Black Bean Soup with Cumin and Jalapeno

Here's the crazy thing about black bean soup: it is really just healthy chili! I know! The trick is that when you don't call it chili you're not thinking about the things you're missing like you do when you eat veggie chili or even turkey chili. Instead, you're thinking that you can't believe how you can get a smooth, thick, yes, even creamy! texture with no dairy products or dairy substitutes. One genius quick-fix I read in the comments to the recipe was to use a can of Ro-Tel or similar instead of the canned tomatoes/fresh chopped jalapeno (I used a can of mixed tomatoes/Hatch green chiles). If you're already comfortable with the preservatives in canned tomatoes, all the Ro-Tel does is shave off time and make this a pantry meal. Also, if you have an immersion blender and you didn't, for example, stick it in the dishwasher to hide it because company was coming over and then forget to take it out before your housekeeper came and ran said dishwasher, you should use the immersion blender instead of the regular blender and just stop while the soup is still slightly chunky.

The only thing I wish about this recipe is that it photographed better...

Pork Chops with Sweet Onion Marmellatta

I am not the world's biggest pork fan. No "other white meat" for me. But my husband's tolerance for chicken breast is as low as the price of fresh fish is high, and so I've been trying to find ways to serve up this lean alternative. (except... now that red meat is okay, and bacon and sausage are bad... my world is rocked and I may need to rethink). The best thing about Giada's Pork Chops with Sweet Onion Marmellata (besides the fact that she signed my Giada's Kitchen cookbook with the recipe in it!) is that you could put the marmellata on literally anything and it will taste fantastic. It's the kind of thing you see in specialty shops in a very small, very expensive jar, and after you have a sample on crostini you pay the $10 and have to have it. The third best thing about the marmellata is that it is still delicious if you don't exactly follow the directions and cook the onions for 1 hour instead of 2. Same with the pork rub. The fourth best thing, since we're counting, is that instead of 4 pork chops, you can substitute 3 pork chops and 1 bone-in chicken breast :) Marital harmony, people.

Chicken Cacciatore

I think I've mentioned previously my love for Giada's recipes and how well they turn out. Everyday Italian is the cookbook that started it all for me. Every dish in it tastes exactly like you expect it would-- classic, Italian-American cuisine. Chicken Cacciatore, though, was never a meal I ordered at a restaurant and wow, was I missing out! The sauce, which is really more like a stew broth, picks up tang from the veggies and depth from the chicken. I've made this dish as called for, with both thighs and breasts, and with only one or the other. If you go the latter route, don't change the portion size; just cut down on the protein overall and pick up some crusty bread to soak up the broth. And of course, this dish is great with fresh grated parmesan on top.

Chicken Chow Mein

Oh, Jamie Oliver... you make me want to eat healthy AND save the world :)

We definitely watched Jamie's Food Revolution and Chicken Chow Mein was one of his early recipes. The recipe is intimidating because there are so many ingredients but -- surprise! -- the veggies were fairly inexpensive and the dish comes together quickly (although the recipe underestimates the time for 1) cooking the chicken and 2) getting the sauce to really deepen to a golden brown color). We used a jalapeno pepper, adding just enough spice and extra mushrooms, because we love them. The first time, we made it for the two of us and the second time, I made it just for me and had leftovers, as this dish keeps well.

Chickpea Tagine with Chicken and Apricots

Any harsh words I had for the Minimalist the other day completely evaporated when I tried the April 9 recipe this past Friday. True, he still has the problem of claiming moderately difficult recipes are 30-minute meals, but his recipe twist on a tagine (an hour to an hour 15 to prepare) hit the right tone by giving instructions for a simple(r), healthy all-in-one meal. The dark meat chicken itself was incredibly flavorful, but the sauce, similar to an Indian gravy, was divine and we could have eaten it on its own. Every time I took a bit and tasted the sweet apricots or the piquant ginger or the rich cinnamon, I smiled at the unique flavor. Even better, the ingredients as a whole made an incredibly healthy dish. Be sure and let the bulgar sit for a few minutes after cooking to let it expand and absorb the sauce. No bulgar? The dish would taste just as good over couscous.

Chicken and Vegetable Cobbler

Last week I went to save Mark Bittman's Chickpea Tagine with Chicken and Apricots recipe in my gmail "recipes" folder and was surprised to find I had another Minimalist chicken recipe to try-- the Chicken and Vegetable Cobbler from the March 10 NY Times had gotten buried in my e-mail. Fortunately (?) we had a gray day here last Saturday that screamed for warm comfort food.

First the good: this dish is chock-full of healthy vegetables, and given that the broth is cream-less, a good deal healthier than a Marie Callendar pot pie. The buttermilk biscuit dough was simple to whip together and the mushrooms (I subbed out baby bellas for button) give the classic dish a gourmet flair.

Then the bad: between the leek, the mushrooms and the carrots, this dish takes a surprisingly long amount of time to prep and then a shockingly long time to bake (45 minutes!). I used frozen carrot coins to save time and added them in at the same time as the peas; be warned, though, that while the frozen veggies are fine for the first serving of this dish, they turn to mush when you reheat leftovers. Further, I think it's a stretch to reference this as a one-pot dish (see paragraph 5) when you end up with a sticky, gooey food processor to clean, along with a pot.

I'm tempted to say I'll have a Marie Callendar from now on and use all the extra time to burn the extra calories, but I'm too afraid to look at the nutrition info :)

Enchilados Camerones

May's Real Simple featured a "my mother's best recipe" article that completely surprised me. I was expecting 50s-style casseroles, but the recipes were varied and interesting, including this Puerto Rican recipe for Enchilados Camerones. These mouth-watering shrimp tacos are a fresh alternative to the heavy, cheesy Tex-Mex my husband and I love but shouldn't eat as often as we do. The recipe reads almost like a Latin version of cacciatore, but the tomato-based sauce for the shrimp ends up making a warm, mild salsa. It was my first time using sweet smoked paprika and I was amazed that it smelled just like barbeque Lay's potato chips! The trickiest part of the recipe was making sure the shrimp cooked. I had to turn the heat down fairly low on the sauce to get it to simmer, and had difficulty determining when the shrimp were opaque due to the sauce. I ended up turning the heat up to medium and cooking for several minutes longer. With simple canned black beans on the side, this ended up making an impressive spread that I'm sure guests would gobble up as fast as we did!