Tonight's Dinner: Black Bean and Vegetable Soup

This is a pretty easy soup to throw together and you can always substitute the veggies and type of beans for what you have on hand.

Ingredients:
diced onion
1 cup carrot
1 red bell pepper
2 garlic cloves
1 can (14.5 oz) of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can  (14.5 oz) of diced tomatoes
2 cups diced peeled butternut squash (1/2 inch cubes)
2 zucchinis sliced and cut in half
2 cups water
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups greens- either spinach or chard. Tonight I had spinach and used that.

In a large soup pot or dutch oven heat up some olive oil and add: onions, carrots, bell pepper, and butternut squash and cook, stirring occasionally, until veggies begin to soften- about 5-7 minutes. Add garlic, zucchini and spices and salt. Stir and saute for about 1 minute more. Then add can of tomatoes and water. Bring to boil then reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally about  20 minutes. Add can of beans. Simmer an additional 10 minutes. Add the greens and cook until wilted/tender (time depends on the greens, spinach takes less time than chard).

Makes 4-6 servings.

Black Bean, Corn & Tomato Salad

This is more of Summer Dish with its refreshing flavors, but is also a nice dish to bring to a potluck or picnic. This recipe is one of Giada De Laurentiis with the enhancements made by Team Parr.

The recipe is divided into the Salad and the Dressing

Salad:

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 onion, diced

1 tablespoon sea salt

2 1/2 teaspoons of paprika or smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

4 ear corn, kernels removed

1 dried bay leaf (we've never used this)

3/4 cup broth (we use Vegetable Broth)

2 (15-ounce cans of black beans, rinsed and drained

2 tomatoes, chopped (we use Roma or Vine ripened

6 ounces jicama, peeled and diced into 1/4 inch pieces (about 1 cup)

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Dressing:

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons lime juice

3 tablespoons agave nectar or 2 tablespoons maple syrup

2 tablespoons lemon zest

2 tablespoons lime zest

1/4 cup EVOO

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Salad: In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the onion, salt, paprika, and cayenne pepper. Cook 6 to 8 minutes until soft. Add corn and bay leaf. Cook, stirring constantly, for two minutes. Add the broth and black beans. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 4 minutes. Add the tomatoes and jicama and stir until warmed through. Remove pan from heat.

Dressing: In a small ball, combine lemon juice, agave nectar, lime juice, lemon zest, and lime zest. Whisk in the olive oil until the mixture is smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Remove the bay leaf and put the salad in a serving bowl. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix well. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Garnish with cilantro and serve warm or at room temperature.

Creamy Herb Filling for Baked Potatoes

This was very easy and quite tasty. I'm not a big fan of sour cream, but I like to put toppings on my potatoes and this was the perfect substitute.


Ingredients:
1/2 cup of plain greek yogurt
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil


Fresh Herbs (This is what I used, but you can get creative here):
Chives
Cilantro


Mix all the ingredients together and there is your cream herb filling. I imagine this would be quite tasty in substitute of sour cream for Mexican food dishes as well.

This Week's Dinners

Ryan and I were talking the other day how we will make a great dinner then weeks or months later when we are go grocery shopping we forget what we have made in the past. So to change that I am going to start posting our weekly dinner menus.

1. Baked potatoes with creamy herb filling and shredded cheese with sides of sautéed broccoli and vegetarian chili.

2. Roasted vegetables and red quinoa with crusty kalamata bread crostini and garlic herb cheese spread.

3. Baked Whole Wheat Penne Pasta with spinach and tomatoes.

4. Indian Food with curry rice and garlic Naan.

Top 100 Foods

Top 100 Foods to Improve Your Productivity

Spicy Thai Crunch Salad

So Ryan and I had this great salad the other night at California Pizza Kitchen and we decided to replicate it at home, while spicy-ing it up some. The main ingredient is cabbage and yeah I know, doesn't seem that interesting and it smells a little, but did you know that cabbage is included in the top 100 foods? It falls under the category of Cancer & Long-term Illness Prevention. So eat up!

Here are the ingredients:

Cabbage- green and red, shredded
Cucumber (cubed)
Carrots (shredded)
Edamame
Green Onions (chopped white and green pieces)
Avocado
Wontons and/or Crispy Rice Noodles
Peanuts

Dressing:
Cilantro, about 1/2 cup
Olive Oil (use your eye)
1 Lime
1/2 clove of garlic
Green Pepper (we get ours from our garden)
1 teaspoon of rice vinegar
black pepper

Thai Spicy Peanut Sauce (bought from the store) with a little smidge of sesame oil.

Ryan made the dressing in our mini food processor so that pepper and cilantro were finely minced. Basically we just combined all the ingredients, tossed with the dressing, then to add some spice we added the Thai Spicy Peanut Sauce. I think it would also be good to top with some Salmon, or other fish. Basically it's a very simply and easy salad with a lot of flavor.

Breakfast Tostada

So I titled this recipe as Breakfast Tostada, but really it can be eaten whenever. I had it tonight as a late snack since I ate an early dinner. I have to say it was quite amazing in taste and simple to make.

So I saw Tyler Florence, a famous chef, on Oprah teaching a mom how to make healthy & simple breakfast for her kids. He made scrambled eggs, turkey bacon and I believe some cheese, wrapped into a tortilla. Then I watched 60 minutes and saw a clip on Alice Waters, this amazing chef in Berkeley that started the slow-cooking/organic/local movement. She made breakfast and what she did was toast some fresh wheat bread, cut up some heirloom tomatoes and fried an egg by cracking it in a metal spoon and holding it in her wood-fire store. She assembled the egg and tomato on top of the bread and it looked mouth-watering. The interviewer even claimed it was the best breakfast she has ever had. So I decided to combine the two and first wanted to do a wrap, but I ended up cooking the tortilla too much and it became a tostada, but I think that's what made it even better. Here it is:

ingredients:

• egg
• a couple slices of soy bacon (meat free-I get it at Trader Joes)
• whole wheat tortilla
• arugula
• baby heirloom tomatoes (or whatever tomatoes you have, that is just what I had)
• a little bit of shredded cheese

directions:

I used a flat, long frying pan that had enough space to cook everything, you can probably use a large frying pan and just move things around as you need space.

First I cooked the "bacon" for a couple minutes on each side. When those were looking almost done I moved them away form the direct heat, then I cracked an egg and started to fry it. At this point I put my tortilla down on the frying pan (I told you it was a big one). Once I flipped the tortilla on the other side I sprinkled some cheese on it to melt. As I flipped the egg, I put the chopped tomatoes in the pan to heat them up some. As the egg was finishing I assembled the tortilla (while still in the frying pan) by placing the bacon on top, then tomatoes, and some arugula. Once the egg was done I topped off the tostada with that. Then a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and I little more cheese, cause I love cheese, and waa-laa- a breakfast tostada good for any time of day!