Monday's Menu Highlight

Happy Monday Everyone! I hope everyone's Valentine's Day was wonderful. I was on a business trip last week and came home on Thursday when Handy Andy was gone. My amazing husband left the following surprise for me when I got home from the airport:

Nope, I'm not the flowers type. Give me some almonds and cupcakes, and I'm good to go! :)

Completely contrary to those two cupcakes...I have been trying to make some changes to our eating habits. Generally we do pretty well with eating healthy, but apparently I'm genetically prone to high cholesterol...so that's awesome... Because of that wonderful piece of news, I'm trying to eat less carbs, and sugar, and more veggies, beans, nuts, and other things that are good for lowering cholesterol. 

Anyway, I've spent the last several weeks trying new healthy recipes, and I've found some really good ones! So I wanted to share some of them with you by weekly highlighting a great recipe I've found, in case you were a little tired of your classic choices.

The highlight from this week's menu plan is:

Black Bean Soup

I was a little unsure of this recipe, but turns out it is the BOMB! Seriously, so good. And bonus, Handy Andy loved it too (usually he doesn't love any recipe that doesn't include meat). The recipe is from Iowa Girl Eats, and I'm so happy she shared it!

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 small onion, minced
2 garlic cloves
salt and pepper
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
2 cans seasoned black beans, drained but not rinsed (I used Trader Joe’s Cuban-style beans)
1-1/2 cups water
1 cup chicken broth
4-5 dashes green Tabasco sauce
Toppers: sliced avocado, salsa, sour cream
For the Cilantro-Lime Rice:
1 cup long grain white rice
2 cups water
1 Tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
juice of 1/2 lime
3 Tablespoons chopped cilantro

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add onion, season with salt and pepper, then saute until soft, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and saute for 30 more seconds, stirring constantly. Add chili powder and cumin then saute for 30 more seconds.
2. Add drained beans, water, and chicken broth, bring soup to a boil, then lower heat slightly and simmer for 15 minutes. Scoop 2 ladle-fulls of soup into a blender or food processor then blend until almost smooth. Alternatively use a hand-held immersion blender to process 1/3 of the beans in the soup pot. Add blended soup back into the pot then add hot sauce and stir to combine.
3. For the Chipotle-Lime Rice: While soup is simmering, bring water, oil, and salt to a boil in a saucepan. Add rice, place a lid on top, then turn heat down to medium-low and simmer until rice is tender, about 15 minutes. Stir to fluff then add lime juice and chopped cilantro.
4. To serve, scoop cooked rice into bottom of bowls then top with hot soup. Top with sliced avocado, salsa, sour cream, etc.

 I hope you try this recipe! Thanks for stopping by!