Sausage with Spinach, White Beans & Tomatoes

HOWDY everyone!  I hope this fall finds you well & happy.  My hubby & I recently returned from a much-needed vacation visiting family in Colorado.  It was wonderfully relaxing and filled with quality family time.  We greatly enjoyed the respite from 3-digit temperatures too.  We’re back home now, and despite the still-hot temps here at home, I’m craving some of my favorite fall recipes.

I came across this one online a year or two ago, and it has become a real favorite at our house.  I made a few minor adjustments to the original recipe, but it is really simple, and comes together really quickly.  It’s perfect for a quick & hearty meal when you don’t have much time.  Just add a loaf of crusty bread, and enjoy!

Sausage with Spinach, White Beans & Tomatoes

Ingredients:

3/4 pound kielbasa (sliced into rounds, or half-rounds, and browned)

1 cup chicken broth

4 cloves of garlic

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (or 1 tsp fresh from garden)

Ground cayenne pepper (to taste…NOT TOO MUCH!)

2 cups Cannellini beans (rinsed well - approx. 1-19 oz. can)

Two medium sized tomatoes diced small (about 1 cup or so)

6 cups baby spinach leaves (in a pinch, you can also use frozen, chopped spinach - thawed)

Freshly cracked pepper to taste

Directions

Brown sausage rounds and remove to a bowl.  Save drippings in pan.

Pour chicken broth and garlic into the skillet you cooked the sausage in, to deglaze.  Place on medium high heat and bring to a simmer.

Add oregano, ground cayenne pepper and beans.  Stir well before adding tomatoes.

Heat through till the beans are tender.  It won't take long at all.

Once beans are tender, add in the spinach and cook just until the leaves are wilted.

Stir in cooked sausage and sprinkle cracked pepper on top.

Serve with crusty bread and a big spoon!   (Also good served over brown rice!)

I really hope you’ll give this one a try.  It’s sure to become a family favorite at your house too!  If you do, please let me know...I'd love your feedback.

I pray your weekend is going well.  I plan to watch my Aggies BTHO Arkansas tonight!

Blessings…and Gig’em!

--Faithy

Asparagus, Tomato & Avocado Salad

HOWDY my friends...I hope that everyone enjoyed a blessed Easter weekend.  Our weekend was wonderfully busy hosting our annual family reunion BBQ bash (204 in attendance this year!), but Easter Sunday was much more laid back and relaxed as a much smaller group of us attended church and had lunch together to celebrate the resurrection of our precious Lord Jesus!  Then hubby & I enjoyed a nice, S-L-O-W, afternoon watching old movies, and being determined to put off any major party follow-up tasks (cleaning the house and putting away all the stuff, etc.) until later in the week.

It was a very refreshing, uplifting weekend for me, filled with fun, food, family & friends AND a glorious celebration of the resurrection!  Thanks God...I needed that!

Anyway...now that I'm getting back to "real life", I thought I'd share an incredibly yummy recipe I found over on my friend Kathleen's blog last week.  Asparagus and avocado sounded like an interesting combination, so I just had to try it out.  It was so yummy, my hubby didn't even get much (just his initial serving. and he really liked it too), as I promptly cleaned out the entire bowl!  And yes, I even licked out all the good stuff at the end! 

We were busy with our Easter party preparations, so we didn't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen last week.  This recipe was really quick & easy, so it fit the bill perfectly.  I served it with some simple pan-seared pork chops (just plain pork chops seasoned with little seasoned salt).  YUM!  Kathleen served hers with some broiled salmon, which sounds good too.  I also think it would go well with just about any grilled or broiled meat...or just by itself.

Asparagus, Tomato & Avocado Salad

For salad:
1 bunch of fresh asparagus (I prefer to use the small stemmed asparagus)
1 pint of cherry (or grape) tomatoes (halved)
1 Haas avocado, ripe (I think I used 2 small avocados)
Mexican crumbling cheese - optional (I added this, and we really liked it.  I think Feta cheese would be good too.  Heck, if you really want to go crazy, some crumbled bacon would probably be delish!)

 
For dressing:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp whole grain mustard
juice of one medium lemon
kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper & granulated garlic to taste (I added the garlic, 'cause I LOVE garlic...feel free to leave it out if you don't.)

