Beans Beans the Musical Fruit...

it was a day that NEEDED a throw down meal...and I didn't realize it until, oh, about 4:45...

it's actually been a throw down meal week!!!

*husband's out of town...

*took the boy and his friend on a field trip 

     (yeah...preschool field trips=parents driving to and staying for the whole time)

*grocery shopping...with no list...but it had to be done...

    going on about week 3 of no real grocery shopping trip....

          just little things here and there...

*girls piano lessons rescheduled for today

     normally they're on Tuesday and they're dad's duty...

          but he's out of town...so now it's me

*helping the girl with the end of the week's homework packet=the pages the girl didn't want to do all week

so while I'm helping the girl with homework I'm "reading" my favorite new cookbook

...the Dinner Doctor....

and came across the recipe Black Bean Soup...

and guess what was on sale, on an end cap today, while I was grocery shopping???

...Yep...you guessed it...

Black Beans...and since I didn't have a list I was just grabbing random things...

so without a proper list or any menu in my head I for some reason bought 6 cans of black beans...

YES...6 cans...

I was thinking,

   "Oh, I'll make taco salad this week"...

and for that simple reason my brain decided on 6 cans...

     reason #37 why I need a grocery list!

So now I have 6 cans of black beans in my pantry and a beautifully simple black bean soup recipe right in front of me...and it's a blustery soup sort of day...sometimes life is just swell like that...

oh, and of course this isn't the recipe that was in the book...this is my modified recipe...because even though I had just gone grocery shopping hours earlier, I had done so without a list (remember 6 cans of black beans...not to mention the OTHER beans I bought!!!)...and without a menu...so a few things that the recipe called for were NOT in our house...

so I just made due...and it turned out YUMMY

ChambersMade Black Bean Soup

2 cans Black Beans, NOT drained

1 cup chicken broth (or 1 cube of chicken bullion and 1 cup HOT water)

1/4 cup onion, chopped up

1 bay leaf (I wasn't sure I had one...but I found them at the back of the black hole I call my spice cupboard...thinking they might have been there for a few years so I'm not sure how much bay was left in the leaf...so I threw 2 in just to be sure!)

salt and pepper to taste

sour cream and grated cheddar cheese to top

1.  Place beans, their liquid, chicken broth, onion, and bay leaf into saucepan and heat over medium-high heat, stirring just to combine.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cover the pan, bring to boil, reduce heat to med-low and let soup simmer for 5-7 minutes...YEP 5-7 minutes!!!

2.  Remove from heat.  Discard bay leaf (or leaves).  And smash soup with potato masher...the recipe said to pour into a food processor and puree...like I'm going to get another appliance dirty...this is a one dish meal and it's staying that way...and it worked out beautifully!

3.  Serve with sour cream and cheese to top it with...

we ate this with steamed artichokes...it was a wonderfully yummy...wonderfully fast dinner...and the kids LOVED it...there was 1/2 cup of soup left over...we would have been scraping the pan had the husband been home...I will probably double next time because leftover soup is good!...and then I'd be using 4 of the 6 cans I randomly bought!