Before my husband and I left for Europe I was on an Italian cooking kick. It also didn’t help that the September issue of EveryDay with Rachael Ray was her Italian issue! In my mind, I thought I was doing a good job preparing ourselves for all the amazing food we were about to encounter during our 6 days in Italy!
Boy, was I wrong. Later this month you’ll get to read about my foodie travels throughout Italy. Like I’ve told family and friends… my taste-buds have been forever changed! I digress though… I’m back to reality and am learning to re-adapt my taste-buds. This is a very common and traditional appetizer you would find in the Tuscan region of Italy.
When I think of bruschetta, I think of plump juicy bite-size pieces of tomato with lots of basil. So when I saw and read about various styles of bruschetta I was intrigued! I love white beans and knew that I would equally love this appetizer. If you are entertaining, you could prepare the beans ahead of time and just reheat them before serving to your guest. Oh, and did you know, that if you buy a baguette from your local bakery that they can run it through the bread slicer for you. This frees you up a few additional minutes! If I’m entertaining, I typically have the bakery cut the bread for me! It comes out equal in size and doesn’t cause for all the additional crumbs in the kitchen.
In a small bowl mix thinly sliced onion with lemon juice. Let this sit while you prepare the beans.
In a medium-sized skillet heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-low hear. Grate the garlic in the pan. Add rosemary, and stir for one minute. Add the beans and cook until warm (about 5 minutes). Mix in parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste.
To serve:
Add one spoonful of bean mixture to each slice of baguette and top with lemon-onions. Enjoy!
Notes
Adapted from: EveryDay with Rachael Ray, September 2012
Every now and then I’m looking for a quick dinner to make. One that is semi-homemade and comes with a little added help in the kitchen. Before I left for Europe I was contacted by Progresso to try the new Progresso™ Recipe Starters™. I love Progresso™ soups so I had a feeling I would like this new product. The box arrived while I was on vacation which was perfect timing because I knew once I was home I was going to have a lot of busy days ahead of me and I would need quick meals to make.
The past week has been beyond hectic for me so I had planned to give the Progresso™ Recipe Starters™ creamy roasted garlic with chicken stock sauce a try. What I love about these sauces is that a typical serving size for one 18 ounce can is 4-8 servings! That means you can really stretch the dollar a long way. They have 5 new sauces; Creamy Parmesan Basil, Creamy Portabella Mushroom, Fire Roasted Tomato, Creamy Roasted Garlic, Creamy Three Cheese. I’m not gonna lie. I expected to see goopy sludge like sauce come out of the can, but too my surprise it was “soup” like… a nice consistency and not difficult to remove from the can. Then again, this is Progresso™ who made this new and exciting product! So the next time you are stuck in a dinner time rut, head over to the new Progresso™ Recipe Starters™ page and browse through the 80+ recipes they have on hand!
2 tbsp Old El Paso® taco seasoning mix (from 1-oz package)
1 can (18 oz) Progresso™ Recipe Starters™ creamy roasted garlic with chicken stock cooking sauce
1 cup water
1 can (15 oz) Progresso® black beans, drained, rinsed
1 cup frozen corn
1 tomato, diced
Cilantro, Green Onions, sliced olives and Cheese for topping
Directions
Using a 12-inch skillet, heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil over medium-high heat until hot. Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper to taste. Cook the chicken in oil for 4 to 5 minutes or until browned, turning once. Remove from skillet; cover to keep warm.
Add rice and taco seasoning mix to skillet and stir to mix well. Stir in cooking sauce and 1 cup water. Heat to boiling; cook 5 minutes (stirring frequently). Stir in beans and frozen corn; heat to boiling.
Return the chicken to skillet. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for about 20 to 25 minutes or until liquid is absorbed, rice is tender and juice of chicken is clear when center of thickest part is cut (at least 165°F). During the last 5 minutes of cooking add the diced tomato into the skillet. Mix well.
Serve each person 1-2 chicken strips with a hearty helping of rice and beans. Sprinkle cilantro, green onion, and shredded cheddar cheese over the plate, and top with a few slicked black olives. Enjoy!
