August 29, 2020April 29, 2021

Lentil, Pasta, & Eggplant Soup

Three weeks ago, I made lentil and eggplant soup. I promise you, it did not disappoint. So, if you are up for something new, why not try it out? Enjoy and have a blessed rest of your week!

Lentil, Pasta, and Eggplant Soup

Ingredients

1 box of Rotini pasta
1 lb of French lentils
1 lb of ground turkey meat
2 eggplants
1/2 jar of garlic pasta sauce
1/2 can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
3 tablespoons of cumin, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, turmeric, ginger,curry, and parsley
1/2 cup of quinoa
1 cup of avocado oil
1 cup of broth
2 bunches of asparagus

Directions

Boil the french lentils for about one hour, simultaneously, boiling the rotini and quinoa together in water and 1/2 cup of oil for about 25 minutes.
While they are boiling, brown the ground turkey meat in 1/4 cup of oil.
Saute the eggplant, asparagus, and diced tomatoes together.
After the rotini and quinoa finishes boiling, add them, the vegetable mix, the ground turkey, and all the other ingredients into a bigger pot and boil for about 45 minutes longer.
Enjoy!

July 28, 2019April 28, 2021

Pasta with Spinach & Quinoa

Background Story for Pasta with Spinach & Quinoa

It is amazing how we are all are wired up differently, and with this wiring, we all have different things that take us back to childhood. For the last few nights, I have been taking a quick five minute walk in the neighborhood in order to get a whisp of the slightly cool, fresh air and to hear the sound of the crickets. These two things have been my favorite since I was a kid. They remind me of visiting my relatives in Memphis and hearing the calming effect of the crickets at night.

pasta with spinach and quinoa, healthy living, healthy recipes, diced tomatoes, food, eating, simple functional grace-filled living, valley of grace, blogging, lifestyle, choices, lunch, dinner, vegan, vegetarian, friends, fun, outside, adventure, katina horton — Photo by Katina Horton

About a week ago, I was trying to decide what to make for dinner. My mind landed on the box of pasta that was still in the cabinet. I decided to jazz it up with my two favorite ingredients for most meals: spinach and diced tomatoes.

Here is the recipe:

Total Prepping and Cooking Time:

45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 box of penne pasta
2 jars of tomato and basil pasta sauce
1 tablespoon of thyme
3 tablespoons of parsley
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of cut-leaf spinach
1/3 cup of quinoa
1/4 cup of oil

Directions:

Boil a pot of water, adding the oil to the water to prevent the pasta from sticking.
Add the pasta and the quinoa once the water has started boiling.
While the pasta and quinoa are cooking, saute the spinach and diced tomatoes.
Drain the pasta and quinoa in a colander and dump them back into the pot.
Dump all the rest of the ingredients into the pot and stir.
Eat and enjoy!

Food for thought:

What foods do you eat, or activities do you participate in that take you back to your childhood? Would love to hear your comments!

December 19, 2018April 27, 2021

Simple Spaghetti Casserole

Background on Simple Spaghetti Casserole

This morning was the Christmas party celebration for my Moms’ Ministry small group. We had a ton of food and a ton of fun. This year has definitely been an eye opener from God to me, in realizing that yes, gifts are nice. They are wonderful. However, the best gifts in life do not come wrapped with a pretty bow. Because of God’s love toward us, we are indeed able to share this gift of love.

There is something about friendship, fellowship, food, and laughs that makes you appreciate all the wonderful blessings that life has to offer. I think the craziest part of the morning was when we played charades, which featured words that centered around winter and Christmas time. The highlights of this game was when I tried acting out Christmas stockings, and did a goofy swirl with my body. Then, we had the other team recreating the nativity scene. What fun!

Last night, it dawned on me that I had signed up to bring cookies and a cold pasta dish to this celebration. What I decided to do was to make spaghetti to eat, and then this morning, my wheels started turning, and that spaghetti transformed into my “Simple Spaghetti Casserole”. You can find the last simple recipe that I made here. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

God bless!

Activity: Making Simple Spaghetti Casserole

Total Prepping and Cooking Time: 1 1/2 hours

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons of chili powder
1 can of corn
1 can of French cut green beans
2 tablespoons of vegan butter
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 box of spaghetti
1 can of pasta sauce
5 tablespoons of parsley
1/2 cup of vegan or non-vegan cheese
2 tablespoons of onion powder
2 tablespoons of garlic powder

Directions:

Boil one box of spaghetti in five cups of water.
Pour the olive oil into the water so that the spaghetti won’t stick.
Saute the corn and french green beans with butter and chili powder.
Rinse the spaghetti when done, then add the pasta sauce, and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add all of the rest of the seasonings except for the cheese and parsley.
Cook for 10 ten minutes, and then dump into a large casserole pan, at 425 degrees for 25 minutes, completely covering with the shredded cheese and the parsley on top.
Enjoy!

