Three Bean Soup and More Pasta.....

For Christmas I made everyone on my side and my husbands side of the family a jar or soup. Uncooked soup that is. It was a three bean soup, and I did not take a picture of the jars for some odd reason. I wish I would have though, because, they turned out really cute. I put the seasonings in the bottom of the jar, which consisted of 1 tablespoon of chili powder, 1 teaspoon of cumin and a 1/2 teaspoon of oregano. The next layer was 1/3 cup black beans, then 1/2 cup barley, then 1/3 cup kidney beans and last was 1/3 cup of white beans. I bought some Christmas dish towels, which I cut up into smaller squares to make covers for the lids. I tied the little covers and cooking directions on with some Christmas cord. Can you picture what it might have looked like?

Well, after I had passed all the gift jars out, I had an extra one, so I thought I should try it out myself. To make the soup, you add the jar of soup mixture into a stock pot of water and veggie broth. I don't remember he exact measurements of the liquids (sorry). I sauteed an onion, red pepper, and a carrot (sliced) and added that into the pot of soup mixture. I felt like the soup was still lacking something, so I also added a can of diced tomatoes along with salt, pepper and some garlic. I let all that cook for about 2 hours, until the beans were tender. I thought it was very tasty. Everyone loved getting the jarred soup as a gift. Tony's sister even made hers Christmas night. She said they loved it. Here's a picture of some of the left over soup that I had for lunch. Sorry, no pretty bowls or silverware at work...

Yep...pasta again for supper last night. This was another one of those times where I looked in the pantry, frig and freezer about 5 times each......trying to figure out what to cook for supper. I decided I wanted pasta again. I cooked some whole wheat linguine. As that was cooking, I warmed up some Tofurky Italian Sausage in a non stick skillet. After the pasta had finished cooking, I drained it and added it into the skillet with the sausage. I was out of red wine, so I doused it with some white wine and olive oil, then I added some oregano, garlic powder, basil and rosemary. After that had sauteed for a bit, I added a handful of fresh spinach and tossed it around a few times. What a combination! I was keeping my fingers crossed in hopes that it would be as good as I was hoping it to be. What do you know....it was! That crescent roll made it even better. :o) I think fresh garlic would have been better in this dish, but I was feeling lazy and didn't want to take the time to peel and chop it.

~Peace~