Easy weeknight chicken minestrone

Get a warm, hearty dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes with this healthy and easy weeknight chicken minestrone soup.

It's October and the weather is starting to get cooler. So of course I can't stop making soup and chili. And basically anything I can cram into the slow cooker.

Easy Weeknight Soup

Of course, any soup that I'm making now has to be easy enough for a busy weeknight meal. This one fits the bill, as it takes less than a half hour, including prep, to pull it together.

And did I mention that there will be enough left over for tomorrow's lunch bag? Winning.

Easy tomato and sausage ragu

Why settle for jarred pasta sauce when you can make this easy tomato and sausage ragu with mushrooms and fresh herbs instead? 

Can you believe I was nearly 30 years old before I discovered the awesome glory of sausage?

[Seriously -- if you a regular reader of the Ninj, pick yourself up off the floor, as you know I tend to add sausage or bacon to nearly everything. Are you new? Go ahead, search on "sausage" or "bacon" in the search box. I'll wait ... get it now?]

Growing up, sausage to me meant an oily, hot sausage-and-pepper grinder (hero, hoagie, sub, whatever) -- and those just grossed me out (they still do). Therefore, in my mind I didn't like sausage. Period.

While Mr. Ninj and I were dating, he would occasionally cook for me (ah, those were the days!), and once he made some pasta dish that involve browning sausage as the first step.

This is so pathetic to admit now, but I watched in utter amazement as he CUT THE CASING OFF and added just the ground meat to the pan to brown. Whhhhaaaaattt???? Crumbled sausage? Sausage that isn't in a log shape or drowning in soggy pepper juice? Pure genius!

It's been fast ride straight down the pork hill from that day. All the way to this easy, way-better-than-jarred tomato and sausage ragu.

White bean avocado toast

Packed with protein to keep you feeling full and energized, white bean and avocado toast is the perfect savory breakfast or easy, light lunch.

It's easy to get into a breakfast rut, especially when you're in hurry, as most of us are each morning. Bless his heart, Mr. Ninj is perfectly content to eat the same egg sandwich or oatmeal smoothie that I put in front of him every morning, but I, on the other hand, need to change things up. And while baked goods like muffins are an awesome grab-and-go option, sometimes I need a savory, not sweet, breakfast.

So I was pretty excited when Pepperidge Farm® asked me to come up with a healthy and delicious recipe featuring toast. Yes, toast, which, when simply buttered and served with a plate of eggs can be a little ho-hum.

But this is not that.

We all love a good slice of avocado toast, whether for a quick breakfast or an afternoon snack. I've elevated it to healthy breakfast status by adding a layer of mashed white beans, loaded with keep-away-the-mid-morning-hungries protein, and topping it all with some veggies.

This, my friends, is a good-for-you, savory breakfast toast that's not only delicious but also has amazing staying power.

Tomato and ricotta summer sandwich

Layer the ripest, juiciest tomatoes on fresh, hearty bread with ricotta cheese and avocado for the perfect summer sandwich.

I know you're back in school, kids -- well, some of you. The ones that live near me here in the South anyway.

And I know apple-picking has begun in Vermont.

And I know that we're dangerously close to the beginning of OMG-EVERYTHING-PUMPKIN-FEST 2015, but I'm still celebrating summer. ( #stillsummer )

Summer veggies, anyway.

Despite the fact that the squirrels ate every single tomato from my plants as soon as they appeared, let alone waiting until they turned even a tinge of orange, I've been noshing on ripe, juicy tomatoes as often as I can -- especially in tomato sandwiches -- thanks to the many apparently squirrel-less local Kentucky farmers.

For about two years now I've been carrying around a page torn from a back issue of House Beautiful magazine, of all publications, that featured an open-faced avocado sandwich from Gabrielle Hamilton's NYC restaurant Prune.

It caught my eye because it featured tomatoes, avocado and ricotta cheese -- probably three of my most favorite ingredients. Evah.

