

Chicken and White bean Stuffed Peppers

Hiya Kiddos!

Just want to take a moment to wish a congratulations to the 5 winners of the crackers giveaway! You will have received an email from me. Please pardon my lateness. I am blogging from my phone today so please excuse the lack of names.

I have had quite the weekend! I met up with some Yelpers for beer and sausage then went to Long Island where I was tricked into driving.. for those that dont know- i am a 27 year old non-driver. I got into the car and courtney pulled into a parking lot and told me i was going to drive. I drove in circles with complete confidence and then got tricked into driving to her house. I did so and managed to do it safely. I only confused the gas and brake pedals twice.

Before i went to Long Island, I placed an order with fresh direct on some peppers. They were on sale. And I was thinking stuffed peppers for sure. The peppers were about $1 per lb and i ordered 5 peppers…. when the delivery arrived there was a note on the receipt saying there was a price adjustment on the peppers… which were so huge they cost me $15. Gee-sus!

Look at these HUGE Ass Peppers!

Ingredients:

5 bell peppers split in half, core and seeds removed

1 tsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 lb chicken breast

15 oz of canellini beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup of brown rice, cooked

1/2 cup cheddar cheese (+ 1/2 cup for the topping)

salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat the oven 400*. Arrange the peppers in a baking dish. I began by sauteeing the onions in olive oil over a medium flame. When they were translucent (after 7 minutes or so), i transferred them to a dish and added the chicken breast to the already hot pan. I pan-fried the chicken breasts over medium for about 6 minutes per side. When it was done, i chopped it up into bite size pieces.

I returned the cooked onions, chicken, beans, rice, and cheese to the pan and tossed to heat through. Seasoned with salt and pepper according to my preference.

Then, filled up the peppers with the yummy filling. The peppers were on the large side, so i was lucky to have enough filling for them. If you’re peppers are on the large side, you can always add more veggies or rice to the filling.

Sprinkle liberally with cheese. yum. I added a bit of water to the pan and covered it with foil for some steam action. I cooked on 400* for 35 minutes.

Behold. Rice, beans, and chicken in a huge and fresh bell pepper. This was awesome. You can even freeze them (but note that the pepper will be softer when you defrost and reheat) and makes a great lunch or dinner (2 halves for dinner in my house LOL)

I love how versatile stuffed peppers are!

What do you stuff into your peppers?? (or would like to?)

Special French Toast

I woke up rather abruptly this morning. I was under the covers, surrounded by pillows and a fluffy pooh bear but it was particularly icy in my bedroom. I remember before going to bed last night that I was blogging with a hoodie and some glovens on because we still had No HEAT and I washed dishes with COLD water. Brr. Yeah sometime in the middle of the night the heat stopped. So I decided instead of being lazy, I would get up and do my Leslie Sansone’s Walk Away The Pounds DVD to warm my body up. It worked. And I really. Needed. A. Shower. So I walk over to the bathroom and turned on the shower. The water was BROWN last night so I skipped last nights shower hoping this mornings would be good to go. It wasn’t brown but there was no sign of FIRE in the water. It was ICY! I just worked out! I needed a shower! I took deep breaths and took a “Bird Bath”; essentially i just washed certain parts of my body and prayed not to get frost bite in my special places… I didn’t even attempt to wash my hair fearing frozen locks of hair two days in a row! So I put it in a sorry ass pony tail and went to work. My coworkers saw the hair and threw their travel sized toiletries my way and I washed my hair in the sink at work. At least one part of me is really clean.

Onto todays Business.

I prep better for the next day after I have eaten dinner, however, last nights errands kept me out till 8. I was starving when I got home so I helped myself to some cereal and prepped while I ate.

Special K with Chocolate Flakes is my WEAKNESS. When mom goes to Delaware she buys me about 5 or 6 boxes at a time (because its like $2.50 a box!)
I used my big bowl (that’s often found in the ROOMMATES room – Yes Peter, YOUR Room with MY bowl! j k)

Someone gave this to me with the hope I would drink COFFEE out of it… Yah Right, this sucka holds 5 cups of liquid. Are you friggin kiddin me?

While Munching away I started breakfast. While at work I was killing time and read Missy’s blog from Day 1 of her entries. I got some ideas and even re-vamped my shopping list for this week!
I decided that I was going to make French Toast and use Baked Apples as my topping.

How to: Core and Peel and Apple (i left the skin on mine) and slice into small pieces. Sprinkle with cinnamon, brown sugar (i used splenda brown sugar) and some spray butter. I microwaved it for 3 minutes and 30 seconds. This gave the apartment an Apple Pie smell!!!

French Toast time!
I wanted French toast but I wanted to fancy it up a bit. So instead of milk and an egg I used Fat Free French Vanilla Coffee Creamer and an egg white.

I dredged 3 slices of bread in the egg white creamer mix
and placed the slices on a nonstick pan over medium.

Then I sprinkled one side of the bread with Pumpkin Pie Spice.
Give ’em a flip.

