Menu Sunday

All new recipes {new to us, that is!} this week...

BBQ Brisket Pizza

My sweet grandmother sent us home this weekend with Waco's finest Uncle Dan's lean brisket and bbq sauce.  As E is fond of saying "one of your life's ambitions is to create a pizza out of everything," so I seized the day leftovers!  Pizza dough + BBQ sauce + chopped brisket + white cheddar + red pepper flakes = pizza perfection!  

Black Bean Soup with Hatch Chile Chicken Sausage

I wish I had an exact recipe for you, because this soup was simply delicious... but it was a "clean out the freezer & fridge / make it up as you go" kind of creation.  Here's my best stab at measurements...

Ingredients

- 6 cups of black beans, cooked lovingly by your mother with onion, cumin, garlic powder, etc {or you can roll with the canned variety and add seasoning until you approve of the taste}

- 3 links of chicken sausage {I used Hatch Chicken Sausage from this summer's Hatch Fest... as that particular variety is unlikely to be at your disposal, throw in a few diced Hatch / Anaheim / poblano peppers while the sausage browns}

- 1/2 large onion, finely diced

- 1 c. water

- 1/2 c. reduced fat sour cream

- 1/2 T. cumin

- 1/2 T. cayenne pepper 

- salt and pepper to taste

Remove sausage from casings.  In a stock pot, cook sausage and onion {and peppers} over medium-high heat, crumbling the sausage with a slotted spoon.  Meanwhile, puree 3 cups of the black beans with the water, sour cream, and spices {I just used my blender rather than dirtying up all my Cuisinart parts}.  When sausage is cooked through, add whole black beans and puree to the pot.  Add more water if soup seems too thick.  Bring everything to a simmer, then serve garnished with white cheddar and crusty bread.

Orecchiette Carbonara 

courtesy of Bella Eats

So ridiculously delicious.  After some sage advice from Rachel, I added a few extra slices of bacon to the mix... Perfection.

White Bean, Asparagus, Spinach & Orzo Bake

inspired by How Sweet It Is

So yummy for a vegetarian dish... Modifications: I used half a yellow onion instead of red, a bunch of asparagus instead of the mushrooms, no green peppers, and 1 extra cup of spinach.