Monday, November 24, 2008

White Bean Soup (or Chili)

A couple of funnies, first.

We took our whole gang to the session meeting, where Hannah took membership vows to join the church, on Saturday. I wanted all of us there for this important occasion. There was another family there, also becoming members. This sweet, young family had a newborn (really new -- two weeks old). Mark looked at the little bundle, sighed a big sigh, and looked at me all googly-eyed. I just shook my head no and looked away! He has to be kidding!

(Okay, for the record, I would love to have more children if circumstances were a little different: if I were a little younger, if I didn't have like 400 pounds that I have put on since getting married to lose, if I weren't still trying to figure everything out after going from zero to five children in just over two years...you get the idea.)

I just thought it was funny and sweet. My darling husband would not complain if God sent us five more children. I would not mind either, if God sent them via an alternative route. I do not do pregnancy well.

Second funny... My kids told me a joke today. That is nothing new, but this one really made me chuckle. Here goes. What do you call a rabbit owned by an insect?
A bug's bunny. Ha, ha, ha. Tee, hee, hee.

Okay, onto more serious stuff. This post is about beans, after all. I made white bean soup, or chili, whichever you want to call it, today. I have a recipe that I like, but I wanted to try Stephanie's version. So I sort of combined the two.

The recipe:

4 cups or so of white beans (I used navy beans I had cooked and frozen a few weeks ago.)
1 onion, chopped
2 apples, cut in tiny chunks, peels on (I had a Granny Smith and a Golden Delicious on hand, so that's what went in.)
3 cloves minced garlic (I buy the pre-minced stuff in the jar, and I love it.)
1 (4 oz) can chopped green chilies
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground thyme
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3 cups chicken broth (I made it myself! I cooked a chicken in the crockpot yesterday, then made broth overnight!)
4 cups or so of cooked, chopped chicken (from the freezer)
1/2 cup plain non fat yogurt

I put it all in the crockpot and cooked on high for about 4 hours since some of the ingredients were still frozen. After that, I cooked on low for 2-3 more hours, then turned off the heat and removed the lid to allow it to cool before dinner.

This was good. I don't know if I liked it better than my original recipe (which did not have the apples or the yogurt), but we liked it. This made A LOT, so leftovers went directly into the freezer for another night.

Tomorrow is chili night again. What do you call chili made with kidney beans and ground beef? That's just regular ole chili to me. Anyway, I browned the meat with peppers and onions, and even cooked the beans today. All I have to do tomorrow is put all the ingredients in the crockpot and turn it on. Ahhh...

Long post. I need to go watch Dancing with the Stars. I'll be so sad when the season is over.

Blessings,
Bev

1 comment:

Bonnie the Boss said...

Ooh, that soup looks yummy! I can't wait to try it.