Simply Cioppino

I had forgot about this delicious and simple soup for a long time. It was from the April 1994 issue of Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications - Low Calorie Recipes. Kaydn went snowboarding with his school on Tuesday and it was a cold cold day. He had a great time snowboarding even though it was his first time and he loved it.  I was surprised that he snowboard the whole day!!! When we went skiing, he was ready to be done for the day at 11am even though we started at 10am.  Any way, when he came home, he wanted soup for dinner and I had to think of a soup that was yummy and can be made in a very quickly. Needless to say, this soup saved the day. Kaydn loved the seafood and the flavor, not so much the peppers and tomatoes, but the rest of us enjoyed every byte of it.

4 oz fresh or frozen cod, thaw if frozen, cut into 3/4 in cubes
1 14 1/2 oz can Italian style stewed tomatoes
2 table spoons prepared pesto
1/2 of a medium green pepper, cut into thin bite size strips
6 oz peeled, deveined fresh or frozen medium shrimp

Stir together tomatoes and pesto in a medium saucepan. Stir in green pepper, shrimp, cod and 1/2 cup water. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 2 to 2 minutes or till shrimp turn pink. Serve in bowls. Make 3 servings.

Hearty Pinto Bean Stew

I opened a can of pinto beans by mistake thinking that it was refried beans. As I was contemplate what to do with a can of pinto beans, I saw this recipe in The Kind Diet and decided to give it a try. It was so good! I modify the recipe to use canned instead of dried beans and enough to serve 4. It's a very quick and easy soup.

2 teaspoon olive oil

1 small onion, diced, medium size
2 cans of pinto beans
4 cups of creamy tomato soup; Imagine Creamy Tomato Soup is dairy free. Pacific Creamy Tomato Soup is not. I use Pacific Creamy Tomato soup; it available @Costco.
4 teaspoons shoyu
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil or 1 tablespoon dried
1/4 teaspoon of dried oregano
dash of red pepper flakes

Lightly sauté the onion in olive oil in a 2 quart sauce pan. Add the rest of the ingredients: pinto beans, tomato soup, shoyu, garlic, basil, and red pepper flakes to the onions, cover and simmer for 30 minutes over medium heat.

You can substitute 2 cups of dry pinto beans for the canned beans. Cover the beans in water and soak overnight. Drain and rinse the beans. Bring the beans and 4 cups of water to a boil over medium heat, reduce the heat to medium low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until the beans are tender. Drain the water and use the beans in the above procedure. You can also cook the soaked beans with a pressure cooker.

Here is a link to more information about cooking with beans: http://missvickie.com/howto/beans/beanframe.html