BLACK BEAN AND TOMATO SOUP from Myself

I came up with this recipe on my own using the exact same flavors, almost, as another recipe. I just used less beans and added pasta and used tomatoes in place of tomato paste. To save over 200 calories, I simmered the onion in water instead of oil/butter.

YEILD: 3 servings

POT: 3 quart

CALORIES PER SERVING: About 200-220 if not using oil

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 c. low sodium chicken broth or water-broth combination
• 1/2-3/4 c. pureed diced fire roasted tomatoes
• 1/2 c. dry ditalini pasta (it will triple or quadruple once fully cooked)
• 1 c. black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 c. corn, canned or frozen
• 1/2 c. onion, minced, cooked in 2 T. oil or simmered in about 3/4 c. water (like I did to cut calories)
• 3/4 t. chili powder
• 1/4 t. garlic powder
• 1/2 t. or so of pureed chipotle in adobo (be very careful of adding too much)
• 1/2 t. fine salt

DIRECTIONS:

• Cook onion in the oil of your choice until mostly done or simmer them in a little water or chicken broth.
• Stir in all remaining ingredients. Cook 15 minutes, uncovered, or until pasta is cooked to your liking.
• Pasta will continue to cook and swell in the hot broth once the heat is turned off. If the broth gets too thick to suit you, add more water or broth, just 1/4 c. at a time.

 

JAM-FILLED COOKIES from Better Homes and Gardens

This recipe came out of my mother's old Better Homes and Gardens Homemade Cookies Cook Book and the recipe is posted below. It's a soft dough that's made with all shortening, both types of sugar, and milk. I made just half. I don't care for the dough. It tastes like oatmeal raisin cookie dough minus the raisins and spices and it doesn't suit a filled cookie, IMO. I cut my rounds slightly bigger, about 1.75", topped with less than the 1 teaspoon of jam (I used Smucker's red tart cherry spread) they said to use (it won't hold that much), and I flattened the top piece of dough in my hand with my other hand to make it larger than the piece below it, laid it on top of the jam and pinched the edges together to seal it and the seal held well, no leakage. They baked in 8 minutes. The edges were crunchy but because of the type of dough this is, it didn't harden much like I was hoping. I was hoping for a crunchy cookie, like a sandwich/linzer cookie.

I give these 3 stars. It was easy though time consuming and I wouldn't make again because of the type of dough this produced. 

DARK CHOCOLATE (AND PEANUT BUTTER) SANDWICH COOKIES from Tablespoon

I made half the recipe and got 20 slices/10 huge sandwich cookies. I unintentionally cut my dough slices too thick and baked them too long but they still turned out great. I made my own peanut butter filling (frosting) for them, not the marshmallow one in the recipe. These are made with Dutch process cocoa powder, hence the 'dark chocolate' in the recipe name. These have a hint of that particular sugar cookie flavor, and butter flavor. Good recipe and I'll make these again. I don't like that the 2" slices turned into 3-3 1/4" slices when cooked so next time I'll make my dough log 1.5", not 2".

I give these 5 stars.