Happy Insides

We have mentioned before how much we like our grocery store, Natural Grocers.  They sell really quality products and always have tons of great meal ideas in there store.  This meal came from their magazine they were giving away Delicious Living.  In the February 2011 issue they have a section on cooking with cocoa.  This instantly drew our attention and when we saw the black bean soup we knew we had to make it.  It just sounded way too good. 

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Recently both of us have gotten into clean eating.  Clean eating is a pretty simple concept.  You eat "real" natural food ingredients in a minimally processed state and you eat several (5-6) well balanced meals everyday.  On top of all this you reduce the amount of saturated fat and sugar in your diet.  It can be difficult to tackle some of the changes initially, but in our opinion it is well worth it.  It leaves you feeling energized and properly nourished. 

To begin researching clean eating Cassie read the book The Eat Clean Diet Recharged by Tosca Reno.  It is a really quick read and she highly recommends the book to anyone interested in eating more healthfully.  The book also has about 30 or so recipes included in it in the back.  This is where we found the recipe for the noodle bowl.  To be honest the recipe was a little poorly conceived ( for example called for way too small of a pot and we had to move the meal to a bigger pot twice), but in the end we felt like it was a good starting point for the dish and I think we ironed out most of the kinks in the recipe below. 

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We found this recipe one day when browsing on Annie Eats.  It looked like such a hearty and warming meal perfect for the cooling fall weather.  It is full of delicious and healthy ingredients and really leaves you feeling satisfied after the meal.  As always we added a little extra spice to this.  We forgot to buy the green chilis and the flavor of the stew was still amazing, but we still included them in the recipe because we feel they would still be a good addition and add even more flavor.

Black Bean, Chicken and Roasted Pepper Stew
From Kayln's Kitchen found via Annie Eats

2 T. olive oil, divided
2-3 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 15 oz. cans black beans drained
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
2-3 bell peppers, roasted and cut into strips (we used yellow) 
1 4oz. can diced green chilis
2 c. reduced sodium chicken stock
2 T. cumin
1 t. cayenne
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 c. fresh cilantro, chopped

1)In a large Dutch oven or stockpot, heat 1 T. of the olive oil over medium high heat.  Add the chicken and cook stirring until browned and cooked through.  Transfer to a bowl with a slotted spoon and set aside.

2) Heat the remaining T. of olive oil.  Add the onion and saute until tender, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute. 

3)Mix in the black beans, diced tomatoes, bell peppers, green chilis, stock, cumin, and cayenne.  Return the chicken to the pot.  Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.  Allow to simmer uncovered for 45 minutes. 

4) Remove from heat.  Season with salt and pepper and stir in the fresh cilantro. 

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Our Soup came about one evening when both of us came home from grad school classes.  We were hungry and had no clue what to have for dinner.  We didn't want to order out but our cupboards were also nearly bare.  We noticed a few key ingredients and decided to make a tomato soup to at least fill our bellies.  What resulted was a very tasty and satisfying soup that we have made countless times since and for some reason we always just called it "our soup".  It is broth based tomato soup with a hint of lime and plenty of kick.  It is really simple too and perfect for a quick weeknight meal.

Spicy Tomato Soup
A Jason and Cassie Original
1 T. olive oil
2 cloves of garlic minced
1/4-1/2 t. red pepper flakes
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
5 c. low sodium vegetable broth
1 t. basil
1 t. oregano
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
1-2 bay leaves
1 can quartered artichoke hearts
5-8 oz. whole wheat pasta (preferably small noodles like macaroni)
juice of 1/2 a lime
salt and pepper to taste

1) heat oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat.  Add the garlic and the red pepper flakes and let them cook for a minute.

2) Add the rest of the ingredients and let simmer until pasta is fully cooked.

3) Remove the bay leaves and serve warm with a crust bread.

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We recently joined a CSA like organization called Door to Door Organics that delivers mostly local organic produce to your house once a week. This was week 2 and so far we are enjoying the fresh produce we have been getting. It is so much fun to try to plan meals around what you will be getting in your box every week. This week we got kale, celery, carrots, and fresh basil among other things. Jason came up with the idea to make a soup using these ingredients. Cassie had recently seen a recipe for a sausage, potato and kale soup on the main web-page of eatingwell.com (but didn't look at the recipe). We decided to make something like that and ended up creating our very own and very delicious soup. It had some great flavors and the yams added such a nice hint of sweetness. Next time we will probably add some cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes to give the soup some spice. I am adding red pepper flakes to the recipe because I think they will be a great addition

Sausage, Yam and Kale Soup
1 T. olive oil
3 carrots diced
3 celery stalks diced
1/2 medium onion diced
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 t. red pepper flakes
6 c. low sodium beef broth
1 yam diced
1 bunch kale chopped
4 turkey Italian Sausages
2 T. chopped fresh basil or 1 t. dried
1/2 t. rosemary
1 t. oregano
1 t. salt
1 t. black pepper

1) Remove the turkey sausages from their casings and brown in a pan over medium. Crumble the meat to be like ground burger.
2) Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Saute the carrots, celery and onion until tender about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and saute for another minute or two.
3) Place the sauteed vegetable and the remaining ingredients in a crockpot and put on low heat for 8 hours.

This really was so simple. There was lots of chopping to do, but everything else came together nice and easy. We used beef broth because we had some in the house, but I am sure chicken or vegetable broth would work as well.

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