Melinda's Black Bean Soup

I love this soup because it's healthy and hearty and easy! It's a fun soup to serve on Halloween as Black Goblin Goo or whatever. It's loaded with veggies and the kids don't even know because you blend it all up and it just tastes yummy. 

Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 3/4 cup diced carrots (like 2 medium carrots)
• 1 cup diced onion (one small-medium onion)
• 4 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (3.5 ounce) can diced green chilies
• 2 (15 ounce) cans low-sodium beef broth
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dry oregano leaves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 lime, juiced, plus other limes to garnish
• Optional toppings: sour cream, tortilla chips, shredded cheese, chopped cilantro

Instructions:

• Heat olive oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add carrots, celery, onion, and garlic and saute for 4-5 minutes.
• Add the black beans, chilies, and beef broth. Stir to combine and then add salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, oregano, and bay leaf. Simmer uncovered for about 20-25 minutes or until carrots are tender. Remove from heat. Remove bay leaf from soup.
• Transfer the soup to a blender. Place lid on blender but remove stopper in lid to let heat escape. Cover the whole with a paper towel to avoid splatters.
• Puree soup until desired consistency is reached. Squeeze in the juice from one lime and pulse to combine.
• Ladle into bowls and top with desired toppings. Enjoy!

This recipe is from the ourbestbites.com cook book. I love it!

Cooking Chicken on the Stove

Happy Sunday, ladies! We have 1:00 church right now, and it isn't even funny how many times I forget to start cooking dinner before we leave. Luckily, this way to cook chicken is super easy and fast, and you can pretend that you had a plan for dinner all morning ;) ha!

Ingredients:

• 2-4 chicken breasts
• 1tbsp olive oil
• salt & pepper, or other spices

Instructions:

1. Season the chicken breasts. You can just use salt & pepper, or try out your own blend of spices depending on what you're eating with the chicken. Another option is to dredge the chicken in a little flour and spices (a combo I like is rosemary, garlic, & salt). This will give your chicken a subtle crust.
2. Heat a large sauté pan on the stove over med-high heat. When it's quite hot, add the oil and brush around the pan. Turn down to medium.
3. Add the chicken breasts. Cook for 1 minute, then flip each breast to the other side. Turn heat down to low.
4. Cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid, and cook for 10 minutes. Don't lift the lid or peek. Seriously, set the timer and walk away!
5. Remove from heat, and let sit an additional 10 minutes. When time's up, check the chicken to make sure it's cooked, and you're done! Eat with pasta, salad, or on its own. So yummy!

I found this method on thekitchn.com, and it produces moist & tender chicken breasts every. single. time. Hope it works for you!

Anyone there? :)

HEY! Are any of you getting emails when a new post is made to this blog? I thought I had it all set up to send notifications... but I'm not sure it's working. Pleeease post a comment when you read this, and let me know if you're getting emails or not.

Thanks!!!

Hannah's Cookie-Cutter Sandwiches

Hi family! This isn't really a recipe... but it involves food so I'll count it :)

On holidays, when my siblings and I were younger, my mom would always break out her box of cookie cutters and cut our sandwiches into fun shapes for lunch. I remember always eating shamrock-shaped sandwiches on St. Patrick's Day, pumpkins on Halloween, and stockings or trees for the month of December. It was a fun tradition, and I decided to carry it on by making Leah little heart-shaped sandwiches for Valentine's Day. She loved it! So much so, that now she won't eat a sandwich unless it's a "heart sammich." It's fun for Leah to have cute foods, and fun for me to have her actually finish her whole lunch without complaining.

We also cookie-cut our cheese ;)

We're pretty big sandwich eaters around here, and are always trying out new tastes!  We love...

• peanut butter with jam, bananas, thinly-sliced green apples, raisins, craisins, honey, or nutella
• nutella with bananas, raspberries, or strawberries (I always grill nutella sandwiches, but to each their own :)
• grilled cheese, either plain or with tomato or bacon
• meat & cheese with lettuce (we're mainly turkey fans)

That's pretty much it! Hope this might help some of you who can't get their kids to eat lunch :) What are some of your family's favorite sandwich combos?

