Black Bean & Rice Soup

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Casey

Prom was this past weekend, I’ll be sharing more about it soon but I prepared this post ahead of time so I could enjoy the weekend without stressing about the blog!

Black bean soup has become one of my more recent absolute favorite soups. I have always been a big fan of soup, but black bean has just become my new bestie, especially since I made the whole vegetarian change in my life a couple months ago.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Panera’s black bean soup, but never quite realized how easy it is to make my own black bean soup at home.

This version is not really exactly like Panera’s because I decided I wanted it to have a bit more body to it. The addition of rice is purely optional, but I think it really adds something! You can enjoy this as a meal by itself or if you’re feeling hungry, some bread or focaccia would be aweee-some.

Black Bean & Rice Soup

2 cans black beans

4 cups vegetable (or chicken) broth

2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

3 cups prepared rice

Blend together the black beans with the broths, using an emulsion blender or food processor.
With the black bean mixture in a large pot, add in salt, flour, and seasonings. Cook on medium heat until nice and hot. (You don’t need to bring it to a boil).
Add in rice and keep on medium-high heat for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally until everything is incorporated. Enjoy!

Random Fact of the Day: The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 ft. (GAGGGG!!)

Easy Black Bean Soup (chronicinthekitchen.com)
Crisp Black Beans Cakes with Spicy Avocado Mousse. (thenomadiczest.com)
Pork in Black Bean Sauce (projectlearntocook.com)

Best Tomato Soup-SRC Post

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Casey

Guys, I am certainly not one who likes to pick “favorites”, but I think this may be my favorite recipe I have ever tried through the Secret Recipe Club.

This month I was assigned to explore Kirsten’s blog, Loving Life.

Kirsten is a busy mom who was born in England (that is so cool to me!) but now lives in the grand ‘ol USA, she loves to garden, read, cook, and browse the internet for more time than she considers appropriate (like any awesome blogger), and she has two daughters, who are home-schooled. The older daughter (Kristianna) is super impressive! She is taking Running Start classes at the local community college to try to get her diploma and AA degree by the time she graduates. Her family sounds busy, busy, busy!

Let me start out by saying that I am NOT one who is a fan of tomatos. But I am that weird type of person who will choose a tomato-based recipe.. I didn’t really have high hopes for this tomato soup, it looked super simple which appealed to me but then made me think it might lack flavor or pizazz.

Plus, I really have never even been a fan of tomato soup, only when it is paired with about a 3-1 ratio of grilled cheese to tomato soup. BUT the day I made this, it was super rainy and we actually had a “rain day” and no school because of flooding, so I figured soup was what was going to happen that day.

Make sure you hop on over to Kirsten’s blog and explore all of her other delectable recipes! Don’t forget about the other SRC members at the bottom of this post, too!! They all work so hard and do a beautiful job, visits and blog love are always appreciated.

My three favorite things about this recipe were…This soup took me 10 minutes, tops! All the ingredients were things I commonly have on hand. And this soup tasted ah-mazing. So good that I didn’t even have to make grilled cheese to go with it.

Tomato Soup

(From Loving Life)

(Serves 2-4 people)

2-3 Tablespoons butter

2-3 Tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk (I used skim)

15 oz. tomato sauce (I used pasta sauce, basically the same thing but with some seasoning already in there)

In a saucepan on medium heat, melt butter, add flour and stir for about 1 minute.
Add milk and salt. Stir until sauce is a medium thickness. Add tomato sauce and if desired diced tomatoes (I left them out). You may also add some water, about 1/2 a can to thin it out a bit (I like mine thicker, so I did not do this). Add your seasonings to taste and serve.

Random Fact of the Day: Castor oil is used as a lubricant in jet planes.

Tomato Soup (foodiefriendsfridaydailydish.com)
All Grown Up: Thomas Keller’s Brioche Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup with Homemade Bread (newzaholic.com)
Tomato Soup (subbuskitchen.com)

Herb and Parmesan Focaccia

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Casey

Right now my grade (the senior class) at my high school is in the middle of a ferocious game called Assassins. Ever heard of it?

It is kind of giving me anxiety…

Here is how it is played. Everyone who wants to play puts in $5 (or whatever everyone agrees on) and is assigned a “target”. You must “kill” your target before the week is over by shooting them with your water gun.

There are a few rules like no shooting at work, none on school grounds, at athletes during sports, etc. You may defend yourself by shooting someone who you think is attacking you and if you shoot them before they shoot you, you have 24 hours until they are able to try and “kill” you again. For some reason I feel like I am making this sound uber complicated…it’s not though.