Summer wether is officially here in Florida. Technically speaking, according to the calendar I know we have almost a full month until its officially summer, but I’ve been in the mood to grill lately. And with grilling brings on the desire to eat lighter. I decided to whip up a quick Italian-Style white bean dish to go along with our Grilled Italian Sausage with grilled sweet peppers. This is a lighter dish and complimented the grilled meat and veggies perfectly.
I was inspired to make this dish from a cassoulet I made a few years back. It was the perfect cassoulet for a cold winters day and was hearty. Why not make a stove top version of the beans used in the cassoulet to compliment my light and summery meal? This was our main “starch” for the meal and to be honest I didn’t miss rice or pasta or potatoes with this meal.
The fennel adds a nice punch to the dish. If you aren’t familiar with cooking with fennel you need to go out and buy a bulb of fennel stat. I’ve never consumed this root vegetable raw–only well cooked in olive oil or butter. It may look like a lot when you chop it up, but once you’ve sweated it out and sauteed it in oil it reduces down to less than half. As you might be able to tell it resembles the look of celery at times but has a slight anise taste (like licorice). If you’re looking to try a new side dish and break out of the routine of serving the same side dish every night I dare you to try this recipe!
In a large pot add olive oil and bring the pot to high heat. Add the thinly sliced fennel and begin sauteing. Add 1 cup of chicken broth and bring the heat down to medium-high heat placing a lid on top of the pot and letting cook for 10 minutes *check occasionally and stir to make sure fennel is not burning and/or sticking to the bottom of the pot.
After the 10 minutes add chopped garlic and onions to the pot, stir well. Add the remaining 1 cup of chicken broth, stir, reduce heat to medium, and place lid back on the pot cooking for an additional 5 minutes or until onions are translucent.
Add the 2 cans of white beans (do not drain--add the liquid), mix well, and then add the grape tomatoes. Place the lid back on the beans and simmer on low for 5 minutes.
Stir in chopped basil and parsley, and season with cracked black pepper. Mix well, and serve.
Notes
*Do not add salt to this dish. The salt is taken care of thanks to the chicken broth added.
My husband and I try not to frequent chain restaurants. Instead eating at locally owned restaurants. Since we live in Orlando, Florida we have more restaurants here than I think we have time or money to eat at. But there is one chain that we can’t get enough of and I can honestly say we probably eat their once a month… that is Carrabbas. I love their food. We’ve taken our out-of-town family to Carrabbas countless times and now its become a tradition that they have to dine there while on vacation visiting us.
I almost always order a cup of the minestrone soup. It’s chocked full of veggies and beans and the broth has so much flavor to it. I’ve written our local newspaper to see if they will find the recipe and publish it in the weekly restaurant “thought you’d never ask” about this recipe segment–and nothing. I did a little searching on the internet a few months back and that’s when I found this recipe. I guess I never know how many vegetables and beans were really in this soup until I made it. Of course the recipe I found is made to feed an army or probably the exact large batch recipe they use at the restaurant. I think we ate this soup for a week straight and still had a massive container to freeze!
Even though its consistently 90 degrees in Florida right now, I still can’t eat a bowl of soup. You’ll even find me eating a bowl of soup during the “dog days” of summer when its over 100 degrees out. I love soup–and have been known to eat it for breakfast! I’m super thankful that my husband loves to eat soup, too! Although, I don’t think its to my level of soup eating, but he will eat soup nevertheless!
In a 10 quart stock pot heat pot to medium heat and place butter and oil in pot. Sauté celery, onion, carrots and garlic and cook until soft about 5 minutes.
Add green beans, cabbage, zucchini, parsley and basil and cook for about 10 minutes or until soft.
Add chicken stock, bay leaf, tomatoes, prosciutto, romano rind and potatoes. Allow soup to boil and then reduce to a simmer.
Simmer for 30 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Add canned beans with their juices and simmer 5 minutes more.
Remove romano rind and prosciutto. Add grated romano cheese, stirring constantly, serve hot and store remaining soup in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or the freezer for up to 2 months.