(also, these KALAS dishes and silverware from Ikea are by far my favorite for little kids. Super durable, cute colors, and SUPER cheap! $1.99 for a pack of 6 plates/bowls/cups, or an 18-piece silverware set. waaay better than anything I've found anywhere else.)

Hannah's Broccoli Beef

Any Chinese fans in our family? Chinese is probably my favorite type of food... besides Italian. and Mexican. and okay, I just love all food :)

I found this recipe online, and we tried it out last night. WAY better than takeout! The sauce is especially great.

Ingredients

• 1.5lb flank steak, thinly sliced and chopped into about 2 inch pieces
• 1 cup beef broth
• 2/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1tbsp sesame oil
• 1tbsp minced garlic
• 4 cups broccoli florets
• 2tbsp corn starch + 4tbsp cold water

Instructions

Add beef broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, and garlic to a crockpot. Mix together well and then add the little slices of steak. Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours, or on high for 2-3.

30 minutes before serving, uncover the crockpot. In a small bowl, whisk the corn starch and water together until dissolved. Mix into crockpot, cover, and cook for another 20-25 minutes.

Just before serving, place broccoli in a large tupperware with 1/2 inch of water. Place the lid on the tupperware in an offset manner so that the container can vent. Cook in the microwave on high for 3 minutes, then drain, stir into crockpot, and serve with rice.

Enjoy! Wednesdays are my least-favorite, so I hope that this yummy meal can get you all through the week ;)

Hannah's Italian Chicken Skillet

It was 61° in Austin today, so it feels like summer to me... but the rest of you can make this tomorrow to bring that feeling into your homes ;) ha!
I made this for dinner tonight, and it got a thumbs up from both Ritchie & I. Pretty easy to make, SUPER yummy, and the fresh produce totally made me think of summer :) Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 boneless chicken breasts
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 small onion, peeled & diced
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled & thinly sliced
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cup roasted red pepper, diced
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped

Confession time: I totally didn't have fresh basil. I just sprinkled some basil from my spice rack into the skillet, and it still tasted great. But I guess if you have the fresh stuff... go for it ;)

Directions

Season chicken breasts with salt & pepper on both sides.

Heat up the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and add the chicken. Cook for 4-5 minutes on one side, then flip and cook for an additional 4-5 minutes until the chicken is cooked all the way through. Put chicken on a separate plate.

Add the onions to the remaining oil in the skillet, and sauté for about 3 minutes until mostly cooked. Then add the tomatoes and garlic, and sauté again for another 3-4 minutes. Add the roasted red peppers and basil, and sauté for one more minute :)

Add the chicken back to the pan, stir together, and then serve warm.

We added some grated parmesan and served it with pasta, but let me know if you try any other sides! Also, I pretty much cook for Ritchie & I, and then give Leah some from my plate. But this recipe could easily be doubled for those of you with more mouths to feed :) Love you all!

this little cutie was my helper tonight :)

Katie's Salsa Chicken

This is a play off of "Hawaiian Haystacks", Enjoy!!

6 frozen chicken tenders
1 can cream of chicken
1 can (more or less) of salsa (use same can from cream of chicken)
A dollop of sour cream
1/2 cup (or so) of grated cheese - mix in half way through process

Place in crock pot on low for 6-8 hrs or high 4-6 hrs.  Once it's done, mix together and shred the chicken with a fork and knife.  Refrigerate leftovers.

Serve over rice with the following toppings (or any other toppings you would normally use in Hawaiian Haystacks, or you can even eat this without toppings and it will still be yummy!):

• Grated cheese
• Chowmein noodles (or instead, mashed tortilla chips for added texture)
• Chopped tomatoes
• Chopped bell peppers
• Sour Cream
• Chopped celery 

I have a rice cooker and about 20 minutes before dinner time, I get the rice going.  

This recipe is good to last Chris and I another 2 meals (3 meals total).  You can adjust the amounts of each ingredient based on how much chicken you want in the sauce or how cheesy/salsa-y/creamy you want it to be (I am always experimenting, so mine is always changing and it is always amazing!).

On the nights we have this as leftovers, I make a new batch of rice that day and add on toppings!  

***You can also use the crock pot 'mix' from this recipe as a yummy chip dip!***