Black Bean and Sausage Soup
serves: 4 – 6
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled or scrubbed, chopped
1 stalk of celery, sliced
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 medium potato, peeled, diced
2 cups beef or chicken broth
1 28oz tin, diced tomatoes
4-6 oz lean kielbasa sausage, cubed
1 19oz tin black beans, or your favorite canned beans
1. Heat oil in large pot. Add onion, carrot and celery; cook and stir over medium heat until vegetables begin to soften.
2. Stir in garlic, oregano, potato, broth and tomatoes; heat to boiling. Stir in Kielbasa. Cover and simmer gently for at least 1/2 hour to blend flavours.
3. Drain and rinse beans. Add to soup. Heat until hot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with crusty bread. (Even better the next day)
** We love this soup. You can prepare it ahead for a gathering and instead of simmering for 1/2 hour, put it in your crockpot on low and add the beans. By the time you are ready to eat (try to make it at least a half an hour) it will be ready to go. Great for potluck as it only gets better the longer it sits.
Enjoy!
On my last few days of the no carb thing. So it ended officially on Wednesday and I lost a total of seven pounds. I feel good, I feel skinnier (even if I am only a bit skinnier) and that is all that matters, because I am doing this for me. I started adding some “good” carbs back in on Wednesday night, but am limiting the amount to one or two per day. So far, I have only had a whole grain cereal and pizza with whole wheat crust. I am supposed to add some fruit back in as well, but I forgot to pick some up at the grocery store, so I haven’t done that yet. Will see how that goes.
So there you have it, it can be done. If I can give up carbs for a mere two weeks anyone can!! It was the longest I have gone without cereal for breakfast since I started eating it as a kid. And the longest I have gone without bread too. The best thing out of this is it got me off the snacking just because. I would pour a bowl of snacks for “J” and pop a few in my mouth. If I did that over the last two weeks, I made myself spit it out. Hopefully I can keep going for a bit more and make it an even ten or so.
Today was Spa Day. I was afraid to say where I was going in case it turned out to be a Spa Day from H**l. But, it was not! I went to the Au Naturel Spa located in the Brookstreet Hotel. It was great. Brookstreet is a newer hotel/resort located in Kanata. If I was visiting Ottawa, I would want to stay there, but be warned you are far from downtown and there is very little to see right outside the hotel, except for “High-Tech” Offices.
I had a “Bilberry Facial” and a “Monticelli Fango Wrap”. I had never had a wrap before, but it was sublime. It is described as “A reducing and detoxifying treatment based upon the use of soft creamy mud and Italian thermal waters. This wrap is slimming and detoxifying”. Well, I don’t feel much slimmer after, but my skin is glowing and soft and feeling great.
The facial is dedscribed as “A gentle treatment recommended for sensitive and irritated skins, specifically formulated for relieving redness using bilberry, licorice and other plant extracts. Excellent for sun-damaged, dry, and/or sensitive skin”. My face, is feeling fresh and wrinkle free now, it will probobly feel wrinkled again tomorrow when I wash it and use my usual lotions and creams.
All in all Spa Day 2005 was a huge success, but I will be having a couple more as I still have a few gift certificates to use up from some other Spa’s closer to home.