But I never wound up making it because it was a little too fancy schmancy for me. I don't keep preserved lemon peel, pearl onions and poppy seeds on hand -- and the preserved lemon peel was said to be the star ingredients. (Note: I first typed that as "poopy seeds" which I think is an infinitely better and funnier name and would certainly make them the star ingredient. Well, at least the most interesting ingredient.)

Whatevs. Ninj ain't got that kinda time at lunch, dig?

Healthy 10 minute taco salad

Healthy taco salad: loaded with veggies, lean beef and beans, it doesn't skimp on taste or crunch yet takes less than 10 minutes to prepare. 

National Salad Month may be behind us, but you'd never know it if you're eating dinner at Casa de Ninj.

I think it's the change in the weather and the arrival of fresh produce (well, some) at the local farm markets. It makes me want to cram in as much fresh veg as I can.

Yet, I am still The Meatasaurus, which means that many of my favorite salads include a healthy portion of protein as well as crisp, crunchy veg.

And this 10-minute taco salad is no exception. Plus, it gets its protein boost from a mixture of super-lean ground beef and black beans.

And yes, it takes less than 10 minutes to assemble this whole taco salad. Ten minutes! Everyone has 10 minutes to prepare dinner! Are you psyched now?

Fresh summer tomato recipes (CSA Share Ninja Rescue 2014)

Eleven easy recipes -- some traditional, some unusual, all healthy and delicious -- for making the most of prolific, fresh, sun-ripened tomatoes.

I almost can't believe it -- time flies! -- but we're nearing the end of the 2014 edition of the CSA Share Ninja Rescue, in which you can get weekly seasonal produce recipes by request all summer long (Memorial Day to Labor Day). Hopefully you've been playing along, telling me each week what produce from your CSA share, garden or farmers' market has left you stumped for ideas, and I help un-stump you with a list of delicious, healthy recipes on Tuesdays.

I think this is my absolute favorite time of year, veg- and CSA-wise, because the most prolific veggie right now almost everywhere around the country is the tomato. From the most petite cherry to the giant slicers, fresh tomatoes taste to me like nothing else on earth. And while I'm happiest eating them plain, topped with a little crunchy sea salt, I've pulled together 11 delicious recipes that call for fresh summer tomatoes from my favorite food bloggers.

Quinoa salad with fresh corn and tomatoes

A true summer salad -- fresh corn and tomatoes, tossed with warm quinoa, protein-packed edamame and a tangy lime vinaigrette. Enjoy it as a side or mix in grilled chicken for an easy meal.

Now this is a summer salad, peeps. Because what comes to mind almost instantly when you think of summer veg? Corn and tomatoes, am I right?

Oh, summer tomatoes: how I love thee. How I love thee for tasting like tomatoes rather than cardboard.

And summer corn: what is there to say? Eight bajillion ears for a couple of bucks and you don't even have to cook it. That's my kind of vegetable. 

Now, toss those seasonal beauties with warm, slightly crunchy quinoa, some protein-packed edamame and a tangy lime vinaigrette.

Summer in a bowl.

I generally make this salad as a side to accompany grilled meat: steaks, chicken, ribs, whatevs. But it's extra-awesome leftover for lunch the next day, with some grilled chicken mixed right into it to make it a meal salad.

One-pot tomato basil pasta

Solve the weeknight dinner dilemma with one-pot tomato basil pasta -- a super-fast, healthy meal that can be made in only 10 minutes.

So, you know by now that my goal is to help you to cut the crap from your diet by showing you how to make easy, delicious, healthy meals and snacks at home. I don't need to beat a dead horse.

(OMG, where the hell does that awful expression come from? I don't even want to google it to find out.)

So, instead of horse beating, I'll just tell you about this one-pot tomato basil pasta recipe.

Yep, you read that correctly: one pot. Because I go completely cray cray over “one-pot” recipes that actually require you to cook the pasta separately. That's two pots, people; I may not love math but I can count to freakin' TWO. Therefore, I swear to you this recipe only involves one pot. Do you own a big pot? Good. Got a stove and 15 minutes? Excellent. That's pretty much all you need to get a wholesome, real-food dinner on the table tonight.

