dinner

Recipe: Southwest Chipotle Dense Bean Salad

Abby H.

Our Yasukochi Family Farms CSA box arrived on Monday, and I’ve been trying to figure out how to incorporate a bunch of the veggies into a dense bean salad.

Last night I was struck by inspiration, and I got to chopping.

This salad came together in less than 15 minutes, and it’s so good. I’ll be having it for lunch for the next few days.

 

Chipotle Dense Bean Salad

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 purple onion, diced and soaked in ice water
  • 2 small cucumbers, chopped into bite-sized pieces
  • 1 large tomato, chopped into bite-sized pieces and deseeded
  • 1 bell pepper (I used green, use whatever you’ve got), diced
  • The corn from 1 ear of corn
  • 1 15 oz. can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1/2 cup cubed cheddar cheese

Directions:

  1. Chop the veggie ingredients and combine in a mixing bowl.
  2. Add 1/4-1/2 cup of dressing (recipe below), toss salad, and add in cheese cubes.
  3. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.

Chipotle Dressing:

  • 1/2 cup lemon juice
  • 3 T. Honey or agave syrup
  • 1/2 cup olive oil (or your favorite neutral oil)
  • 2 chipotle peppers (from a can in adobo sauce)
  • 3 T. adobo sauce
  • 2-3 garlic cloves, minced (or the equivalent in jarlic)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. In a blender or food processor, add all of the ingredients and blend until smooth.
  2. Store the unused portion in the fridge for up to a week.

The nice part about this salad is that it easily made vegan by swapping honey for agave syrup, and omitting the cheese or swapping in a vegan cheese substitute.

The salad is naturally Gluten Free and vegetarian.

Kids Eat Free at Rubio’s Thursdays in July!

Abby H.

When you join the Rubio’s Rewards Program (download the app found wherever you get apps), you can score a FREE KIDS MEAL every Thursday in July.

Sounds like a pretty decent deal to me, especially if you and your munchkin like Rubio’s!

For Rewards Members Only. Offer valid for one (1) free kids’ meal with purchase of any entrée. Entrées include two taco plates, burritos, salads, bowls, Shrimp Trio, and The Coastal Trio®. Excludes tasting plates and kids’ meals. Not available for third-party delivery orders. Not valid with any other offer or discount. One offer permitted per transaction. Upcharges for extras and premium items may apply. No substitutions. No cash value. Valid at participating restaurants only. Only valid on the following days: 7/3, 7/10, 7/17, 7/24, and 7/31/2025

Potluck Dish Round Up

Abby H.

Summer means potlucks, picnics, barbecues, and all sorts of fun events with family and friends.

If you’re looking for a new dish to bring, here are some of my favorite recipes to share.

Summertime Means- Dense Bean Salad Time (Recipe Included)!

Abby H.1 Comment

If you aren’t on social media a lot, you probably haven’t heard of the dense bean salad craze. Pioneer to buy Violet Witchel, former culinary student and master of the dense bean salad, she rose a popularity about a year ago with a video talking about her weekly meal prep and how it included a dense bean salad.

A dense bean salad is a salad that features beans as well as other hearty vegetables in a light oil and vinegar dressing. It can be stored in the fridge for up to five or six days, and like most things, it gets better the longer it sits in the fridge.

I have been making them for a few months, and I am in love. It is a great way to increase your fiber intake, enjoy a protein-based meal that does not have meat in it, and it’s a good way to eat seasonal veggies.

Here is the basic format.

Pick two kinds of beans: black beans, garbanzo beans, pinto beans, navy beans, cannellini beans, or even edamame. Whether you use canned rinsed and drained beans, or make them in your Instant Pot, or in the case of edamame, steam a frozen bag, your base all begins with beans.

You need at minimum 2–4 veggies. Popular choices include red onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, corn, celery, carrots, shaved cabbage/coleslaw mix, avocado slices, or shaved Brussels sprouts. Other flavorful options include finely chopped herbs, like parsley, cilantro, or dill.

If you like pickled veggies, beets, banana peppers, pickled jalapeños, olives, even oil-packed veggies like sun-dried tomatoes are a great choice.

