Black Bean Soup ~ Quick and Delicious

If you are looking for the "21" Meditations & Motivations to Get You Moving! posts, please visit my running blog here:
www.seemymomrun.com . 

Or "friend" me on fb and join the private group page for "21." 

Increasing your fiber intake does "all kinds of good" for you:

• heart health
• weight management
• intestinal health

Foods with fiber: fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, beans

Chicken & Black bean soup
1 small onion
1/2 green bell pepper
1 tsp hot oil
1 (16 oz ) jar spicy black bean dip {I like the Paul Newman brand.)
2 (16 oz ) cans black beans
2 cups chopped or shredded cooked chicken (Sometimes I leave out the chicken.)
4 cups chicken broth
Optional toppings:
sour cream
shredded Cheddar cheese
baked tortilla strips or chips
diced tomatoes
diced onion
avocado slices
cilantro
Dice onion and bell pepper; saute in 1 tsp hot oil in a Dutch oven over med./high heat for about 3 minutes. Whisk in 4 cups chicken broth and 1 jar spicy black bean dip until smooth. Bring to a boil and stir in 2 cans black beans (may rinse and drain), and 2 cups chopped chicken. Cook 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Top individual bowls of soup with your choice of toppings.
* recipe from Southern Living, April 2005 

I also cook a small pot of brown rice and put the rice in the bowls then top with the soup. And my latest addition to cooking anything Latin inspired is Goya brand Sofrito. It's a tomato base with green bell peppers, onion, cilantro and garlic in olive oil. I add 1 T. to this recipe.

Proverbs 31 Woman 2.0 ~ A chicken in every POTpie!

Check out the tasty recipes at http://www.beautyandbedlam.com/

Proverbs 31 Woman 2.0
"Because virtue is always in vogue."

Proverbs 31:15 "She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household and plan the day's work for her servant girls."

2.0 version: "She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast a meal for her household and plan the day's work for her servant girls loads the dishwasher leaving more time in the day for the rest of her plans.

This recipe is from the Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church cookbook (Red Bud Road, Calhoun, GA). When I was teaching at Red Bud High School I bought this cookbook from a friend and fellow teacher who attended the Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church. I was a newlywed then and my specialties were Eggo waffles, tuna salad and chili! That covered breakfast, lunch and dinner.

If you take a few minutes to make this homemade crust topping, which is quick & easy, you will feel very "virtuous" and may even impress your family! Of course, you can use a rotisserie chicken for a shortcut.

Chicken Pot Pie

3 cups chopped, cooked chicken (may also use leftover turkey from holiday dinners)
1 cup chicken broth
1 can cream of celery soup (or chicken or mushroom)
1 pkg. (10 oz. frozen) peas and carrots (I always cook fresh carrots and add peas or even potatoes but increase chicken broth if you use potatoes b/c they soak up some of the broth and you don't want this dried out.)
salt/pepper to taste

Crust Topping
1 cup milk (You can also use buttermilk.)
1 cup self-rising flour
1/2 cup melted butter


Preheat oven to 400*. Grease a shallow 2 qt. baking dish. Place chicken and vegetables in baking dish. Stir together broth, soup, salt & pepper. Pour over chicken & veggies.


Crust Topping: Combine flour, milk and melted butter. Stir until smooth. Don't over stir or it will be tough. Pour over mixture in baking dish. Do not stir topping into chicken mixture. Bake @ 400* 35 - 40 minutes or until light to golden brown. Let cool 10 minutes before serving. Serves 4 - 6.

Proverbs 31 Woman ~ 2.0

My New Blog Series ~

Proverbs 31 Woman 2.0

"Because virtue is always in vogue."

Proverbs 31:15 "She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household and plan the day's work for her servant girls."

2.0 version: "She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast a meal for her household and plan the day's work for her servant girls loads the dishwasher leaving more time in the day for the rest of her plans."

