Whoa! She ate the soup!

I rejoice! My youngest daughter ate a soup that I made, and eagerly! Usually “soup night” at our house entails her pushing her spoon around in her bowl and moaning about the contents. This is problematic as I love to cook soups, but hate the torture of dinner time on all but a few of my recipes.

I had a been craving a black bean soup, but knew that many in my recipe collections were too spicy for my finicky kids. I went searching and found one through All Recipes that had minimal spices (cumin), black beans, a bunch of sauteed veggies, and ham. Here’s the link to the recipe: Fast and Delicious Black Bean Soup.

I was wary as I really like my bean soups well pureed and this one for the most part was pretty chunky with the sauteed vegetables and had 1/2 the beans left intact; the other half of the beans are pureed alone before adding back to the pot. I took comfort in the really high ratings and good user reviews so I thought I’d give it a try. Once all the chopping of veggies and ham is done it was pretty quick to pull together. Since I am not a fan of green peppers, I did substitute a red pepper which seemed fine. The 20 minute simmer time called for on the stove actually took place in the crock pot over several hours on “warm” and/or “low”as we had baseball and softball games to attend before dinner. End result–it was delicious, as everyone who had it that night agreed . . . and she liked it!! I am sure it helps that she was able to garnish it with things like cheese, sour cream, and a fresh lime wedge. Food is always more fun when you get to decorate it yourself! Those looking to spice it up could use some hot sauce, but really it had a nice flavor to it on its own.

Another plus for me: Trader Joe’s-friendly ingredients–aside from the cumin, I think all other ingredients (even the veggies for sauteeing) are available there. I used the Neiman’s ham steak found by the lunch meat, TJs low-sodium chicken broth, plus finely grated Mexican cheese blend and non-fat Greek yogurt for the garnishing. I rounded out the meal with a salad and skillet corn bread (TJ’s brand mix, of course).

We’ll be enjoying leftovers tonight since I made a double batch and it’s another game night at our house! We’ll see if she still likes it . . .