Next, you need a salad dressing. Oil and vinegar or an acid like fruit juice and oil is a great choice. Check out my simple vinaigrette infographic for some ideas.

If you like cheese, I recommend feta, but other good choices include cubes of hard cheeses, or mini mozzarella pearls. Soft cheese like queso Fresca is also good.

Some people like to add a cooked grain. Examples include Farro, quinoa, bulgar, or couscous (regular or Israeli). I would not add rice, or any sort of pasta. In my mind, pasta salads are a different dish and usually don’t involve beans.

Here is my recent Dense Bean Salad:

  • 1 14-ish ounce can Garbanzo Beans
  • 1 14-ish ounce can cannellini beans
  • 1 red bell pepper, diced
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
  • 1 green bell pepper, diced
  • 1/2 purple onion, diced and soaked in ice water (remove from ice water before adding to salad)
  • 3 ribs celery, diced
  • 1/2 cup crumbled feta
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • Zest of 1/2 lemon
  • 1 tablespoon Oregano
  • 1 tablespoon Basil
  • 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
  • dash of crushed red peppers
  • Salt and pepper to taste

 

Meal Prep the easy way with What a Crcok!

Abby H.

Y’all know I love me some meal prep. And I know most of you are super busy, which is why I wanted to share What a Crock.

I learned about What a Crock a couple years ago when I was looking for a way to send some meals to a family member that lives across country after surgery.

I scrolled through meal kit websites, but I needed something easier. When you are recovering after surgery, you don’t want to chop veggies, brown meat, or stir a pot.

Enter What a Crock.

No Subscription needed. You can choose exactly what meals you want to receive with no commitment necessary.

Got a big family, or is it just two of you? You can buy as many servings of each meal as you need!

Don’t have a slow cooker? Many of the meals can be cooked in an Instant Pot, air fryer, on your stovetop, or simply boiled in a bag.

What I like most is the variety: Stews, soups, casseroles, even desserts and baked goods!

And I’ve got two coupons codes to help you save extra money on your What a Crock orders!

Looking for a new fundraiser? Check out Little Caesars Pizza!

Abby H.

Did you know that Little Caesars Pizza does Fundraising? Really.

If your non-profit group is looking for a fun, easy, TASTY way to earn some money, Little Caesars is the way to go.

There are many different ways to earn money for your organization, including Pizza Kits, Cookie Dough, and Bread Kits. We’ve purchased from Little Caesars fundraising events, and the pizza kits are awesome!

Recipe: Marry Me Cannellini Beans

Abby H.

Maybe you’ve seen videos or recipes online for marry me chicken. It’s a creamy Tuscan style dish that can be served with noodles or by itself.

Here is my version, but instead of using chicken, I substituted Cannellini beans. Why? Because I had cannellini beans, and I didn’t have any chicken.

If you want to use chicken, substitute about a pound of either boneless skinless trimmed thighs or boneless skinless trimmed chicken breasts for the beans.

Ingredients 

  •  2 tablespoons salted butter
  • 2 tablespoons your favorite cooking oil (I used the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes)
  • One small, yellow onion, diced
  • 2 15.5 ounce cans of Cannellini beans, drained, and rinsed
  • Three cloves of crushed garlic/3 tablespoons of Jarlic
  • 2/3 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes 
  • 2 cups of chicken broth 
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning 
  • 4 cups fresh spinach
  • One cup evaporated milk, or half-and-half (choice) 
  • 3/4 cup of Parmesan cheese (use the freshly grated variety, not the powdered variety)

Directions

  1. In a large skillet, melt butter and mix oil in with butter.
  2. Sauté onions over medium heat until translucent, about five minutes.
  3. Add in garlic and stir frequently until garlic is fragrant.
  4. Add in rinsed and drained beans, sun-dried, tomatoes, broth, Italian seasoning. Cook on medium, stirring frequently until mixture comes to a boil.
  5. Using the back of a spoon or a potato masher gently mash up about half of the beans. This will add thickness to the sauce or without adding any additional ingredients. 
  6. Once a thickened mixture simmer for about 15 minutes, add in milk/half-and-half, spinach,  and about a half a cup of the grated cheese. 
  7. Stir and turn stove down to low. Simmer on low for 5 to 10 minutes until mixture has thickened. 
  8. Serve with noodles of your choice, or serve mixture in a bowl with toasted/crusty Italian bread. Top each bowl with some of the remaining cheese.
  9. I prefer to serve this in a bowl and eat it with a toasted/crusty bread. 