The winner gets a portion of the money raised and then most of it we are donating to a teacher who has a severe form of cancer and is struggling under staggering hospital and doctor bills.

This week, I am safe. I just “killed” my target yesterday as he was walking oh-so-innocently into the Men’s Warehouse to pick out his prom tux. He he hee. He never saw it coming. Also, I found out who the person was that was trying to “kill” me and they already got “killed” on the first day, so I feel like he isn’t even going to try and “kill” me because he is already out. However, my guard is always up and my water gun is always by my side. Some people may call me paranoid, I say I’m prepared.

Enough Assassins talk. Let’s talk about this beautiful focaccia. Is it bad to call something I made beautiful? I don’t think so. I feel like my mom has been requesting me to make a homemade focaccia for like ever but I was a little hesitant. It’s a bread..which requires yeast, and rising, and more rising, which means loads of time that I would rather spend eating the oh so quick to make frosting. But I was determined this time to give my mother what she wanted and focaccia was made. I’m not going to lie, I loved this recipe just as much (probably more) than the bakery focaccias we have bought in the past. Feel free to have fun with this recipe and adjust the seasonings, herbs, and add-ins to your liking!

Herb and Parmesan Focaccia

(Makes 2 8×8 focaccias)

2 cups warm water

2 teaspoons dry active yeast

2 teaspoons salt

1 cup whole wheat flour
3 cups all-purpose flour

Olive oil

2-3 Tablespoons grated parmesan
1 1/2 teaspoons crushed basil leaves
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons crushed oregano leaves
3 teaspoons crushed thyme leaves
2 teaspoons crushed sage leaves
2-3 tablespoons sea salt

Add the water to bowl of stand mixer. Run the mixer for a few seconds to dissolve the yeast into the water. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Add salt and flour to the yeast/water mixture with the mixer on medium speed. Start with 1 cup of whole wheat flour, then 3 cups of all-purpose flour and add 2 tablespoons at a time of additional flour until the dough begins to pull away from the bowl, becoming elastic.
Coat a large bowl with olive oil. Use a spatula to move the dough from the mixing bowl to the olive-oil coated bowl. Turn the dough in the bowl to cover with oil. Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm, dry spot until dough doubles in size (about 1 hour)
Coat your baking pans with oil. I used one 9 x 9″ baking pan and one 9″ round baking pan. Transfer the dough to the baking pans. Punch down the dough, spreading it out to roughly fill the pans. Let rise in a warm, dry place until the dough doubles in size (about 45 minutes)
Punch down the dough one more time. Let rise for 30 more minutes in a warm, dry place. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Use your fingers to make indentations in the dough (this will make crevices to catch the olive oil, herbs and salt!). Drizzle with about 1 Tablespoon of oil on each focaccia dough and sprinkle chopped herbs and seasonings evenly over the surface. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the surface is golden-brown.
Brush about 1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil over the top of the bread with a pastry brush. Sprinkle the sea salt over the surface. Cut and serve warm. Enjoy!

Random Fact of the Day: The normal static electricty shock that zaps your finger when you touch a doorknob is usually between 10,000 and 30,000 volts

Kale, Tomato, & Garlic Breadsticks (vegetarianventures.com)
Focaccia (yaseminscuisine.wordpress.com)
Focaccia Bread with a Garlic Rosemary Topping (quintessentialmagazine.ca)

Spinach and Parmesan Grilled Cheese

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Casey

Can we talk about something real quick? Even though I’m not this person’s #1 fan, I figured it would be best to not reveal their identity or instagram name, but let’s take a quick lookie here.

Instagram.. let me show you what I see on mine daily. Now, I do realize you can control who you “follow” and what not, but technically challenged people like me do not know how to do these special, magical things like “unfollow” someone on instagram. So until then I look at this ridiculousness.

Someone please call the hashtag police!!! I mean… he really captures everything in there from global warming to whatever a “donner pass” is. Maybe I’m just an 18 year old girl who doesn’t belong in this weird social media controlled generation. Then again, I’m a blogger, so this generation fits me like a glove at the same time.

I can not exactly say that I truly understand the whole hashtag phenomenon. Those of you who are not familiar on what a “hashtag” is, it is when someone says things like #chocolate #cake and a popular one that I absolutely despise is #FatGirlProblems. People add these “hashtags” when they [usually] have something to do with their picture or comment they posted. #FatGirlProblems makes me really want to hit people.