Notes
Katie Jasiewicz of Katie's Cucina Adapted from Food.com
I’ve blogged about this recipe before, but that was back in 2010 when my photos were… well, let’s face it on the embarrassing side. Back when I had no idea about food photography and lighting. This is absolutely one of my favorite soups. I easily make a large pot of this every other month.
I created this soup at least 5+ years ago, after watching an episode of Rachael Ray. She made a version of black bean soup that required a variety of spices and additional ingredients. Over time I’ve simplified this recipe so much that it has truly became my own.
The star ingredient to this soup is the shredded carrots. It just doesn’t taste as good without them. Trust me use the shredded carrots–I’ve made the recipe before with diced carrots and I couldn’t even eat it. The other great thing about this recipe is that no one will need to add anything to this soup… the flavors are that robust.
You see, I didn’t grow up eating beans. The only beans I ate were baked beans and even those were hard to force down my throat. It wasn’t until my early 20′s when I started embracing the wide variety of beans out in this massive world of ours.
The beans weren’t the only thing that caught my eye. This soup is chocked full of veggies and its a “souper” hearty meal.
Sorry I had to put the pun in there. I know my good friend Jaclyn would be proud of me.
Back to this soup… I’ve entertained with this soup. I’ve served this to friends who are carnivores and anti-veggie, and somehow they loved this soup. So I know it’s not just me.
My mom has finally started eating black beans all because of this soup. This recipe in fact was the one recipe I had to show her how to make before I moved out of the house 5 years ago. All because my dad and her loved it so much.
I know I’ve already instructed you to trust me in this post, but I really do want you to give this recipe a try. If you love veggies and black beans you won’t be disappointed!
1 can of rotel (depending on how spicy you want it will depend on which can you buy–Original will give you a kick)!
2 cans of black beans
2 (32 oz) boxes of chicken stock (vegetable stock if you are a true vegetarian)
Instructions
Combine the oil, garlic, and onion in a large soup pot over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the shredded carrots and celery and cook for an additional 5 minutes with the lid on. Add the bell pepper and can of rotel. Stir well, and cook on high heat for 5 minutes. *At this point we are doing a quick sweat of the vegetables.
Once the celery looks semi-transparent, add the two cans of black beans *no need to drain the liquid it adds flavor to the soup and the broth.
By now, you know I love cooking vegetarian meals. I’m so lucky that my husband doesn’t mind eating at least one vegetarian meal a week. Sometimes 2-3 if I catch him on a good week! I knew that this might be pushing it on the vegetarian meal level, so I set aside a chicken breast to grill. When I told my husband what we were having that evening he responded “I don’t need any chicken tonight”, and then I showed him the photo (because I think at times I know his eating habits better than he knows his eating habits)! Once I showed him the photo he replied… “ok I need chicken this looks too vegetarian for me!” So I cooked the main dish and he grilled his chicken breast. We both loved this dish, and of course my husband piped in and told me that this dish is best paired with a chicken breast. So, if you aren’t quite ready to take as deep of a vegetarian recipe dive I suggest you serve it with a grilled chicken breast.
I have a few friends who have come to me recently for vegetarian recipes. They want to start cooking at least 1 vegetarian meal a week. One of my friends even wants to start having 3 vegetarian meals a week. My advice to her was to start off slow. Start by making one meal a week. After a few weeks then start cutting back on your meat portions. The suggested servings size of meat is a palm full. Most Americans eat 2-3 times the suggested serving amount. With a dish like this I would suggest to serve half a chicken breast; sliced so it looks like you’re getting more. After all, we eat with our eyes, so illusions can help! Slowly ease yourself into eating a vegetarian meal a week if you aren’t already doing so. Not only is it great for our environment, it helps your health, and your bank account!
In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook broccoli until tender and bright green, about 4 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer broccoli to a food processor. Return water to a boil and cook pasta according to package instructions. Reserve 2 cups pasta water; drain pasta and return to pot.
To food processor, add oil, Parmesan, lemon zest and juice, parsley, and garlic. Puree until smooth, about 2 minutes, scraping down side as needed. Transfer pesto to pot with pasta. Stir to coat, adding enough reserved pasta water to make a creamy sauce. Stir in beans and heat over medium until warmed through. Season with salt and pepper. To serve, sprinkle with Parmesan, if desired.