Naan panzanella salad

Enjoy this quick-to-prepare riff on rustic Italian panzanella salad, with lightly fried naan and a bright lemony dressing -- an easy summery meal salad, perfect for a weeknight dinner or hearty lunch.

It's not quite summer yet, but I've been a summery meal salad kick lately.

Perhaps it's just wishful thinking. Perhaps I'm doing it to appease the weather gods so that they won't throw a late frost at me, just as I'm beginning to get my summer garden planted. (Oh please oh please oh please)

I love meal salads and am always looking for new ideas to make them interesting. Lately I've been throwing savory granola into my salads for a little extra crunch: highly recommended. For this riff on my favorite summer salad, panzanella (Italian bread salad), I've kicked it up with lightly fried naan.

Yes, naan!

I'm a naan junkie. I think the wait staff at my favorite Indian restaurant probably cringes when I arrive for the lunch buffet -- I bet they lose money that day based solely on the amount of naan that I manage to scarf down in one sitting.

Baked ziti with tomatoes, broccoli and olives

Cheesy baked ziti, loaded with good-for-you veggies -- roasted tomatoes, tender-crisp broccoli and tangy green olives -- makes a hearty meatless meal!

I love pasta way too much.

If you've browsed my recipe index at all, you'll understand. Not that loving pasta is bad, but all those carbs aren't the best for my quickly-approaching-middle-age waistline.

I've been experimenting quite a bit with lower-carb, gluten-free pastas made from things like brown rice and quinoa, and I really do like them. In certain dishes. Like my beet pesto and greens pasta.

But there are some hearty pasta dishes for which I have to stick to the real McCoy.

This baked ziti, loaded with good-for-you veggies (and no meat!), is one such dish. While it's familiar name is "baked ziti", I actually recommend rigatoni for this dish.  Rigatoni is larger than ziti, which means a larger tube opening to hold the thick veggie sauce -- to which I'm afraid a more delicate brown rice pasta just wouldn't be able to stand up. Additionally, I think the thicker rigatoni lends a heartier element to the whole dish.

And speaking of that hearty veggie sauce...

Slow cooker mac and cheese with bacon and tomatoes

Today I'm going to start with a little math equation. But this is food math, so you're going to love it.

If a = I love me some mac and cheese and b = I am lazy, then a + b = slow cooker mac and cheese.

See? Food math is awesome!

The problem with some crockpot mac and cheese recipes is that they get all burned around the edges, which, frankly, is a huge letdown. This one is the exception. The texture and consistency is the same as oven-baked mac and cheese, plus the edges get nicely browned but don't char.

Plus, there's no pre-cooking of sauce or anything like that. I generally shun crockpot recipes that require you to pre-cook ingredients (read: dirty a bunch of other pans and defeat the throw-it-all-in-and-walk-out-the-door simplicity of the crockpot).

(Aside: You may notice that I use the terms "crockpot" and "slow cooker" interchangeably -- this is because, based on an informal survey I conducted on my Facebook page, so do you and I want to make sure all of you are happy. Because that's the kind of Ninj I am.)

Being the Ninj, I just had to mess around with the recipe a bit, though. You know, by throwing some bacon into it, for which I am developing a bit of a reputation. But I also added some tomatoes, which cooked down beautifully and added a little extra zing, while also making it a great one-pot dinner.

Spanish tomato soup with smoked paprika potatoes

A unique Spanish tomato soup with olives, topped with smoked paprika roasted potatoes.

Are you familiar with smoked paprika? If you aren't, you need to be.

I'll admit, I'm not that sensitive to the nuances of different styles of spices. If a recipe calls for some weird-ass version of a basic spice, I usually just use the basic spice, rather than going to four different stores or having to mail-order it.

Remember my number one favorite-recipe criterion: must be easy to prepare. Mail-order spices don't make the cut.