Whisk together dressing ingredients, and let stand to allow the flavors to develop while you assemble the salad.

Trim or snap the tough stem ends of asparagus and discard.  Cut the spears into bite-sized pieces.  In a large skillet (with a lid), bring enough water to cover bottom bottom of pan and a pinch of salt to a boil.  Add asparagus, cover and boil for three minutes.  Quickly remove from heat and rinse in cold water to STOP cooking, and keep it crisp.  Drain well.

Cube avocado, and toss with the asparagus and tomatoes in a large bowl. 

Pour dressing over salad and serve.  (NOTE:  I did NOT use all the dressing...just enough to flavor it all, not drown it.  :-)  The leftover dressing is delicious on a regular green salad, or a tomato/cucumber salad too.  I'm going to have to keep that as a separate recipe for future use as well.)

We'll DEFINITELY be having this again...soon!  Be sure to give it a try, I can't recommend it highly enough.

As a side note, I'm a huge fan of avocados...they taste good, AND they're very nutritious.  I came across this website with all kinds of interesting information about avocados, and tons of recipes.  Can't wait to try some of them.

Okay...enough rambling for today.  TRY THIS RECIPE!!!  (Did I already say that?!)  Then let me know what you think.  And don't forget to stop by and say hello to Kathleen, and thank her for passing it along! 

Blessings,
--Faithy 

“Use It Up” Soup

HOWDY friends!  Brrrrrrrr…it’s cold outside!  Temps are only in the mid 30’s here in South Texas...all day today!  This weather put me in the mood for some hearty soup, so I went looking in my refrigerator & pantry to see what I could throw together.  I decided to just experiment today, and this is what I came up with.  It turned out REALLY good, so I thought I’d share the recipe with you.  Feel free to adapt it to fit whatever you have in YOUR pantry or refrigerator.  LOL!  If you come up with something really yummy, please share your recipe with me too!

Can you smell this?  It smells heavenly!

“Use It Up” Soup

3/4 cup chopped celery (I had some celery & carrots left over from Thanksgiving, that needed to be used)

1/2 cup diced carrots

1 large sweet onion, diced

1/8 cup chopped jalapeño peppers (I had a few small ones left in my garden that had to be pulled before last night’s freeze)

3 cloves fresh garlic, chopped (because I put garlic in practically everything I cook!)

1 Tbsp. butter

1 (15.5 oz) can dark red kidney beans, rinsed & drained

1 (15 oz.) can mayocoba beans, rinsed & drained (or any white bean you like)

1 (15 oz.) can black beans, rinsed & drained (I used some that had jalapeño & lime in them)

1 (14.5 oz.) can diced, fire-roasted tomatoes

1 (32 oz) carton low-sodium beef broth (you could also use chicken or vegetable broth)

1 small link smoked sausage, diced (I used a pork/beef sausage with hatch green chili - you could leave this out if you want, the soup is very hearty even without it)

6 cups water (I started out with 4 cups, and added more as the soup cooked…just use your own judgment on this and make it to the consistency YOU prefer)

1/8 tsp. black pepper

1/4 tsp. dried thyme (fresh would be better if you have any - my thyme plant didn’t survive the past few weeks)

1/4 tsp. soul seasoning (or whatever seasonings you prefer)

1/3 of a 16 oz. bag frozen chopped collard greens (spinach - or some diced cabbage - would be good too)

1 large baking potato, diced

4 Tbsp That Green Sauce, mild (I got some of this stuff free with some other purchases at the grocery store.  I don't like it much on it's own, but it really added a nice flavor to the soup!  Glad I finally found a way to use it!)

Sauté celery, carrots, onion, jalapeños & garlic in butter until softened.  Add all remaining ingredients (except for That Green Sauce) and stir well.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 1-1/2 to 2 hours, or until reduced and thickened a bit.

All the veggies are in, and starting to cook!

Stir in That Green Sauce about 10 minutes before serving.

If you want a creamier, less chunky soup, you can use an immersion blender to emulsify some (but NOT all) of the veggies.

Serve with a nice loaf of crusty bread or some hot biscuits!

I found some Hatch Chili & Cheddar scones in the freezer that needed to be used...
that worked out well!

This stuff really hit the spot for me today.  Hope you like it too!

Stay warm out there!

Blessings,

--Faithy