Black Bean and Corn Soup

Fall is here and the weather's finally cool enough to think "soup".  The St. Petersburg Times featured an article on 25 quick recipes that sound easy (and yummy).  I went right for the Black Bean and Corn Soup--healthy and tasty.


Yes--there's a whole jalapeno in there, but the soup is not spicy.  My only complaint was that the soup was a little thin and 1 cup of corn looked a bit lonely.  So I added 2 cups. 


I plan to make this again--with either a little less chicken broth or more black beans.


Black Bean and Corn Soup


Ingredients
1 onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, diced
1 clove garlic, diced
olive oil
4 cups chicken broth
2 cans drained black beans
1 tsp cumin
1 cup frozen corn kernels (I used 2 cups)
sour cream (optional)

1-  Saute onion, jalapeno, and garlic in olive oil.
2-  Add chicken broth, black beans, and cumin.
3-  Simmer for 10 minutes.
4-  Puree soup and return to pan.
5-  Add frozen corn and heat through.
6-  Serve with sour cream.


Working my way through some new recipes.  I'll be sure to share the good ones.

Banana-Bran Muffins

Don't touch those bananas--I mean for them to turn brown.  Today we made "Banana Bran Muffins", one of our favorite snacks.  The basic recipe is from Mommy Made*and Daddy too!  Home Cooking for a Healthy Baby & Toddler, but I've tweaked it over the years.

It's a big ol' plate of happy....

Banana-Bran Muffins

Makes approx. 12 full size or 24 mini muffins

Dry ingredients:

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, sifted

1/2 cup wheat bran (I've also used wheat germ)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Wet ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1 1/4 cups pureed ripe banana (about 3-4 medium-large bananas)

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Add ins (optional)

Semi-sweet chocolate chips

Nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare muffin tins (lightly grease or line with paper baking cups).

Stir dry ingredients together in one bowl.  Use a larger bowl to mix the wet ingredients together.  Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Add your add-in(s) and stir until just blended. 

Fill muffin tins about 2/3 full.  Bake 15-20 minutes--until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  

My recipe says they'll keep for a few days.  We've never had any stay around that long!

Bunny Munch Baskets

The preschool Easter party was this week and I signed up to bring a “fruit/vegetable” snack.  Great.  Now all I needed was an idea.

An Internet search revealed that most of the featured snacks for Easter involved eggs or some sort of carbo-sweet. Wrong food groups.  So I invented this basket of bunny food to add some fun nutrition to our festivities.

The basket is simple: a paper cupcake liner.  I put coconut in a baggie with a few drops of green food coloring. A few shakes later I had edible grass to line the baskets.

I filled the baskets with colorful fruits and veggies that a bunny might eat. I like the contrast between orange and green and we all know that bunnies like carrots, so matchstick carrots went in first.  Grapes, apples, and cantaloupes are on sale this week, but there’s no end to what can be included: strawberries, thin celery sticks, blueberries. Slice the larger fruits into bite sized pieces.  I cut and prepared everything in advance, so assembly only took a few minutes.

There was a little something for everyone.  Some kids passed on the coconut, but eyes sparkled at the colorful array of goodies.

The Write Thing

Two hours.  I knew I'd have two whole hours to myself to work on Ruth.

Daddy took DW to his first baseball game.  Baby J and I would have dinner, playtime, then bath and bed. The balance of the evening (until the guys got home) belonged to me.  I'd even watched the Tour in the afternoon so that tonight would be distraction free.  I planned to spend two hours writing.

But unfinished tasks got in the way.  My eBay auction was doing well.  Very well. I needed to pull together clothing for the next auction. But what's this?  More summer clothes the baby's outgrown. I realized I had another mixed lot of toddler clothes. Hmm. I need the cash and summer's half over. Better get this lot online now.

Task #1 - get a box of items listed, photographed, weighed and ready to go on the auction block

Then there's Sunday dinner.  I could leave the preparation until Sunday afternoon, but DW has a birthday party to attend after church.  Our neighbor is turning three. The party will be a blast. And my spinach cheese manicotti tastes much better if it's prepped the night before it's cooked.

Task #2 - make ahead spinach manicotti so I can play (not cook) on Sunday

Task #3 - wrap presents so that I'm not a hurried, crabby Mommy on Sunday afternoon

There goes my two free hours.

But, as I stood in my kitchen stuffing manicotti, I realized that tonight's tasks were best done tonight. What took me two (well, 3) hours to do by myself would take much longer if I had to work around my family.  My auction ended well.  Hopefully the next batch of clothes will exceed expectations.  Dinner tomorrow will be delicious. Best of all, I can focus on worship and family on the Sabbath instead of unfinished tasks.

Tonight's jobs weren't the write thing to do. But they were the right thing to do.