Good for the Soul and Belly - White Bean Chili

It's finally starting to feel like soup weather! Hooray.

We celebrated soup weather this past week with a random rendition of white-bean chili. I doubled the recipe so Tyler and I had leftovers the next day for lunch, AND we had a whole extra container left for the freezer. On a tip from a friend, I'm doubling my recipes and freezing half for busy days later in the fall/winter. Great idea, Faith! 

Tyler loved this soup. He ate two bowls, had a stomach ache later (from eating too much, not the soup), but still wanted more the next day for lunch. I'm definitely making it again.

What you need:

- 1 tbsp EVOO

- 2 medium onions, diced

- 4 cloves garlic, pressed/chopped/mashed

- 1 small can diced tomatoes and chilis

- 4 tsp. cumin

- 3 tsp. oregano

- 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (I used a half, and it was too much - I'm cutting back next time)

- 2 tsp. salt

- 4 cans great northern beans

- 1 can refried beans (gives the soup multiple textures of beans)

- 8 cups. vegetable broth

- 5 corn tortillas

- Cheese (optional)

- Light Sour Cream (optional)

1. Cook the onion in the EVOO until onion is translucent.

2. Add seasonings and cook another minute.

3. Add everything else into soup.

4. Simmer 1.5 hours.

5. Preheat over to 350. Slice corn tortillas into strips.

6. Bake 10-12 minutes, or until browned.

7. Serve soup with tortilla strips, cheese, faux cheese, and sour cream.

White Bean Chili

Absolutely Delicious

Halloween Costumes, Amelia, and the Secret Service

Thanks to my brother-in-law, Darren, I'm loving the sound of this girl here. I just love new music.

Trying to plan for the hours I'll have to spend sewing, or learning to sew, I went ahead and bought this lovely sewing pattern for children's pajamas. E decided on a the Red Ninjago, Kai, for Halloween this year.

...into this?

Turning this...

I'm hoping the pajamas (2nd to left) will make a successful ninja suit, if I use red fabric, and then E can use them the rest of the winter as pajamas. I'm hoping this plan will work so I can save money. I may be too ambitious, but more to come on that later. Any tips for sewing successfully?

Apparently there is a large secret service presence in our neighborhood today. Tyler chatted with the principal at E's school when he dropped him off, and the VP is in the neighborhood for a luncheon. I'm going for a run later, so I'll be on the lookout. On the running note, I'm keeping up with this schedule for my half-marathon at the end of October, but it's definitely been tough to stay on track since our weekends are really busy.

Nashville, Part 1 of ?

"Hey, do you guys want to go to Nashville?" Silence.   "ABSOLUTELY!"

LaCross Family

This is how the conversation went with Tyler's parents a few months ago when they said they were going to Nashville for a vacation. Oh and they wanted to take us, too! I'd never been to Nashville and had never spent a whole week with my in-laws (including my brother-in-law) so I was a bit nervous. People always tell you it's super hard to spend time with your in-laws for a whole week. Sometimes it's even hard to spend time with your own family for that long.

Ethan and Mrs. Pam - Cowboys Forever!

"A Cowboy is Born" -Pam LaCross, Photo by Tyler

But honestly, it was great. I definitely saw more differences between how our families function with schedules and traveling, but I learned not to expect Tyler's family to be like mine very quickly after we were engaged. Different isn't necessarily bad, it's just not what someone's used to or has grown around. So I tried to be happy out of my "comfort zone," and I was. I was happy. Nashville was great, and we had fun as a family.

Ethan, Jonathan, and Pam got cowboy hats while we were there. The cowboy hat has come in handy for any random Nerf fights Tyler or I have had with Ethan. It's also useful as a "helmet" while riding your horse, which I've had to explain isn't the legal standard in the state of NC. 

We went to the Grand Ole Opry and saw Rascal Flatts. Ethan didn't really enjoy the Grand Ole Opry experience until the last song. Who doesn't love the Car's theme, "Life is a Highway" (originally by Tom Cochrane)? Ethan loved it. It made the whole Opry experience worth it.

L to R: Pam, Randy, Jonathan, Tyler, Ethan, and Me at the Opry

What trip to Nashville would be complete without a trip to the Loveless Cafe? Famous for biscuits and fried chicken, this place was rockin' and had a long wait even at 1:45 p.m. Well worth it.  I love the history of this place! They got their start just handing out food to passing travelers back in the early 1950s. Back then, they used the front door of their home as their "order here" spot, and travelers only had one option: chicken and biscuits. Tyler bought me some biscuit mix at their store. I just need to buy some buttermilk and we'll be set. Everyone's invited over for a biscuit party!

No Words.

Produce Explosion

Pam's Garden Bounty

Look at this amazing selection of produce my mother shared with me! The question is: how do I use this all before it goes bad with a family of three? I don't. I use some of it and preserve the rest until later.