While I rarely get up before dawn, I do prepare many meals for my household. And while neither I nor any of my friends have "servant girls," most of us have modern conveniences that "serve" us and save us time.
And so in the interest of serving you and saving you time, I'm sharing what may be the easiest and fastest homemade bread in the universe ~ fried cornbread.
Today my fried cornbread topped a ham bone soup. You can find the recipe here but it's never the same twice because I use what I have on hand. This time I used carrots, potatoes and Kentucky Wonder green beans.

Ham Bone Soup & Fried Cornbread
I make ham bone soup anytime we have a ham.



If you can't wait for the cornbread to bake, fry it!

Frying the cornbread

Ingredients:
Martha White Self-rising Buttermilk Cornmeal Mix  ~ 1 1/2 cups
Buttermilk ~ 1 cup (sweet milk works, too)
1 egg ~ if you have it and if you don't like I didn't today, use 1 1/2 T. mayonnaise
diced onion plus some green onion if you have it ~ a handful of onion sounds right to me
Play around with the ingredient amounts. You want the batter to be a little thinner than a pancake batter. Add more oil between batches, as needed. You want a crunchy edge and the oil gives you that.
oil for frying ~ enough to cover the bottom of the pan and then some
cast iron skillet or non stick pan
Mix ingredients and fry in heated oil. When one side is golden, carefully turn over. Drain on paper towel.

And now with apologies for putting her in the same post as soup and cornbread,
last night I had the privilege of meeting Lysa Terkeurst, president of Proverbs 31 Ministries. I left a comment on one of her recent blog posts and she replied. A couple of emails back and forth and, at her invitation and offer of tickets, I made plans with a friend to drive to Lakeland to hear her speak. She shares well her salvation story and her life of saying, "Yes" to God.
If you ever have the opportunity to hear Lysa speak, take it. You'll be blessed.

Chicken!

Garlic Rosemary Chicken

1 (5 pound) roasting chicken, skinned
2 (5 inch) rosemary sprigs
2 celery stalks with leaves, each cut into 4 pieces
2 small onions, quartered
16 garlic cloves
1 T lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
Rosemary sprigs (optional)
1 lemon, halved (optional)

Remove and discard giblets and neck from chicken. Rinse chicken under cold water; pat dry.
Trim excess fat. Place 2 rosemary sprigs, celery, 4 onion wedges, and 4 garlic cloves in cavity of chicken, and tie legs together with twine. Place chicken, breast side up, in a 4-quart electric slow cooker; add remaining onion and garlic to cooker. Drizzle lemon juice over chicken; sprinkle with next 3 ingredients. Cover with lid; cook on high-heat setting 1 hour. Reduce to low-heat setting, and cook 6 hours or until chicken is tender. Discard rosemary. Serve chicken with vegetables and garlic. Garnish with additional rosemary sprigs and lemon halves, if desired.

What I do: My chicken is usually between 3 - 4 pounds and I don't remove the skin. I have used dried rosemary but do use a real lemon (as opposed to an artificial one; those are hard to juice).
I don't measure things unless I'm baking so I'm pretty sure I've never used 16 cloves of garlic. And I never have twine for the legs. I just tell that chicken to be a good little bird and keep her lugs tucked in. Also I have hurried the cooking process by cooking on high for 4 - 5 hours.
But this chicken turns out really well and somehow it even browns!

recipe from this book

A Care Package & A Prayer

Delicious!

Unceremoniously wrapped in wax paper, this is all that's left of the Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake.

Yesterday I delivered a little care package for a friend's son who left for college this morning. Amid a giant container of Twizzlers and some personal care products, was a container of Gooey Butter Cake bars.

(This is not my friend's son.)

And not my son, Avery, but definitely where he was heading beard-wise!

I was going to get him one of these for our cold Florida winters!

This is my son, Avery, 2 weeks ago! Imagine what it looked like this morning!

Avery asked if I were saving any Gooey Cake bars for him. Of course I was! I planned to do that even before he asked.