As part of vacation week here on Katie’s Cucina I’m excited to have Marilyn, from Forkful.net share her families Puerto Rican Red Beans recipe with us! As you read yesterday I practically lived on red beans while on vacation. I couldn’t get enough of them. I cannot wait to bring a little bit of Puerto Rico into my kitchen and cook this tantalizing recipe! Now, here’s Marilyn to share her recipe:
One of my all-time favorite comfort food pairings is savory red beans with white rice. My mom used to make these beans as a side for a family of four, so the serving size is a little large. I can’t hope to make this dish exactly like my mother, but I can manage a pretty faithful recreation. My inner potato fiend put two potatoes in the photo, and I’ve used two small potatoes before, but one potato works well enough for this recipe. A small squash can be substituted for the potato for a seasonal touch.
I served the beans over simple Mahatma white rice cooked on the stove with a pinch of salt and two tablespoons of vegetable oil. Me being the silly goose that I am, I remembered how to make tostones (fried green plantains) backwards — figure that one out — but they eventually made their thin and crunchy appearance. Remember to slice, fry, smoosh flat, and fry again!
Ingredients: 2 (8 oz.) Cans of Tomato Sauce 1 (15.5 oz) Can of Red Kidney Beans 1 Packet of Goya Sazón con Culantro y Achiote 2 Tbsp Goya Sofrito (Tomato Cooking Base) 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1/2 Cube Chicken Bouillon 1/4 Large White Onion, Chopped 1 Small Gold Potato, Cut into Small Cubes 1 Strip of Bacon
Directions: 1.) In a non-stick pot on low to medium heat, mix tomato sauce, sofrito, Sazón, chicken bouillon, and olive oil until the sauce is smooth. Continue to stir the mixture until the sauce starts to simmer. 2.) Now, add potato cubes, chopped onions, bacon, and beans. Cover the pot and cook the beans on medium heat for 12 to 15 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender. Stir the beans occasionally to prevent sticking. 3.) Serve the beans over white rice with a side of tostones. Note: Small cubes of cooking ham may be used instead of bacon, but be cautious due of the ham’s high salt content.
Forkful is an Orlando-based resource to help locals and visitors alike navigate Central Florida restaurants through food reviews to satiate a craving, mark an occasion, or share a pint.
Forkful was created by Marilyn, a University of Central Florida alumna with a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing. She shares both the bitter and sweet experiences with anyone who will listen.
If you are looking for a hearty vegetarian meal this is the meal for you. This pie is thick, filling, and well let’s face it will most likely stick to your hips. But to be honest–it’s totally worth it! Well, that is if you love black beans and cheese.
What is unique about this meal is that you bake it in a spring form pan. Yep, that’s right. The same type of pan you would typically bake a cheesecake in. Instead this pan is being used to bake a filling dinner. You’ll have to trim around 10 inch flour tortillas for them to fit in the standard 9-inch spring form pan. Since you only need 4 this will only take a few minutes. The recipe calls for any light beer. Since my husband has become quite the beer connoisseur I used one bottle of Key West Southernmost Wheat beer. Since this beer has a hint of lime to it I figured it would compliment this Mexican style dish well. That it did indeed. I can’t imagine not using any other type of beer for this dish. The next time you are in the mood for a hearty vegetarian meal I suggest you give this recipe a try.
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. With a paring knife, trim tortillas to fit a 9-inch springform pan. (Use the bottom of the pan as a guide.) Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, jalapeno, garlic, and cumin; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Add black beans and beer, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; summer until liquid has almost evaporated, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in corn and scallions, and remove from heat. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
4. Fit a trimmed tortilla in bottom of springform pan; layer with 1/4 of the beans and 1/2 cup of cheese. Repeat three times, using 1 cup cheese on top layer. Bake until cheese melts, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove side of pan; sprinkle pie with scallions. To serve, slice into wedges.
Disclaimer: This post was not sponsored by Florida Beer Company. The opinions and actions to use this style beer are my own.
