Kale salad

This salad is so good that our kids like it, as well as crowds for a party I had made it for.  This is torn kale, shredded parmesan, slivered almonds, dried cranberries and dressing.  The dressing is 1t agave (you can use honey, sugar, artificial sweetner, whatever form of sweet you like), 1/4 cup mango white balsamic vinegar (I bought it was a specialty store, but you can use just regular white balsamic vinegar as well), 1t olive oil.  Sweet, tangy, crunchy.  Don't let the word kale stop you from trying this.

Black bean soup and quesadillas

 Too bad you can't just reach out and taste this soup.  It is SOOOO good (and fast and healthy)!  I went to the salad bar and took a scoop and chopped onions, chopped celery and shredded carrots.  I sauteed these in a soup pan until they were all soft.  Didn't take long.....maybe 8 minutes.  Then I dumped one large can and one small can of black beans in there - along with some cumin (about 1t) and few shakes of ground chipolte pepper.  Let them all heat and and put in 2 cups of chicken stock (I had made some a few weeks back in my pressure cooker and portioned it out into plastic containers and froze them).  I didn't even bother to thaw it, just dumped in the froze lump.  Heated it all up again and then shooshed it with the stick blender.  I left it a bit lumpy this time.  I usually shoosh until it is smooth, but I wanted to try it this way.  We were split on the added texture.  Half of the family liked it lumpy and have liked it smoother.

I added some cheese and non-fat greek yogurt to mine.....for added treats and protein.

Our son made the quesadillas for the family.  He wanted to make sure I took a picture of this one particularly.....he liked how the cheese was oozing out.  I used non-fat flour tortillas that I found at work.  They tasted just as good as the full fat ones and I hope a bit better for us.