A hearty salad

Dinner doesn't have to be complicated or involved to be healthy and delicious.  This is much more typical of what we eat for dinner on a daily basis.

The ingredients change all the time.  Sometimes it's over romain lettuce, other times it will be over steamed kale, baby spinach, mixed field greens, or any other greens or lettuce.  The elements are what's important.  I always try to include beans, onions, and mushrooms.  Everything else is bonus and should be changed based on whatever you feel like eating that day.

We usually have plenty of different cooked veggies, beans, and hummus around so we can throw a meal like this together in minutes.

Serves: 1
Prep time: 15 min (provided you have some cooked beans and veggies hanging out in your fridge)


Ingredients:
Romain lettuce
black beans
peppers and onions (water sauteed)
portobello mushrooms (water sauteed)
avocado
grape tomatoes
salsa

Instructions:
Take any amounts of the above ingredients that you want, toss it onto a plate, top it off with some low sodium salsa, or Cathy's Thai peanut dressing, and enjoy!

It's simple, and delicious!!

 

Black Bean Soup with Kale and Mushrooms

As if Black Bean soup isn't already good enough, I added Kale and Mushrooms to push it over the top!!

I started with a Black Bean soup recipe from allrecipes.com (link), and changed it up a bit.  What I ended up with is below, and it's been a huge hit with our friends and families so far!  It's a hearty soup that covers 5 of the 7 GBOMBS (Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries, and Seeds) that we are suppose to be eating every day.

Serves: 6
Prep time: 15 min
Cook Time: 45 min

Ingredients:

2 medium onions

2 stalks celery, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

2 cups mushrooms, sliced

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

black pepper to taste

4 cups low sodium vegetable broth

8 cups (or 4 15 oz cans) black beans

2 cups sweet corn (frozen is fine)

1 15 oz can crushed tomatoes

1 bunch Kale, chopped

a dash or two of hot sauce (optional)

Instructions:

In a large pot over medium-high heat add onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms and garlic and cook for 10 minutes or so, until the onions and mushrooms are cooked. 

Add chili powder, cumin, and black pepper.  Stir, and cook for 3 minute or so before adding the vegetable broth, 4 cups of beans, and corn. Bring everything to a boil.

While that's cooking combine the remaining 4 cups of beans and the crushed tomatoes in a blender, and blend until smooth. Stir the blended beans and tomatoes into the boiling soup mixture, reduce heat to medium.  

Add the chopped kale, and simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally.

If you want to spice it up, which I almost always do, add a little hot sauce when serving!  Delish!!

Onions, Celery, Carrots, Mushrooms, and Garlic in the pot!

All stirred up and cooking nicely, just before adding the spices.

Fast forward, and it's finished and ready to eat!!

Leigh Ann's Tofu with Peanut-Ginger Sauce

This was delish! Really, it was sooo good. I just modified it a little. I doubled the recipe, but instead of doubling the tofu, I added in some steamed broccoli instead.

Thanks Leigh Ann for the recipe!!
http://food.yahoo.com/recipes/eatingwell/378/tofu-with-peanut-ginger-sauce