Tag Archives: cook

Black Bean & Rice Soup

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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 and Rice Soup | Beautiful Disasters

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.

Black Bean and Rice Soup | Beautiful Disasters

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.

Black Bean and Rice Soup | Beautiful Disasters

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

  1. Blend together the black beans with the broths, using an emulsion blender or food processor.
  2. 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).
  3. 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!!)

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Best Tomato Soup-SRC Post

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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.

Best Tomato Soup EVER | Beautiful Disasters

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

Best Tomato Soup EVER | Beautiful Disasters

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!

Best Tomato Soup EVER | Beautiful Disasters

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.

Best Tomato Soup EVER | Beautiful Disasters

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.

Best Tomato Soup EVER | Beautiful Disasters

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.

Best Tomato Soup EVER | Beautiful Disasters

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)

  1. In a saucepan on medium heat, melt butter, add flour and stir for about 1 minute.
  2. 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.

Best Tomato Soup EVER | Beautiful Disasters



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

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Double Chocolate M&M Cookies and a BIG BIG DAY!

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WOoooo!!! Today is my 2 year blogoversary!

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

I can not even believe that two years ago, I was just posting my first post on Beautiful Disasters. I still have fun looking back on some of my first posts and looking at the photos

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

The other day I had to go through a lot of old posts and get rid of all the pictures and just keep one for every post because I was running low on memory on the blog and needed to clear up some space..YIKES some of those pictures had reaaaaallly extended their stay on the blog a wee bit too long.

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

Those were the days before I snagged my mom’s fancy, nice Nikon D80 camera (thanks mom!). Slowly, I have become more used to the camera and have picked up on what works and what doesn’t work. The most important thing I have picked up on for good pictures is to take picture with NATURAL lighting when possible. For me, this has meant that I bring my food outside and set up my photo shoot out there. There certainly are days that I get lazy or it is too dark or there is just some down-right icky weather out where I just say screw it, I’m gonna take pitiful pictures in my cozy house.

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

I have researched ways to take high-quality photos inside, but I have found it requires a bit of set-up and more supplies than good ‘ol Mr. Sun. So whenever I can, I try to take pictures outside.

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

But I digress from all this photography talk…on to these cookies!

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

I was having a little trouble deciding what to make for my 2 year blogoversary (granted, I realized my blogoversary was happening 3 days before today). So I turned to my mom for some suggestions. I was thinking something along the lines of a cake or cupcake, maybe something with funfetti to bring out the whole “blogoversary-birthday” theme. But, my mom came up with an idea that I liked even better. Soft chocolate M&M cookies!

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

One of the keys to making these cookies fabulous is to make them fairly generous sized cookies. I’m talking 2 Tablespoons to 1/4 cup size of dough here. Be sure that you flatten them slightly, so they bake up nicely. And then, of course, you can’t forget the M&Ms! These cookies sure are a winner and I’m glad that I can share them with you all for my 2 year anniversary of Beautiful Disasters.

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies

(Makes 1 dozen large cookies)

1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, room temp

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder (I used dark cocoa powder)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

about 1/4 cup M&Ms

  1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together flours, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  3. Using a mixer, cream together butter and sugars. Mix in egg and vanilla extract. Slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined, be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
  4. Drop the cookie dough by large spoonfuls (between 2 Tablespoons and 1/4 cup of dough) onto the ungreased cookie sheet and bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until edges of cookies are set and slightly firm to touch. Let cool and sit on cookie sheet for 2 minutes and then transfer cookies to wire rack to finish cooling for 5-10 minutes. Store in sealed container.

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies | Beautiful Disasters

Random Fact of the Day: The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven!

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Pumpkin Oat Muffins

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I really should not attempt watching new shows. Once I start, it is like I disappear into a black hole.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins | Beautiful Disasters

I recently started watching Friday Night Lights and literally have stopped to go to the bathroom and that is basically it. It is just TOO GOOD!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins | Beautiful Disasters

Any fellow Friday Night Lights fans? It makes me crave to have that high school football season back…and then I remember that I’m a senior, and there won’t be any more high school football seasons as a high schooler fan *tear*

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins | Beautiful Disasters

Football season is the best time of the year. Being a senior was the best, I was always first row in the student section, dressed in whatever crazy theme we had, screaming my face off. We broke out some giant speakers this year and would blast music in the stands and it was OUT-RAGE-OUS! Soo much fun, we would dance and cheer our little butts off even when we were losing. It makes me so sad to think of how much I’ll miss it, but then again, I have college football season to look forward to!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins | Beautiful Disasters

Speaking of football and Fall things, these pumpkin muffins are a nice little bite of Fall. I absolutely love all the flavors that go along with Fall time, but I like to enjoy them all year long! These muffins are chock-full of pumpkin and oats, super healthy and flavorful!!

Pumpkin Oat Muffins

(Makes about 16 muffins)

15 oz. canned pumpkin

2 eggs

t’1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon allspice

pinch of salt

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup oats

  1. Preheat oven to 350˚F and line muffin tins with liners. 
  2. In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs, and oil. Mix in white sugar, baking soda, baking powder, ground cloves, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, allspice, and salt. Add in flours and oats.
  3. Scoop batter into prepared muffin tins and bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for about 5 minutes then let finish cooling completely on wire rack.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins | Beautiful Disasters

Random Fact of the Day: Baby whales grow at an average rate of 10lbs per hour

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Molten Lava Cakes

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The day I made these was a pretty darn big day. Not only was it my sister’s big old 22nd birthday, but it was also the day I got over my fear of making molten lava cakes.

Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes | Beautiful Disasters

They have been quite a common treat for my family to order at restaurants, and my mom has been nagging (okay, that may be a little bit of a mean exaggeration) to give baking molten lava cakes a try.

Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes | Beautiful Disasters

I’m not gonna lie…just looking back at the pictures almost brings a tear to my eyes. Believe me guys, if I can make these, YOU can! Seriously, nothing to be afraid of.

Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes | Beautiful Disasters

One of the best parts of this recipe is that you actually make the batter and everything all ahead of baking them. So then when you want to serve them, you just make sure you have 15 minutes to bake them up, take them out of the fridge, pop them in the oven, watch a little March Madness, and listen for the oven timer. Easy as that!

Molten Lava Cakes

(Makes about 7 small ramekin servings)

4 oz. dark chocolate

2/3 cup unsalted butter

4 eggs

2/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

  1. Spray 7 small ramekins and line the bottom of each with a cut-out parchment paper circle
  2. In the top of a double boiler, melt the dark chocolate and butter together, stirring occasionally. Once completely melted, take mixture off heat and let cool for 15 minutes.
  3. Using a hand mixer, beat the eggs and white sugar until thick, ribbony, and pale yellow in color. Beat in flour. Slowly beat in cooled chocolate mixture until thoroughly combined.
  4. Pour batter evenly into prepared ramekins. Place ramekins in fridge and chill until ready to bake.
  5. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400˚ F. Place ramekins in preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes, until tops are set. Remove cakes from oven, let cool for about 5 minutes, then invert cakes onto plates and enjoy!

Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes | Beautiful Disasters

Random Fact of the Day: The Atlantic Ocean is saltier than the Pacific Ocean.

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