Substitutions:

  • To make this recipe vegetarian, substitute chicken broth for vegetable broth/stock. 
  • To make this recipe vegan, substitute as above, and additionally substitute milk/half-and-half with your favorite dairy free variety, as well as your favorite dairy free variety of “Parmesan” type cheese. 

Upcoming Changes to Weekly Meal Plan Posts…

Abby H.

0a5e9dab796cea8a07eabe4eb4795b9e.jpgI’ve been posting weekly meal plans here and on IG for over 7 years. I was reminded by an IG memory today of our weekly meal plan 7 years ago this morning.

I kinda stopped about Thanksgiving. I’ve been busy with my day job, juggling the children’s various weekly appointments, and life besides being a parent (spoiler: it’s hard y’all).

Here are a few changes I’ve made to save time, and money, and keep food waste down.

I have changed our Yasukochi Family Farms CSA box subscription to twice a month. I prep all of the produce the afternoon we receive it. That looks like:

  • Make a fruit salad
  • Make Salsa
  • Roast two sheet trays of veggies
  • Chop and prep any Cruciferous vegetables (specifically broccoli and cauliflower) for stir fry or soups.
  • Make up 2-3 bags of mirepoix (onions, carrots, celery) for soups.
  • Make a veggie-based soup, this one is a current favorite.

Next up: I spend a few hours on Sunday  (or Monday in the case of three-day weekends), doing the actual prep. Planning meals, pulling recipes, making lunches for myself for the week, and making a few main dishes, or at least putting them together.

This week I prepped Pot Sticker bowls. a bag of frozen pot stickers, a bag of peas and carrots, rice, water, and teriyaki sauce. I had little takeout packets of teriyaki left, but if I needed to, I would use the tiny condiment containers I have (like these) to store the teriyaki sauce.

I made rice, fried the potstickers, and steamed the veggies. Portioned out four servings into reusable containers, and set on the counter to cool. Once they are room-ish temp, they get stashed in the fridge. DO NOT PUT HOT FOOD INTO THE FRIDGE.

I also cut up Cara Cara oranges, divided mini carrots into Ziploc bags, and pulled tiny hummus cups from the freezer. Yes, you can freeze hummus.

I also made sure that we have all of the veggies cut up for stir-fried orange chicken this week (chicken is already grilled and cut up in the freezer, all I have to do is defrost and heat it). I’ll cook some rice while the veggies are cooking, and dinner will be ready to go in less than 30 minutes.

I pulled a couple soups from the freezer this week too. When I make a batch of soup I freeze half of it for a future meal. This is an easy dinner that I can pull together with a fruit salad, a green salad, and garlic bread.

This week’s soups are: Split Pea and Chicken Noodle.

I pulled the half package of breakfast sausage I had in the freezer and we’ll be having breakfast for dinner one night: Sausage, fruit salad, hashbrowns, and waffles. The waffles I make using Kodiak Flapjack mix, milk, and an egg for a little added protein. I usually buy it at Costco, but Amazon has it too.

One night we’ll have a quick dinner: Beans and rice bowls, grilled cheese and fruit, salad, macaroni and cheese.

Friday is take-out night, and one night we do leftovers.

Because I have been prepping and planning for years and I have a pretty good inventory of our pantry and fridge, this process is fairly streamlined.

I do 99% of my shopping at Aldi these days, with a quick stop at Grocery Outlet if needed. I cook a lot more from scratch as of late to keep our grocery budget to a small fortune (about $150/week). That’s for three people, three meals a day, plus snacks.

Just like before, breakfast and lunch are pretty much the same:

Breakfast: I’ve been really into protein coffee lately. It helps me hit my protein goals and keeps me full until lunch. I use premade protein shakes like these. The kids request bagels and fruit most mornings. The big kid is on a smoothie kick; his favorites are here. 

