In like a lion...

Today's March 2nd (you're welcome, by the way, for that very informative PSA), and it snowed a fair amount here in the Triangle. We don't usually get decent amounts of snow once in the same year, let alone twice.

Here are the views from the back and front windows this morning before I left for work.




























The roads really weren't that bad so I made it to work on time. It stayed cold today (right around freezing) so I figured I should avoid being on the road when most people would be leaving work. I skipped my usual lunch hour and left work at 4:00. Our pantry didn't have much to offer for dinner so I stopped by Walmart and picked up the stuff for some black bean soup, which sounded perfect for a snowy day like today.

I didn't have a recipe or an ingredient list so I was hoping to find a can of black beans with a recipe on the back, and I got lucky (yep, I did, right there in the middle of the canned veggies aisle) and found just what I was looking for.

First, I had to saute some chopped onions, celery and carrots.














While the veggies were doing their thing, I looked up some recipes for black bean soup and stole the spices from one of those to add to mine since it was really basic and only called for the veggies, black beans, corn, and diced tomatoes with chiles.














What I didn't pay attention to, and what didn't cross my mind until I actually dumped all the spices in, was if the serving size on my original recipe was the same as the recipe from which I pilfered the spice list. Oh well, too late now!














I prefer to just follow recipes without veering too far away from what's called for so I was stepping way outside my comfort zone with this meal. One thing I was sure of, though, was my decision to puree two of the three cans of beans. It made the soup thicker and gave it some heft.














I'm happy to share my recipe if anyone's interested. Oh, but I will warn you - it was fairly salty (and you know it was if I, Miss Loves-to-Add-Salt-to-Everything, says it was) so if you have high blood pressure, this probably isn't the soup for you.

I'd offer to make a low-sodium version of it, but that'd mean not following the recipe and you know how I feel about that.