Hanging out in the cold water bath

Finished product.

I decided to blanch and freeze the green beans because I already had some in the fridge. I broke the rules and used scissors to cut off the ends of my green beans. I know that may be "bad" but I found it much faster, and Ethan was waiting on me to play Legos (Mom life). After trimming them up, I boiled them for three minutes and then put them in a water bath for three. After draining them, I put them in a random jar I had waiting around. Then I labeled it and stuck it in the freezer. It was quick and easy. I'll make sure to use them within a month or two.

Dinner in One Bowl

I also made a veggie spaghetti dish. I didn't use traditional pasta sauce with this one, which made me a bit nervous because kids are picky. The key to using veggies in this situation was to spice it right. I sauteed up onion, eggplant, bell pepper, corn, and tomatoes in olive oil. My spices were cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, fresh basil and oregano from the garden, sage, and then I threw in a little sriracha sauce for some heat. It's definitely easy to over spice things, but because I had so many veggies and tomatoes don't have the same flavor as tomato sauce, I had to kick it up a notch. I boiled the spaghetti and added it to the other. Ethan ate his veggies without much complaint.

I'm going to make the okra tomorrow.

Pizza, Pizza.

Oven-Roasted

Herbs

Using the scrumptious pita bread I made yesterday, I made one of Ethan's favorites for dinner. However, this time everything was a bit more legit. My mother finally has a garden!!! She's been wanting to have an official garden for years now, and my father finally built her one, complete with a fence to keep deer from eating all the goodness. So before I left last weekend, she gave me pounds of tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, and peppers. She has a whole entire green hand, not just a thumb.

With all these extra goodies, I decided to make my own pizza sauce and use some of the veggies for topping. I started by quartering the tomatoes and oven-roasting them with EVOO and some thyme. They roasted at 300 for an hour. The cool thing about making sauce this way is that it can be made the night before. I roasted the tomatoes when I knew I'd be home for an hour. I happen to be staying home this summer and not working, so I had all day. But if it had been during the school year, I may have roasted them the night before while our family was eating dinner. It's a convenience thing.

Before 

Finished

After roasting the tomatoes, I threw them in the food processor with dashes of salt, pepper, sage, rosemary, a Tbsp. EVOO, 3 garlic cloves, and some herbs from the garden.


I grabbed a whole handful of basil, some chives(random) and some oregano from my little front-porch herb garden. They added a kick of flavor to the tomatoes, making it a real sauce instead of mere cooked tomatoes. Watching the tomatoes and spices blend together was such a beautiful kaleidoscope of colors and flavors. It was definitely the best tomato sauce I've made. The thickness of the sauce could be thinned with more olive oil or some lemon juice if I wanted a spaghetti sauce instead of a pizza sauce. 

Drying it Out

Next on the list: Tofu. One of my great friends, Mrs. Faith, encourages me to try new things. We constantly share recipes or ideas when we chat. She has a blog you can check out here. Granted, she hasn't updated it in a while, but maybe this is the motivation she needs to get back to it. A while ago she shared her favorite way to make tofu with me (I think you can find it on her blog). 

Cooked up

The key to yummy tofu is drying it out. Faith uses a pan to do this. I have done that but also like using the oven because it's less time consuming. I slice and cut up the tofu, placing it on a towel that won't stick to the tofu. There is nothing worse than towel fiber all over your uncooked tofu. I dry it out while the oven preheats to 350. Then I cook the tofu about 10 minutes on each side. You can see when the tofu starts turning golden. Cooking the tofu brings out the actual flavor of it. 


Believe it or not, tofu has it's own flavor when cooked, folks. It's a miracle.

Soy Cheese

After it's cooked, I sometimes marinade it, sometimes not. For the pita pizzas, I did not marinade it. If I make the same tofu for a asian rice bowl, I always marinade it in soy, garlic, saki, some pineapple, sesame seeds, etc. You could use the same marinade and make an asian-style pizza.

Salad

Next I put the pizzas together, using the sauce, tofu, some flax seed for added nutrients, green onion, Trader Joe's Roasted peppers and Kalamata Olives, and Soy Cheese. Soy Cheese is really important to this recipe because cheese is the dairy product I need to avoid. Ethan sometimes has trouble digesting lactose, so we often find ourselves eating dairy-free meals. This is problematic when your 7-year-old's favorite food is pizza. This particular soy cheese, bought at Trader Joe's, was great and tasted identical to cheese. Fake cheese can be a disappointment if you just eat it plain, but baked on the pita pizzas, I really couldn't tell a difference. I cooked them at 350 for 8-10 minutes. The cheese melted but didn't really turn brown.

Chill Ethan

I threw a salad together with spinach, tomatoes, and cucumber from my mother's garden. We used leftover Moe's dressing from Tuesday night, when kids eat free at Moe's, and our dinner was ready.


I think I went over well.