Quick Black Bean Tortilla Soup

This recipe was adapted from a recipe in an Everyday Food Light cookbook that I own. It was quick and had lots of flavor. It would be good with a some shredded chicken and/or avocado added or a light salad on the side. We ate it by itself and found it very filling. I have a crock-pot recipe for a chicken tortilla soup, but this is so easy. I may not use the crock-pot version again.

Ingredients:

1T olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced (you can never have too much garlic...ha)
1t chili powder
2 bay leaves*
1t cumin*
2 cans diced tomatoes with juice (14.5 oz. each)
14.5 oz. chicken broth (vegetable if you want this to vegetarian)
1 package (10 oz.) frozen corn
1c water
salt and pepper
1c crumbled tortilla chips
1 lime
a little shredded cheese...don't add too much if you want it to be healthy.

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium. Add garlic, chili powder and cumin. Stir until fragrant. Add tomatoes, beans, broth, corn, water and bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer. Add tortilla chips and cook until soft. Just a few minutes. Remove from heat, stir in juice from one lime and season to taste with salt and pepper. 
3. Remove bay leaves. Add a few more chips and some shredded cheese if desired. This would also be the time to add the avocado if you want. 

Roasted Green Beans with Lemon Zest and Fresh Garlic

I haven't forgotten about this blog. I'm just way too busy.

It's much easier for me to type out a recipe than hand write it in my recipe book. So this is where I store 'the good ones' until I get around to recording them.

Tonight, I made the best green beans I've ever eaten. It's not anything fancy or complicated.  I'm sure there are versions of this recipe floating around all over the Internet.

We ate the beans too fast for me to take a picture.
Here is what was left.

Ingredients:

• Frozen Green Beans (Fresh would have been better)
• 1 T (or so...)Olive Oil 
• 3 Cloves of Garlic, minced
• Zest from 1 Lemon
• Salt (to taste)

How to Cook:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Spread green beans evenly over baking sheet.
• drizzle olive oil over beans, try to get them all (you could toss the beans with the oil in a bowl before)
• sprinkle minced garlic, lemon zest and salt over the beans (as evenly as possible)
• Roast 30 min for frozen beans (a little less for fresh) 

Roasting vegetables is one of my new favorite ways to cook them. Just be careful and don't use too much olive oil. It is good for you, but it's high in calories.