Sitting, waiting, wishing

  I’m busy stalking our UPS man today.  My new Macbook Pro arrives this afternoon.  Its going to be a lonnnnnnggggg day waiting for it to show up.  My luck, it will arrive damaged or something and Trishy will LOSE IT!  LOL.  It better not.  I know this computer is going to lift MY winter spirits….but what about these kids???  They’ve been sick for the last week or so.  Both seem to have a cough and cold.  Crusty noses.  Avery had pink eye.  It was good times around here. 

I made soup to try and fix them.  I bet you can guess that no one ate it but me!  

This was good though.  It’s from Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook by Kim Barnouin.  She is vegan, so clearly this is a vegan soup.  I like that because I seem to be having “issues” with dairy lately and have noticed I do A LOT better when I don’t eat any dairy products.  Anyway, this is the Black Bean and Tomato Soup.  But to be honest, it was more like a red pepper soup to me.  It tasted VERY red peppery.  Which I like.  I tried convincing Dylan that if he ate the soup, he would have SUPER EYES but it didn’t work like it has in the past.  I blame it on sickness.  He hasn’t even been eating his eggos and that’s just NOT like him. Here

‘s the recipe, if you are interested:

Black Bean and Tomato Soup

Skinny Bitch Ultimate Everyday Cookbook

Kim Barnouin

Makes 6 servings

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (I used safflower oil, but you could use olive oil too I’m sure)

1 small onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, chopped

1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin

2 15 ounce cans black beans, rinsed
1 28 ounce can stewed tomatoes
1/2 cup corn, fresh or frozen
3 cups vegetable broth (I omitted this entirely – I think this is a type-o in the book because had I included it – this soup would have been WAAAAAAAAY too watery)
1 cup water
1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsps worcestershire sauce
Juice of half a lime
1/2 tsp salt
1 TB chopped green onions
1 TB chopped fresh cilantro

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add the onion and saute 3 to 4 minutes.  Add the garlic and red bell pepper, and saute about 30 seconds.  Add the chili powder and cumin, and stir until well combined.  Add the black berans, tomatoes, corn, water, oregano, red pepper flakes and worcestershire sauce.  Stir and simmer about 15 minutes.  Transfer half of the soup to a blender or food processor.  Let sit about 10 minutes to cool and then blend until creamy before returning to pan.  Add the lime juice and salt.  Stir and simmer 5 minutes.  Garnish with the green onions and cilantro. 

I didn’t do the whole blender/food processor step and just used my stick blender to blend it all up in the pan.  It takes a little while to get it all blended up evenly, but it sure beats washing more dishes!  What would REALLY be awesome is if I had a Vitamix and I could just do it all in that.  Did you know that you can bring soups to a boil in a Vitamix????  A Vitamix is DEFINITELY on my wish list.  Seriously – go look at their website and the recipe section and try to tell me that YOU don’t want one too.  They can pretty much do anything!  Guess I’ll have to look around the house for more things to sell so I can get one cuz they are $$$.  But really, I think its something I would use on a daily basis so I think it will be worth it for me.  Now, what to sell….anyone want a small blonde boy with a matching baby sister? Just kidding!  But really, it’s going to have to be high ticket items that will get me this blender (read: things I don’t REALLY want to get rid of, but will have to part with in order to get this blender).  Okay, enough about the blender.

Back to my sick children.  I just wrestled Avery to the ground in an effort to wipe her nose.  She is one tough baby.  Her only defense is to drop to the floor and scream at me.  Sadly for her, mommy is super strong!  Ha!  Dylan is better about it but used to be the same way.  I

know what will make them all better though – sunshine.  

We go to South Padre Island 2 weeks from today and I think that will be what finally cures us.  

Plus, it will be nice that we can flush the toilet and do laundry down there!    Yeah, I think when I wrote my last post, I was in the midst of dealing with getting the septic tank pumped.  Since then, we’ve been told its partially frozen and we can only put 1200 gallons of water into it before its full again.  So this means, flushing the toilet for poo only (yay), doing laundry at a laundry mat (yay again) and taking super short showers.  And many other unpleasant things until it thaws out sometime in April.  Shoot me now, people.  Shoot me now.

 

Well, I have to go sit by the front window and wait for my computer.  Catch ya later on my MAC!