Soup to Dutts

I found this recipe for black bean burgers and decided to make them for Meatless Monday! It's a pretty simple recipe. All of the ingredients are pretty easy to find, but when they tell you to finely chop the onion and bell pepper with a food processor, they mean it! Trust me; I learned this the hard way...! I don't have a food processor, but I had seen people use the Magic Bullet to chop vegetables, so I thought I'd give it a try with the bell pepper, since I used pre-chopped onions. Well...I clearly did something wrong, because my bell pepper ended up looking like this: It pureed my pepper! Who needs a food processor? This girl. I apologized repeatedly to my poor husband, mostly for attempting this recipe without the proper equipment. I should have known better. The Magic Bullet has gotten me into trouble before (I'm thinking specifically of the hummus incident of 2010). It's nice to have, but there are some things that it just won't do. Anyway, th...

I'm not a vegan by any stretch of the imagination, but Tom and I have been trying to eat a lot more veggies and a lot less "bad" stuff lately. So tonight I made up a butternut squash soup based on some familiar flavors, and it's--you guessed it--totally vegan. And also totally delicious. Ugh, I am kicking myself for not taking pictures of the whole cooking process. I'm also kicking myself for taking a picture of the finished product with my phone instead of my camera. Just by looking at this, would you believe that this soup is actually a pretty shade of orange...? *sigh* You're just going to have to make it and see for yourself. Butternut Squash Soup Yield: 4-6 servings 1 tablespoon canola oil 1-1/3 cup chopped onion 2 medium-sized apples - cored and cut into chunks 2 pounds butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed 2 teaspoons ground sage 1 carton (32 oz.) vegetable broth Kosher salt Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add apple,...

I have a complicated relationship with bell peppers. When I was a kid, they were pretty much the one thing I refused to eat. Actually, I wasn't crazy about vegetables in general, but bell peppers were the worst. They were bitter and always seemed to set my mouth on fire. What's to like about that? So I had to laugh when I realized that I'd made three different things with bell peppers just in one week. Here's the first one. Tom had been craving cornbread and chili, so I decided to make that. Usually my chili is pretty simple: ground turkey or beef, kidney beans, diced tomatoes, maybe a little onion, and some seasonings. I figured some bell peppers could only improve it. This was by far the best chili I've ever made, and the best part was that it was also the most convenient. In the past, I had always stressed over the seasonings. That was before I discovered chili beans and chili-ready tomatoes. What amazing inventions! These were already packed with chili powd...