Avery and me...July 2010...Yay! He looks like this again after surprising me today by shaving his full beard!

This recipe is courtesy of Paula Deen and you can find it here on her website.

I have tried the yellow cake and now the chocolate. I have a spice cake mix and thought about that for our college boy, but Avery thought chocolate was the way to go.

Have you made this recipe? What variations have you tried? Last year I took a hiatus from sugar. (Hiatus! ~ sounds like I am a professional sugar cane grower or something.)

It was so beneficial. After 3 days, it's really easy to just say no to

sugar.

If you want your cake and eat it, too, share most of it with someone else and keep just a small portion for your enjoyment!

When I delivered the cake and the care package, I told my friend's son that he would be in our thoughts and our prayers. And I meant that.

Let's pray for our students whether they are in college, high school, middle school or the elementary grades.

In his book, Beyond Opinion, Ravi Zacharias, writes, "My view of college professors has been summarized well by one atheist writer: 'They will see me as just another liberal professor trying to cajole them out of some of their convictions, and they are dead right about that--that's what I am, and that's exactly what I am trying to do.' "

Based on Ephesians 1:17-19 and The Lord's Prayer:

"Our Father in Heaven, We glorify Your Name. We offer before You ourselves and those for whom we intercede. Standing in the gap for (my children: Audra and Avery), I petition that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to them a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of their heart may be enlightened, so that they may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. Lead my children away from temptation and deliver them from the evil one. Abba, strengthen my will and my heart and convict me to intercede on behalf of those weaker in the faith. May we resolve to have a faith that endures against all temptation, trial and pressure.

In the Name of the Son, Jesus, who fixed our way to Father,

Amen."

Have a beautiful day!

1 ~ 2 ~ 3 Ingredients "Peanut Butter Cookies"

Peanut

Butter

Cookies

1 cup of peanut butter

1 egg

1 cup of sugar

Mix.

Drop by the spoonful onto a baking sheet.

Bake @ 350*

Makes a dozen

Son: "Mama, will you make something?"
Mama: "What do you mean, like a dessert?"
Son: "Yeah."
Mama: "Are you sure you wouldn't rather have fish? It's really good for you."
Son: "No, Mama. I don't like fish."
Mama: "It's a little chilly in here. Do you want a jacket?"



 

Souper Summer ~ A Recipe

< For more Tasty Tuesday dishes, click on the button.

Soup ~ It's not just for cold weather. I serve it all year long.

I love soup. Ham soup. Potato Soup. Mexican Chicken Soup. Chicken & Black Bean Soup.
The first time I made soup I made a Ham Bone Soup. When our family sat around the table eating bowls of soup that I made from scratch, I felt like a real GROWN-UP woman. A woman like my mother. Mother always made the best suppers. Growing up we didn't call the evening meal dinner. We called it supper. When Mother made Ham Bone Soup for supper, she always made cornbread to crumble in it. So that's what I do when I make Ham Bone Soup.


Mother never made Black Bean Soup. But I do. And this is it. Serve it with tortilla chips. Make it and you'll feel like a real GROWN-UP woman. This is another easy-peasy quickie, unlike the ham bone soup. But still, pretty souperb!

Chicken & Black Bean Soup

from Southern Living, April 2005

1 small onion
1/2 green bell pepper
1 tsp. hot oil
4 cups chicken broth
1 (16 oz. ) jar spicy black bean dip
2 (16 oz. ) cans black beans
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
Toppings: sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes, avocado slices
Serve with tortilla chips.

Dice onion and bell pepper; saute in oil in Dutch oven. Whisk in chicken broth and bean dip until smooth. Bring to a boil and stir in black beans (rinsed & drained). Add the chicken and cook until heated through. Serve each bowl with your favorite toppings.

Now this is how I do that recipe. First of all, I don't measure. I saute as much onion as I feel like dicing. I don't have the patience for fine dicing, so I just chip it up and call it "rustic cooking." (And I don't want to wash the food processor!)


