Black Bean Soup

I've been trying different black bean soup recipes lately and none have been all that great. I decided to try another one a few days ago and well, the final product was not a whole lot like the original. I did use some of the spices in different measure but added a lot of my own flavors to it and you know what, my family loved it. My kids ate it up, I thought it was great and my meat adoring husband thought it was wonderful. It's a definite keeper of a soup for a cheap meal on a cold day.

1 pound dried black beans
1/2 large onion
5 cloves garlic
4-5 carrots, peeled
3 potatoes, diced (I do not peel mine but if you want to it would be fine)
1 8 oz. can of tomato sauce (if you like the texture of tomatoes you can use chopped tomatoes instead)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp liquid smoke (I used hickory flavor but any will do)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 bay leaf
salt to taste
7-8 cups water
2 tbsp chicken flavored bouillon (I used better than bouillon brand)

Soak the beans overnight. Drain. Add beans to a stock pot and add the water. I put my onion, garlic and carrots in a food processor to chop but you can do it by hand. Either way, add the veggies and potato as well as all the spices (except for the salt and bouillon) and liquid smoke. Bring the soup to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer until beans are tender and soup begins to thicken (about 2-3 hours). Remove bay leaf and discard. Add salt to taste and the bouillon, serve and enjoy!

Just a side note...the reason you add the salt and bouillon at the very end is very simple but something a friend of mine just enlightened me about. Salt causes the beans to NOT become tender so you must add it at the very end. The bouillon is very salty which is why it also must be added at the very end. Anything salty will inhibit your beans from becoming a nice tender texture.

"Creamy" Potato Soup

I LOVE LOVE LOVE potato soup and have tried numerous recipes to hit the spot but once going gfcf I thought my potato soup days were over and it made me quite sad. Daddy Fox is quite the soup lover and it's starting to get chilly here (yes even in Florida we get a chill) so I began to hunt once more for a delicious potato soup recipe that was somehow creamy yet totally dairy free. I ended up taking one recipe and building off of it to make my own perfectly delicious potato soup and it's oh so good! I never thought I'd eat such warming, comforting, most importantly creamy potato soup again.

8 cups water
1 heaping tablespoon better than bouillon chicken base (I use organic, it's way better)
3 pounds potatoes diced (you can peel them but I don't)
7-8 cloves of garlic
1 medium onion
3-4 carrots, peeled and chopped

In a stock pot, place about 3/4's of your diced potatoes and cover with the 8 cups of water. Turn the burner on med-high heat to begin warming while you prepare the remaining veggies. I like to place the whole garlic cloves, the entire onion (quartered) and the carrots (peeling and cut into 3-4 pieces each) into a food processor and chop them all together at once then add to the pot but you can chop them individually and add them that way too. When the water gets warm (but before it's boiling), stir in the bouillon. Once the soup is boiling, reduce the heat and simmer until potatoes are soft. Using an immersion blender, blend until the soup is mostly pureed. Add the remaining potatoes and simmer until potatoes are soft. Serve and enjoy on a crisp, cold evening! (Well any evening will do but the colder the better).

***Tip for peeling garlic: A friend of mine told me this tip about peeling garlic and I will probably never go back to garlic powder again. Take a knife and lay it flat on the clove of garlic (not so that it will cut the clove, lay it on the flat side of the blade). Smash the blade onto the clove with your hand. The clove will crack and the peel will slide right off!***

Veggie Stir Fry

I've been playing around with vegetarian dishes lately. We've cut back on meat since it's quite expensive and well, not exactly the healthiest thing you can eat. It has it's place in my family's diet I'm just not convinced it's place is a daily spot on the dinner table. My husband, however, is a carnivore of carnivore's and could eat meat at every meal of every day! Finding veggie meals that he genuinely enjoys is no easy task but after this stir fry, he was licking his plate clean! Score 1 for momma Fox!

olive oil (or sesame oil for a more Asian flavor, I just didn't have any)
4-5 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 leeks, chopped (greenish white parts only)
2-3 broccoli crowns cut into florets (yeah, my family LOVES us some broccoli)
2 cups uncooked brown rice
5 1/4 cups water
1/2 Tablespoon better than bouillon (veggie for a truly veggie dish, I used beef flavor and spend a little extra and get organic, the ingredients are way better)

Sauce
1/4 cup honey (raw, local is the best)
1/4 cup gluten free soy sauce (you could also use Bragg's amino's instead which I will try next time...never had it but I've been told it tastes exactly like soy sauce)
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (you could use 1-2 cloves garlic added into the veggies while stir frying too but I was lazy when I made it)
1-2 teaspoons cornstarch (depending on how thick you want your sauce)

Cook the brown rice in the water with the bouillon added (you may need to adjust the water amount based on how your brand of rice cooks). While the rice is cooking, use just enough olive oil to stir fry all the veggies (broccoli, carrots and leeks) until just crisp tender and perfect. In a small bowl combine honey, soy sauce, ginger,garlic powder and cornstarch. You can adjust spices to your liking at this point. Add sauce to stir fried veggies and heat until thickened. Serve veggies over brown rice. My kids and husband ate this stir fry up really fast and asked for more! It is amazing. You've got to try it!