One spritz of this butter is 5 calories. I gave it a spritz and needed to test out my new recipe.
Success!!! It went REALLY well with the baked apples! Missy thanks for the inspiration!
Lunch was inspired by Kathy from KathEats. She always makes the most amazing meals and sometimes they are from the simplest of ingredients. Reading her blog keeps me focused on the notion that as long as you eat right, you will eat well!

I took some of the crumbles from the Meatloaf project yeseterday and topped them onto some leafy romaine lettuce. I added a dollop of Roasted Red Pepper Hummus, a few carrot sticks and some italian green beans. Its kind of a Junk Salad. And for dressing.. oh, you’re gonna love this… SALSA! with a sprinkling of pepper jack cheese. (i considered the Salsa con Queso leftover from Superbowl Sunday but the fat content is super high! and whats the point of salad if its LOADED with Fat?)
Mexican Meatloaf became Mexican Junk Salad LOL.

No Idea what Im having for dinner. None what so ever!

Mexican Meatloaf

When the alarm went off this morning, I did not want to get up. My sheets were warm and soft. My body was exhausted and I was in the middle of an excellent dream. If it weren’t for the fact that I NEED my annual days for a getaway in March or the fact that I have two paid days off next week I would have stayed my ass in bed. When I left my house (in a rush becuase I just HAD to snooze one more time) my hair was sopping wet and I left my windo open about a foot ( regretting that now). In the elevator on the way down, I read a note that said today there will be NO HEAT or WATER. How lovely! Then when i got to the train station felt my hair had frozen… its okay now though. But i also see that its going to be a lovely 10 degrees when i get home tonight (and probably a negative something INSIDE my apartment!) I will most likely spend the night at Moms house or the boyfriends house.

I packed the last of my PB Pancakes for brekkie.

And really enjoyed my tofu with broc yesterday that I made it again for lunch today.

For dinner last night I decided to make a Taco Meatloaf but when I saw the one pound of turkey ground laughing at me, I thought of adding a “filler”. When I opened my cabinets, I found a can of refried beans. So Taco meatloaf became a Mexican meatloaf.

I started with my ground turkey and dumped it into a mixing bowl with 1 egg and 1 red onion.

I seasoned it with Onion Powder, Garlic powder, salt, pepper, chili powder and Taco Seasoning.

It smelled yummy. And added the refried beans really gave it volume! It doubled in size!

I put this in the oven for one hour at 375.

When it was done it was a slightly browned.

Sides. I decided to make a packet of Annies White Cheddar mac and Cheese in the mircowave to go with my meatloaf and some Italian Green Beans.

When I sliced the meatloaf, it didnt hold its shape very well. It sort of crumbled a bit. However, the taste is very very good! (prior to baking the meatloaf I grilled a portion to see if it tasted good and it will be a future BURGER recipe! It held up really nice and gave me and idea for a veggie burger too!)

Ah, so since it crumbled I dumped it into my mac and cheese.

and mixed it all up!

Probably having the meat “crumbles” for dinner tonight with Roasted Russet potatoes.

When I say Black Bean you say Brownie

After dinner last night I was craving a dessert of any kind. I tend not to keep sweets in the house because I have no willpower. And if I do have sweets, they are not prepared; by the time I’m done baking the craving will have subsided…which brings me to this post. While perusing my friend Carol’s website I came across a recipe for brownies using nothing but cake mix, black beans, and water (which I beleive is a Weight Watchers Recipe). Three things that I have in my cupboard.

I figured I had nothing to lose. If I liked this recipe, i will have found a healthy Brownie Option. If not, I will have taught you all that black beans are not mean for sweets… We’ll see.

Rinse and drain your black beans and set in a bowl. Mash the beans. I used my fist. It was a great vent to all my chocolate craving frustrations.

Next, i poured the contents of my cake mix into the mashed beans and added 1 and 1/4 cup of water. I used my Pro Hand Mixer and pulverized this thing till you couldn’t see the beans anymore.

I added a handful of walnuts and folded them into the mixture.

I poured the batter into a brownie pan and sprinkled some walnuts on top. I baked at 350 for 35 minutes.

And it was done.

You know, for being baked with black beans and water, the texture of this brownie is on point. However, in my opinion… it tastes like black beans in my brownies. Its not as sweet as a brownie- next time i might add some splenda. Or a spoon of PB. In fact, i might put a smear of PB on a piece and report back on it.

Thanks Carol. I think this is good for people who cant have a lot of sugar. But I believe in sweets to taste like sweets. So i will probably wait for my No Pudge Brownies to go on sale! MMM No Pudge! DROOOL!

Chili (round 2)

Its cold Outside, Have some Chili.

