Back from the *almost* Dead

Hello? Heellllooo??? HEELLLOOOOO?! Anybody out there?? I know it’s been a while, but I’m going to attempt to get this back up and running. I apologize for bolting like I did, but I had to deal with a series of unfortunate events and needed to really scale back on everything in my life and literally focus on one thing at a time so as not to go completely out of my mind. I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday season (I had some amazing vegan dishes, ate at some great vegan places and had lovely vegan treats…but unfortunately lost all my photos due to a tech glitch…damnit!) and I hope you all have high hopes for this New Year. I’m trying, too.



Anyway, I saw this recipe the other day on the Gardein website, and just knew I had to try it…it looked so simple, so hearty, healthy and just plain delicious. Plus, with all the snow and cold, a good soup is always the way to go. Now, you can use canned beans and tomatoes like it calls for and this soup will literally be done in a flash (I believe it said like, 10 minutes!) or you can go old school like me since I try to avoid canned anything and used dried beans and whole fresh tomatoes. I soaked my beans overnight, then cooked them for about 6 hours on low in the slow cooker while I was at work before draining and adding to the soup. For the tomatoes, I just drizzled the tiniest amount of olive oil on them and threw them under the broiler until they were blackened, mushed them up a bit, and added them to the soup. Delish! Also, I only used half a package of the Scallopini instead of the entire package like it calls for, and it still worked great. Please click here to be directed to Gardein’s recipe for this amazing Gardein Chik’n and White Bean Soup!