Tag Archives: Soups and Stews

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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Two Cheese Red Pepper Quesadillas

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Quesadillas have been a long time love of mine. When I was little, it seemed like the most logical choice to order quesadillas every time I saw them on the menu considering my name is Casey. Casey, quesadilla, they’re basically the same.

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I have somewhat recently begun a vegetarian, plant-based and cookie dough based diet, so I have been trying to come up with new meal plans to fit my new lifestyle. The whole decision to try the vegetarian life is kind of a long story that I’ll save for another time. For now, let’s just stick to quesadillas.

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Anyways, quesadillas are not only a great vegetarian option, but they are great for those of us who participate in the whole no meat on Fridays during Lent thing.

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I have made BBQ chicken quesadillas that I’ve posted the recipe for on here before (delicious, by the way) but I do think that this is my new favorite quesadilla flavor combination. I don’t know what it is about this one, but it is just SO good.

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The combination kind of just came out of a moment where I was starving and threw what we had in the fridge in a tortilla and called it dinner. Turned out to be a dinner I have made 3 times since, so I figured I would share the tasty goodness with you all.

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And if the green tortillas freak you out, by all means, use a regular tortilla. I won’t tell the tortilla police. I, however, love them because whenever I eat something green it makes me feel like I earned a gold star in the health department.

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Two Cheese Red Pepper Quesadillas

(Serves one, easy to multiply for more)

1/2 Tablespoon butter, margarine, or oil

1 tortilla

2-3** Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (yes, parmesan in a quesadilla)

1** Tablespoon cut up American cheese

1/4 of a red bell pepper, sliced into small strips

1 Tablespoon salsa

**I do not like my quesadillas super cheesy, so this may not be enough cheese for some people. Feel free to up the amounts of cheese, most people would probably like a little more.

  1.  Place a skillet over medium-high heat and melt butter. Once pan is greased, place a tortilla in the pan and flip every minute or so with the pan on medium high.
  2. Once bubbles start to form on the tortilla, sprinkle the cheeses on the tortilla, then the sliced peppers, then the salsa. Turn the heat down to low and place a lid on top of the pan to allow cheeses to melt completely for about 1-2 minutes or until completely melted. Fold tortilla once cheese is melted, let sit about 30 more seconds on low heat. Then enjoy! 

Random Fact of the Day: Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades – King David; Clubs – Alexander the Great; Hearts – Charlemagne; and Diamonds – Julius Caesar.

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Corn Chowder

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Do you wish that you had an accent? Do you have an awesome accent and are in denial about it and still want a new accent?

That’s how I feel we all are. Because if you think about it, I guess it sounds like we have an accent to someone from somewhere, but we don’t notice it because we’re surrounded by the same accent all the time! Deeeeep…

What got me thinking about accents was chowder. I made some corn chowder the other day (more about that later), and every time I hear or think of the word chowder, it seems like it should be said “choowwwwwdaaaaa”, like with a thick New England accent.

I’m glad we had this talk.

So here’s some corn chowdaaa for you, and all the great corn that is around now! Enjoy :)

Corn Chowder

6 ears of corn

2 Tablespoons butter

1 onion, finely chopped

1/3 cup bacon bits

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons thyme

3/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 basil leaf

scant 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

4 1/2 cups water

4 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 cup half-and-half

1/2 Tablespoon white sugar

  1. Remove the husks and silk from the corn. One at a time, stand each ear of corn up in a large bowl and use a chef’s knife to cut the kernels from the corn. Then, hold the ear over a second bowl, and use a vegetable peeler to firmly scrap any remaining pulp from the cobs into the bowl. Repeat with the rest.
  2. Spread a clean cheese cloth over a medium bowl. Transfer the pulp to the towel, and then wrap the towel tightly around it and squeeze as much corn juice as possible into the bowl. Discard the pulp that’s left in the cloth.
  3. Set a large Dutch oven over medium heat and add the butter. Let it melt, then add the onion, thyme, salt, and pepper. Cooke for about 6-8 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onion has softened and is just starting to brown at the edges. Add the flour and cook for another minute or so, stirring constantly. Gradually add the water, keep stirring. Bring the mixture to a boil, then stir in the corn kernels and potatoes. Bring the chowder to a simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.
  4. Transfer a little less than 2 cups of the chowder and the basil leaf to a blender and puree until smooth. Stir the puree back into the dutch oven. Add the half-and-half then return the chowder to a simmer. Mix in the bacon bits. Turn off the heat and add the reserved corn juice. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and mix in the sugar. Enjoy!

Random Fact of the Day: Per capita, Canada has more doughnut shops than any other country.

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I don’t like bugs

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Why does it seem that all the bugs that ever end up in my house always gravitate towards my room?! They are out to get me, I tell you.

Here’s an example, a couple years ago there was this strange spot forming in one corner of the ceiling in my room. I thought it was strange, but I did not say anything for a while. I don’t know why, maybe because I thought I’d get into trouble for it. It’s not like I decided to put a spot up there, just teenage instinct, I guess.

Anyways, time went on and either I finally decided to tell my parents or they noticed it themselves. I don’t remember which, but somehow they found it. Long story short, turns out there was a bee hive in the attic that is above my room. And it was getting large by the day with the spot. Needless to say, I was freaked out, but relieved the problem was resolved.

To display my distaste for bugs, I created an illustration to make a clear demonstration of my feelings.One of the worst things to happen when you do find a bug is to discover that it flies. That is just UNFAIR.

Although I do not entirely embrace bugs’ existence, I am always very hesitant to kill them. My biggest fear? That their families and friends will come back to get me. Like this.I swear, it makes sense. When you really think about it. I mean, if bugs have like feelings..you know. It’s possible.

On to spiders. Yes, they are a whole new category. They’re icky. They’re creepy. They’re scary. And not cute. 

Not only are they all the above^, they are also incredibly SNEAKY! Have you heard that like people swallow spiders in their sleep!!?! YUCCKKKK.

It makes me never want to sleep again.

Once again, I’m always scared to kill them because of this…

Well, now that I have given you those lovely images, I think it’s time for some real food.

I made this salad, it’s tasty. Clearly…I mean it lasted less than 24 hours. You should make it. K bye.

Corn, Black Bean, and Salmon Salad

heaping 1/4 c. Corn

heaping 1/4 c. Black Beans, washed and drained

1/4 c. tomatoes, chopped

3 c . lettuce, chopped

1 1/2 T. salsa, (I used the Salsa Lisa mild avocado salsa, YUM)

4-6 oz. Salmon, seasoned and cooked**

  1. Make sure all ingredients, except salmon, are chopped and sliced to your liking and dump all into bowl. Mix ingredients together. Top with salmon, cut into strips. Tasty warm or the second day from the fridge for lunch!

** The salmon tastes best if you season it very well. I recommend just using a bunch of spices. Whatever you’ve got. We just used Montreal Steak Seasoning. But we also like to use Interstate Barbecue Seasoning. Once again though, any seasoning will be great! 

Random Fact of the Day: Only 6% of the autographs in circulation from members of the Beatles are estimated to be real.

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