Growing and Changing

As I've been reading through my past posts, I am finding that I was such a different person when I began writing than I am now. Some of my older posts I would like to delete, simply because there is no point in keeping them up. I'll still keep the ones that chronicle my pregnancy or sweet things the kids have done. But becoming a mother has changed me. Marriage has changed me. College has changed me as well. I see ways that I have grown and would like to continue to grow, and keeping some of those posts up won't serve that purpose. I don't want to be the same person I was and I suppose that's the way life is supposed to be. So I have been going through and editing/deleting some things. It feels good!

And dinner smells good, too :).
On the menu for tonight is black bean soup topped with sour cream and homemade salsa. These recipes have been linked to The Grocery Cart Challenge.

Black Bean Soup (by Marlene Sorosky Gray):
1 lb dried black beans, rinsed and sorted
1/2 lb bacon, diced & cooked (or 1/2 lb diced & cooked turkey ham is economical!)
2 cups diced carrots
2 cups diced celery
2 cups diced onions
3 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
1 bay leaf
1 tsp ground black pepper
64 oz vegetable broth
2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp lime juice (add this right before serving)

I rinsed & soaked the beans for the afternoon, then I just threw everything in the pot and let it simmer for 2-3 hours. To me, it's less complicated that way. I also threw in a dash or two of taco seasoning and chili powder to liven it up a bit, but not a lot of either. Add salt and pepper to taste. It smells great!

The recipe says to top the soup with sour cream, tomato, and cilantro, but I am topping it with sour cream and my favorite salsa recipe, as well as some sliced up corn tortillas.

Sweet Corn Salsa (From Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables):
3 ears sweet corn (you can do 2-3 c frozen corn and it's still great)
3 medium tomatoes, diced (I use 4 romas)
1 jalepeno pepper, seeded and chopped (when I don't have one, I use a bit of cayenne pepper)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 red onion or one large scallion, chopped (I use a whole yellow onion sometimes)
1/2 cup loosely packed chopped cilantro
freshly squeezed juice of 2 limes (or ~1/4 c lime juice)

Cut corn kernels off cobs. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat, then add corn and saute for 3 minutes. Combine corn and all remaining ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well. Serve warm or chilled. It's amazingly good and makes a large bowl of salsa.

This meal is perfect! And not only because of the flavor. It was really frugal, too :)
The following items I picked up at Gleaner's:
corn
tomatoes
carrots
vegetable broth
sour cream

The following items I got with my WIC checks:
onions
garlic
cilantro
celery
black beans
corn tortillas

Everything else I had on hand, so the only thing I had to buy for tonight's dinner was the cilantro, which was $1 (and I have 2/3 of the bunch left!). The turkey ham is something I always keep around. I buy the Jennie-O kind and dice it up, separating it into 3 portions (for 3 separate meals). Can I just say that I love meal planning?