Lunch: I have a plastic tote full of self-serve snacks. I buy treats and snacks in bulk and fill up snack-sized zip-top bags. I have a post here about our lunches. While lunches are free in California schools, my kids prefer to bring their lunches from home.

So, overall, not much has changed here for me, just streamlining systems, and I feel like unless I make something really yummy and cool, I may not come back to posting weekly meal plans for a while.

Jar Salads- Healthy Meal Prep!

Abby H.

I love salad. We eat a lot of veggies because of our Yasukochi Famil Farms CSA box subscription, and I’m always looking for new ways to serve veggies and keep them fresh.

Jar salads have already had their heyday a few years ago, but they are an amazing meal prep idea. Many of us have Eating Healthy and Losing Weight are New Year’s Resolutions- Jar Salads are a great tool.

It’s quite popular to use wide Mouth quart Mason jars, but I’m a little clumsy, so I prefer Quart-sized deli containers.   I also find that Quart-sized deli containers are a little more economical and can easily be recycled when they wear out. And they stack really well in the fridge.

Whichever option you choose, here are some tips for perfecting your salad creations.

Whether you use a quart-size Mason Jar or a quart-size deli container, start with 2 tablespoons of dressing and build your salad.

Bottom Layer: The base where wetter ingredients go. Putting the wetter ingredients together helps keep the more delicate ingredients like lettuce crunchy. Ingredients for the bottom sections include: Dressing, salsa/sauce, tomatoes, guacamole, avocadoes, strawberries, citrus, and grains (rice, quinoa, pasta, farro).

Middle Layer: Beans, bell peppers, corn, seeds/nuts, onions, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, hard cheeses, sprouts, pickled veggies, hardboiled eggs, tofu, and other protein sources such as chopped chicken breast. Shredded cabbage or coleslaw blend/ shreds can also go on this layer.

Top Layer: Bite-size lettuce or other greens.

 

These salads can be really filling, depending on which ingredients you choose. 3-5 salads a week is a great start. Jar salads like this tend to last 5-7 days in the fridge, stored upright. 

11/17/2024 Weekly Meal Plan

Abby H.

0a5e9dab796cea8a07eabe4eb4795b9e.jpgIt’s our last week of school before Thanksgiving break! It’s going to be chilly this week, so there might be some soups in the future!

With after-school appointments 2-3 days a week, a lot of our meals these days are easy to make and I do most of the prep on the weekends. This weekend I cleaned the fridge, re-organized the freezer and pantry and got a pretty good list of easy meals for this week.

Thanks to the great freebies from Social Nature and Aisle, we’ve been trying new foods lately. It’s fun to try new foods.

If you are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101-style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

I’ve gotten a good inventory of the pantry, freezer, and fridge (I try to update it after every shopping trip), so I plan meals and use up what we’ve got with little waste.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same.

Breakfast: I’ve been really into protein coffee lately. It helps me hit my protein goals and keeps me full until lunch. I use premade protein shakes like these. The kids request bagels and fruit most mornings. The big kid is on a smoothie kick; his favorites are here. 

Lunch: I have a plastic tote full of self-serve snacks. I buy treats and snacks in bulk and fill up snack-sized zip-top bags. I have a post here about our lunches. School lunches are free for kids in California, but my kids usually bring lunch from home. I pre-plan my lunches for the week and I take a week’s worth of lunches to work on Monday and stash them in the breakroom fridge.

Dinner: The weather will be cooling down this week, so soup is back on the

  • Sunday:  Asian Chicken Cashew Salad, Garlic bread, smoothies
  • Monday: Homemade pizza, fruit salad (Aldi Pizza crust is GOAT and less than $1.50!)

  • Tuesday: Soup and Grilled Cheese, baked apples

  • Wednesday: Greek Salad with Chicken, Hummus, and pita bread

  • Thursday: Smoothies and bagels

  • Friday: Takeout night!
  • Saturday: Leftover Palooza and possible cauliflower cheese soup (depending on how many leftovers we have left0