I use Newman's Own Black Bean & Corn salsa b/c that is the only "black bean dip" I find at Publix.
I boil chicken that has the bone and the skin because it is more flavorsome than skinless/boneless and then I use the broth from that. You can see my broth in the picture above. See how rich it is? I boiled extra chicken and froze the remainder of the broth for future use. Since the bean dip has a bit of corn, sometimes I add a little more corn. Sometimes I don't have enough black beans so I use pinto beans or kidney beans. Also I serve the soup over yellow rice or brown rice. The only topping I put on mine is some chipped up raw onion.

*Convenience factors: Of course, you can use a rotisserie chicken and canned broth. Or if you are boiling boneless/skinless chicken breast add a bouillon cube to the water to make broth. Or try Better Than Bouillon chicken base. It comes in a small jar and should be on the same aisle as the canned chicken broth or bouillon cubes.

What kind of soup do you make? Do you enjoy soup in the summer?

A New DoTellMel post & Healthier Banana Muffins

A new DoTellMel post ~ Living La Vida Diva! Another Devoted Woman here.

Whole Wheat Banana Muffin

Since I am not consuming sugar or artificial sweeteners, I tweaked a couple of recipes and came up with this version which uses a small amount of honey.

For more Saturday Stirrings recipes, visit Carol @ I Throw Like A Girl.

1 C whole wheat flour

1 C self rising flour *

1/2 tsp. baking soda *

1 tsp. baking powder *

dash of sea salt

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/3 C oil

2 eggs

3 mashed ripe bananas

1/2 C buttermilk

1/4 - 1/2 C honey (I used 1/4 cup.)

Mix dry ingredients. (If using all purpose flour, then adjust recipe to: 2 t. baking powder 1 t. baking soda.) Stir in bananas, oil, eggs, buttermilk and honey. Makes a dozen muffins.

Bake in lined muffin pan @325 for 20 - 25 minutes. I use the "toothpick" method to check if middle is done.

Verdict: I enjoyed mine toasted with a bit of butter or a bit of cream cheese. One Fine Man liked it best toasted w/butter. Tech~Son sprayed whipped cream on his. Skate~Boy passed. Guitar Girl is doing South Beach so she did not do the "taste test." Guitar Girl's beau gave his approval on toasted w/butter. Two of my taste testers said the muffins could be sweeter. Keep in mind, I only used 1/4 cup of honey. As for me...muy delicioso!

Still the Sweet Life But I Need an Arnold

This is day 8 of my sugar free/sweet free ride! Again, Whee!!!

That means no white stuff, no stuff with white stuff and no artificial sweetener which I rarely use anyway ~ especially since I quit drinking Diet Pepsi a while back. It hasn't been that bad except for a few times when I have really wanted a Dove moment. But that was only for the inspirational quote inside the foil wrapper!

Not.

Instead of a Dove moment, I have been turning to Arnold Palmer for my moments. Not him. His famous drink:

The Arnold Palmer

1/2 tea & 1/2 lemonade in a glass w/ice

That's my glass up there. The mega Tervis! As you can see, I like my tea strong. It looks like chocolate in the picture. Hmmm. Odd.

Trust me. It's tea. I squeezed a big ol' Florida lemon to get my "lemonade." Then I added my strong tea and a little purified water to the fresh lemon juice and mixed in a little Stevia. Stevia is an herbal sweetener.

Click on the link to find out more. I figure I have my bases covered. Tea is an antioxidant and fresh lemon juice is good for your liver. Click on the lemon link to find out more. And I have not added the other white stuff.

So I'm good.

I think this is my 3rd post featuring Florida Citrus! They really should hire me to be their spokesperson.

Remember the picture at the bottom of my post about grapefruit? Only one commenter identified the mystery woman. That was RefreshMom. Check out her refreshing blog here. Oh and go back to that post and read the comments to see who the orange picker is.

Putting the "sweet" in the "sour",

Melanie