We are not big red meat eaters in our house. Heck, we eat 1-3 vegetarian meals a week. We both really have to be in the mood for steak. I was drawn to this recipe solely because of the warm bean salad. I loved all the ingredients in the salad and knew it was a match made in heaven. Both of us were in the mood to have steak that night, but unfortunately this steak did not deliver for multiple reasons. 1. We both like our steaks preferably not “mooing” aka medium-rare. 2. After make this meal I realized that this cut of steak is not meant to be cooked close to well done. Hence the reason why the steak was so extremely tough. I have no problem admitting where I fail. I am human like every other person out there, and hope that others can learn from my mistakes! I was not going to blog about this meal, but figured that there are people in the world that like their steaks “mooing” and would hopefully appreciate this post. But to be honest the real reason why I wanted to blog about this recipe was because of the warm bean salad. It’s amazing. So amazing, I plan to make this as a side dish or even a main meal often. I leave you with a final question: do you like your steak “mooing”?
Ingredients: 2 tsp olive oil 1-1/4 lb skirt steak, cut into 4 pieces, patted dry salt and pepper 2/4 lbs green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-1/2 inch pieces 2 small garlic cloves, thinly sliced 1 cup grape tomatoes 1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained 1 tbsp plus 2 tsp red-wine vinegar fresh basil leaves
Directions: 1. In a large skillet, heat 1 teaspoon olive oil over medium heat. Season steak with salt and pepper. Cook steak until browned, 3 to 5 minutes per side for medium-rare. *The longer you cook the steak the tougher the meat gets. Transfer steaks to a cutting board and let them rest. 2. Rinse out skillet and return to heat, along with 2 teaspoons olive oil. Add green beans and cook 2 minutes. Add garlic and tomatoes and cook, stirring until tomatoes begin to burst *roughly 3-5 minutes. Add cannellini beans and vinegar and cook, stirring, until beans are heated through, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat; season to taste with salt and pepper and sprinkle with basil. 3. Thinly slice steak against the grain and divide among four plates. Serve next to the warm bean salad.
I had some leftover’s from our taco night the other day, and instead of making my infamous taco soup (which I just realized I’ve yet to blog about) I decided to try something different. My husband loves pot-pies, so I figured I would take my taco leftovers and make individual taco pie’s! This was super delish and easy to make on a busy week night after work!
Source: Katie Original!
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 20 minutes
Serves: 2
Ingredients
1 egg, scrambled (for wash)
1 pre-made pie crust
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1-2 cups leftover ground beef or turkey
1 cup black or kidney beans
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 medium onion, diced
1/2 cup fresh tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup water
1-2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tbsp taco seasoning (*if desired)
Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degree’s. While oven is preheating thaw out pre-made pie crust.
2. While the pie crust is thawing and oven is heating up in a medium sized pan add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Followed by the diced onion, tomatoes, and green onions. Saute on medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Then add beans, corn, leftover meat, taco seasoning, and a 1/2 cup of water. Mix well and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Turn the heat off, and let the mixture sit.
3. Roll out the pie crust, turn your ramekin or crock upside down on top of the crust, and trim 1/2 inch around it. Repeat so that you have 2 circles for your pies.
4. Add cheese to skillet, mix well, and then divide the mixture into both crock’s. Place the pie crust on top and lightly pinch the ends to the crock. With a pastry brush paint egg wash around the crust, then cut a few slits in the pie so that it can breathe.
5. Bake at 350 degree’s for 20 minutes or until pie crust is golden brown. Remember, to be careful when you first start to eat your pie since it will be extremely hot!!!
*I forgot to add the cheese! Just after I took this picture he asked where the cheese was and I dumped a generous amount of shredded cheese into his pie where he mixed it up and ate the whole thing and then asked for another one!
I'm Katie Jasiewicz: home cook, food blogger, and recipe developer. I’ve always had a love for cooking, and more so in the past few years a love for eating!
Join me on a culinary adventure where life always tastes good. {more}
I'm Katie Jasiewicz: home cook, food blogger, and recipe developer. I’ve always had a love for cooking, and more so in the past few years a love for eating!
Join me on a culinary adventure where life always tastes good. 