The skinniest high school girls will like post a picture of their “Skinny Pop” popcorn and be like, “Wow, ate a whole handful…20 calories #FatGirlProblems”. And then I’m just sitting here, licking my spoon, halfway through eating a jar of Trader Joe’s cookie butter. We need to end this madness now.

All that is left, is that we need to hatch a great scheme to end the hashtag dilemma of 2013. Who’s in?

Anyways, I whipped myself up a nice little grilled cheese the other day. I realize mine looks like it is on crackers. I assure you, it is on real bread. It’s on one of those bread thin things. I actually really like the taste of them, but for this sandwich, I would probably recommend that you use normal, thicker sandwich bread because that usually makes a better and studier grilled cheese. I loved this, it was gone in approximately .8 seconds!!

Spinach and Parmesan Grilled Cheese

(serves 1)

about 3-4 Tablespoons oil/butter, for spreading on bread and oiling pan

2 slices sandwich bread

about 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

medium handful of spinach leaves

1/2 slice of american cheese (Optional, but I thought it added a nice touch, giving more flavors than the rich white cheese)

Heat a small pan on the stove over medium heat with a little bit of oil or butter, about 1 Tablespoon. Spread about 1/2 Tablespoon of butter or oil on one side of the two pieces of bread.
Place one piece of bread on heated pan, greased side down, and turn the heat down to medium-low. Sprinkle most of the parmesan cheese on top of the bread that is facing up (un-greased side), and then place spinach leaves on top of parmesan cheese, on top of spinach leaves, place the remaining parmesan cheese and pieces of american cheese (if using). Finally, place the second piece of bread on top of fillings, with the greased side facing up and the ungreased side touching the sandwich fillings.
Once cheese has started to melt after about 2 minutes, Flip the sandwich, careful to keep all the fillings in place and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes or until cheese is melted and both sides are browned to desired level. Remove from pan, place on plate, and enjoy!

Random Fact of the Day: Smokers eat more sugar than non-smokers do.

Avocado, spinach and parmesan toasties (healthaholics.wordpress.com)
Classics Never Die (discoverharmony.wordpress.com)
FOOD, Proceed with Thought and Caring (pigpedigree.com)

Easy Peasy Garlic Bread

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Casey

Garlic bread is something that sort of intimidates me. I don’t know why..but I always leave it for my mom to make when we have pasta for dinner. Usually I am like the baking queen but garlic bread is whole new story.

Until now.

I have even half-watched my mom make garlic bread the way I will be sharing with you today, but it still always scared me a little. The idea of ruining the whole loaf by putting too much garlic or too much butter on there just scared me too much.

Fear not, fellow garlic bread wussies!!

This garlic bread method is fool-proof. I’m not really sharing a recipe with exact measurements, it is really more of just the way how you put everything together. If anything, go easy on the garlic powder. Unless, of course, you are total garlic obsessed. Then you can go bananas with the garlic. Whatever floats your boat!!

Easy Peasy Garlic Bread

1 loaf of French Bread

butter or margarine, softened and spreadable

garlic powder

aluminum foil

Preheat oven to 350˚F
Slice garlic bread into about 2-inch slices. On one side of the bread spread about 1/2 Tablespoon of butter or margarine to coat that side of the bread. Then, sprinkle on garlic powder to lightly coat. We eyeball this, but it is probably about 1/2-1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder. Line up slices of garlic bread where each buttered side is touching an un-buttered side of another piece. Wrap all of the lined up pieces in foil, just like a burrito, and bake in preheated oven to heat through, 15-20 minutes.

Random Fact of the Day: More than half the population of Kenya is under the age of 15.

Garlic Bread (thespanishchef.wordpress.com)
Surf (Scallops) and Turf (5 oz Buffalo Sirloin) w/ Sauteed Mushrooms, Baked Potato… (beatcancer2010.wordpress.com)
Not your average garlic bread (themyriadthoughts.wordpress.com)

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Category Archives: Dinner

Black Bean & Rice Soup

Black Bean & Rice Soup

Best Tomato Soup-SRC Post

Tomato Soup

Herb and Parmesan Focaccia

Herb and Parmesan Focaccia

Spinach and Parmesan Grilled Cheese

Spinach and Parmesan Grilled Cheese

Easy Peasy Garlic Bread

Easy Peasy Garlic Bread

Black Bean & Rice Soup

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