My cousin was coming to visit me with her newborn baby girl. Normally, the family makes something of Italian or Spansih fare but i was in the mood for something all-american.
(BY THE WAY THIS IS TOTALLY BEING RE-ENTERED AS HALF THIS ENTRY DISAPPEARED INTO CYBER SPACE!)
here is my recipe for chili which has been tweaked and altered and combined with several classics.
Ingredients:
1 lb of lean ground beef ( or turkey)
1 can of black beans (or kidney beans)
1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
3 grated carrots (sneaky veggie)
1/2 chopped red onion
1 minced clove of garlic
2 T. Onion Powder
1 T. Garlic Powder
3 T. Chili Powder
1 t. hot sauce
1 chili (in adobo sauce)
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 can of beer ( i used bud light)
Optional: sour cream, shredded cheese, scallions/chives

Directions:
In a large pot your high heat, saute onion and garlic with a t. of oil ( I use EVOO) saute till onions are clear. Add ground beef and break up into beef crumbles with a spoon to help it cook and get all “chili-like”. Add salt, pepper, bay leaf, onion powder, gardlic powder, chili powder, and hot sauce and taste. Adjust the seasoning as you see fit. I like my chili hot so i add a lil more hot sauce. Then add the crushed tomatoes, grated carrots, chili, beer and beans. Let this lovely mess simmer on low for 30-45 minutes. Feel free to tweak the tastes. (A lot of people add cumin to their chili but its not my thing. )

Carrots in chili….Sneaky sneaky… so what. You cant even taste them but I like a lil veg here and there.

this is it! Cooked and smelling oh so smoky! NOM!

I served my chili with White rice, a dollop of sour cream, chopped scallions and a sprinkle of shredded cheddar. You can serve it on a baked potato, with a slice of bread or by itself.

This big pot served me (3x), Nichole (2x), Henry (3x), Bro (2x), Mom (1x)- so 10-12 people! yay!

*Tip: Leftover chili tastes great on top of mac and cheese! it freezes well, and a spponfull of chili on some eggs makes for a spicy spin on your brekkie. yummy! Got any other chili ideas?

Food at Work

Happy Christmas Eve!

As previously posted, I baked some pumpkin bread for the co-workers. I snagged a piece before it was gobbled up… rightfully so- there were nothing but crumbs left after an hour!

The bread was light, fluffy, moist, and Delicious! It went very well with my triple grande skinny cinnamon dolce latte.

Someone brought in Bagels ans Bialys and I might have had half a bagel with scallion cream cheese… I might. But since there is no picture – it doesn’t count.

Lunch!

Arroz Blanco con frijoles y chuleta con salsa picante.

White rice with black beans a grilled pork chop. You might be thinking “Hmmm, this looks a lot like what she ate yesterday”. And you know what? You’re right! (Boo-ya!) But today I have the green sauce which makes this dish taste better than ever! And on that note, sauce or no sauce – its good enough to eat two days in a row! SO there.

Stay tuned for Christmas Eve Extravaganza at the MoDiva Household!

Oh and below is my cutie pie, Geramiah, Rose’s son. Geramiah is modeling the fireman rain coat and boots Auntie MoDiva bought him for Christmas. Hes Happy its Raining Today.

Tuesday is for Commuters

Good Tuesday to you. Since Friday, the world as I know it has been covered in a blanket of ice. People who neglected to shovel on Friday now have the joy of walking with caution becuase there are sheets of ice everywhere. I had the pleasure of watching someone (probably with 2 wheel drive) try to park his car on a downward slope for nearly 20 mins. It was very scary…

My secret santa (Hi Laura) left me a surprise in the mail last night, and it was too late to go to the post office. I woke up early to get there by the time it opened, 8:30 according to the internet. However, upon my arrival i was surprised to see that damn thing was not open for another hour. I was going to be late to work. CRAP. To make matters worse, the lovely snow that fell over the weekend has turned into lovely ICE and created train delays all around. I was one hour late to work today.

When i got to work I was disgruntled but I decided to let it go. Afterall, I did manage to get to work, late or not. I sat down to my hearty brekkie. Cheesy Grits and a tall coffee from the ‘bucks.

can you see my lovely TWILIGHT Desktop? I have no shame.

Once Brekkie was over, I got to my presents. Sofia, my coworker bought me a lovely gift box with honey roasted nuts and chocolate covered peanuts. I heart edible gifts! thanks Sofia!
Next to the lovely gift was yet another gift; from secret santa! Thanks darlin! I cant wait to read “Chasing Harry Winston”!

In the spirit of the holidays, I purchased a pound of Christmas Blend for my officemates to enjoy using my French Press, lovingly donated by my brother. (Hi chi chi!)

i was excited to eat this lunch today! leftovers from last night! They always seem to taste better the next day!

Below please find a pork chop, white rice, and black beans. If anyone wants the recipe please email me! This meal is a hispanic staple!

OK – You emailed me… Here is the RECIPE:

Ingredients:
1 can of black beans (sauce and all)
1 14 oz can of crushed or diced tomatoes
1 tbsp of Sofrito (found in frozen food aisle or homemade works too)
salt to taste (beans have salt in them with sauce)
pepper to taste
1 Tbsp onion powder
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp spanish Olives
1 yuca or potato (peeled) cut into large pieces.
1/4 cup water

Directions:
In your sauce pot heat a tsp of oil and add sofrito (its very fragrant and pleasant!) Cook for about a minute to heat spices up and add olives. Pour in beans and stir. Cook beans over med heat for 5 mintues and add diced tomatoes and water. throw in potatoes and add spices. cover and simmer on low for 30 mins stirring occasionally. Serve over white rice.