November 27, 2018April 27, 2021

Simple Beans and Zucchini Soup

Background on the Simple Beans and Zucchini Soup

I had a busy weekend. However, it was a good kind of busy. I got a chance to enjoy my mom and niece who were visiting. I did plenty of cooking. However, I also had a lot of down time. Yesterday, I ended up watching a Hallmark movie that had a really good story line.

The main character’s sister, Alice, had died suddenly from heart issues. Alice’s death prompted Lois to go back to her hometown first for the funeral, and then secondly, to take care of the affairs of her estate. Instead of taking care of these things, and then going right back to her high-powered attorney job, she decided to stay for a while.

This visit was more than what she had bargained for. All the memories from her sister’s car accident came to the forefront. She also had to deal with the fact that she had become estranged from her sister over the years. Alice’s friends knew more about her life than Lois did.

It took her awhile to reconcile the fact that the car accident that Alice was involved in was indeed not her fault, nor Peter’s. Lois kept thinking that if she hadn’t been out with Peter, her boyfriend, then her sister wouldn’t have ended up disabled.

Towards the end of the movie, Lois discovered that Alice had birthed a child during her college years. She was finally able to meet her niece and the adoptive parents, and find true forgiveness for herself and Peter.

In life, we are a lot like Lois, we think that “if only” we would have done or not done something, then things wouldn’t have turned out as they did. It is part of the bargaining stage of grief. However, Satan also uses it as a foothold to keep us stuck in life. He wants us to pride ourselves into thinking that we are in control of all of life’s details. The truth of the matter is that we are not. God is. We will not know all the reasons that he decides for things to be the way they are.

I love making bean concoctions. The last one that I made can be found here. Below is a recipe that I made a little over a week ago.

Activity: Making Simple Beans and Zucchini Soup

Total Prepping and Cooking Time: 35 Minutes

Ingredients:

cumin – 2 tablespoons
chili powder – 3 tablespoons
onion powder – 2 tablespoons
turmeric – 2 tablespoons
2 zucchinis
1 cup of brown rice
2 cans of kidney beans
1 can of pinto beans
2 tablespoons of butter

Directions:

Boil one cup of brown rice.
Cut up two zucchinis into chunks.
While the brown rice is boiling, saute the zucchini.
Heat up the beans in a large pot, along with three cups of water.
Add all the rest of the ingredients to the pot.
Heat up the mixture for about 15 minutes.
Enjoy!

God bless,

Katina

October 19, 2018April 27, 2021

Red Beans with Couscous Mix

Background Story on the Red Beans and Couscous Mix:

Last night, my small group, “The Bible Babes”, were back in full swing. It felt could to see everyone after such a long, summer break. We are diving into Kelly Minter’s book, “All Things New”. The session video that we watched last night set the tone for the study by having us to dive into two concepts: 1) using our weakness to enable God’s strength to be present and seen by others, and 2) keeping our hearts wide open to others, even when we have been faced with some relationship challenges. Of course, wide open hearts do not take the place of exerting boundaries. However, it helps us to be vulnerable, release shame, and allow God’s grace to move in our hearts. It definitely takes the Holy Spirit to be at work in hearts to thrive, even in the midst of our pain.

Tags Keywords:Red beans and couscous beans vegan healthy eating mixed vegetables dinner recipes food food photography — **Red Beans with Couscous Pic 1**

As you all know by now, I am doing something with beans and legumes almost every week. About a week ago, I made a recipe that is almost gone unfortunately. It is what I called my Red Beans & Couscous mix. I didn’t use canned beans. If I would have used canned beans, the red beans and couscous mix would have been done in about 35 minutes. It ended up taking two hours just for the red beans to be ready. I literally dumped all kinds of ingredients into this mixture. Last week, I made “Black Beans and Mixed Greens”. You can find the recipe here.

Keywords:Red beans and couscous beans vegan healthy eating mixed vegetables dinner recipes food food photography — **Red Beans with Couscous Pic 2**

Here is the recipe:

Activity: Making Red Beans & Couscous Mix

Total Prepping and Cooking Time: 35 minutes with canned beans, 2.5 hours with regular beans

Ingredients:

1 box of couscous
1 can of mushrooms
1 can of mixed vegetables
3 cans of beans or 1 bag of beans
vegetable broth or chicken broth (non-vegan)
3 tablespoons of turmeric
3 tablespoons of cumin
3 tablespoons of garlic powder
3 tablespoons of onion powder
3 tablespoons of chili powder
1 cup of nutritional yeast
Optional: vegan mozzarella cheese or regular cheese on top

Directions:

Boil the beans in water according to whether they are bagged or canned.
Saute the mushrooms and mixed vegetables while the beans are boiling.
Boil the couscous and fluff with a fork when done.
Dump all of the above ingredients into a big pot, pouring in about two and a half coups of broth.
Add cheese as an optional topping.
Enjoy!

Servings: about 15

Have a blessed night!

Katina