Pasta e Fagioli

Soup, there is it! Girls, what's my weakness? SOUP!

It got cold out of nowhere here in DC this weekend and I had purchased a fancy baguette that begged to be dipped into something warm, so we decided to make some soup. Pasta e fagioli (a bean and pasta soup) to be precise.
I used this recipe, with a few tweaks, which turned out quite well. I threw in some collard greens in place of the spinach, used 5 sausage links, and used one 19-ounce can of beans. Also, to give the broth some additional flavor, I dropped an old Parmesan rind I had in the fridge. Finally, I didn't bother with blending the tomatos- I just crushed them in my hand as I put them in the soup.

Delicious and quite easy!

Butternut Squash and Greens Chili

This is a useful chili recipe to have in your arsenal. Healthy, tasty, easy (except cutting up the butternut squash = PITA!).

Changes I make to sass up the recipe a bit:

• substitute one can of chickpeas for one of the cans of black beans
• use whatever leafy greens you have on hand: kale, swiss chard, collard greens, spinach (this time we ended up using a bag of random mixed greens Chuckie bought by accident when I requested mixed baby greens.)
• add some cayenne (1/2 tsp) and cinnamon (a couple shakes) when you add the other spices

Enjoy!