Smoked paprika, however, is the exception.

I'm not sure what recipe originally turned me on to smoked paprika but, once I tried it, I was hooked. Yes, it's paprika, but it also has a not-so-subtle smoky flavor that you can really taste. And it's readily available in most grocery stores. Booyah.

This tomato soup recipe caught my eye because of the smoked paprika. And because it has olives in it (I know, right?). And because it is topped with roasted potatoes. Too crazy!

Verdict? It's fantastic! This is no ordinary tomato soup.  The flavors are smoky and spicy and the briny tang of the olives is the perfect complement. Plus, the roasted potatoes turn it into a meal rather than simply a soup.

Make your own vegetable powders

Via Facebook and Twitter, I'm still reading about folks putting up the last of their tomatoes for the winter, so I think you'll find this post quite timely.

While I do grow my own tomatoes in my garden, my yield is often not what I hope. I have also had much better luck with small, prolific tomatoes like Sungolds than with bigger, beefier tomatoes, ideal for slicing and canning.

So, like many of you, I usually turn to my local farmers when it's time to put up tomatoes for the winter.

This year, I bought half a bushel.

Now, that may not seem like much but, trust me, when you wash them and line them up on the kitchen counter, it's a lot.

And I mean A LOT.

I didn't weigh my box but a quick search shows that the standard weight for a bushel of tomatoes in the United States is 53 pounds. So I'm guessing I had about 25 pounds of tomatoes.

Instead of simply making the whole lot into sauce for the freezer, I got a little creative this year.

CSA Share Ninja Rescue 2013: tomatoes and winter squash (13 ideas)

This is the final installment for 2013 of my CSA Share Ninja Rescue, a weekly feature in which you tell me on Fridays what veg you got in your CSA share box (or found at the farmers' market) that you don't know what to do with and I'll give you a whole bunch of recipe ideas on the following Monday.

Even though I'm wrapping up this feature for this year, I know that many of you will continue receiving CSA shares well into the fall and perhaps even through the winter; if you need some ideas, feel free to message me or post your request on my Facebook page.

And rest assured that the CSA Share Ninja Rescue will be back in 2014 as well.

But for now, since it's nearly fall, I thought I'd leave you with ideas for two perfect transition veggies: tomatoes, which are signaling the end of summer (and the ramp-up of crazed canning season!), and winter squash, which heralds the arrival of fall.

Please note that I am skipping pumpkin. This is for two reasons:

1. I respect seasonality. Therefore, I recently pledged not to jump into the pumpkin patch until it is truly pumpkin season (read: October 1), no matter what Starbucks' latte menu says.
2. I'm sure you're being inundated on blogs, Facebook and Pinterest with pumpkin EVERYTHING, so I doubt you're out of ideas quite yet.

Many thanks to all of you who have made requests or left comments this year. As I always note, this feature is only successful when you participate and tell me what you need -- and we were very successful indeed in 2013!

Now, the recipe ideas...

Tomatoes

• Tiny tomato bisque: Easy and quick, this bisque is equally as delicious with fresh or frozen tomatoes (the recipe is at the very end of the post)
• Tomato jam: Made with fresh tomatoes, this is a wonderful savory condiment to use throughout the tomato-less winter
• Green tomato cake: I make a few of these spice cakes and freeze them when I'm forced, by an impending frost, to pull all the unripened tomatoes off my plants (that should happen soon, unfortunately)
• Bloody Mary tomato salad: A salad that tastes almost like a cocktail -- one of my faves!
• Fresh tomato and sausage ragu: Kick your pasta up several notches with this delicious sauce
• Gazpacho: Perhaps the easiest and most delicious way to use up nearly everything from your CSA share all at once
• Marinated Dried Tomatoes: ZOMG -- I love these! They are so wonderfully tangy on pizzas and even better when rehydrated in a cream sauce over pasta

Winter Squash

• Curried acorn squash soup:  I see this as a lovely soup for lunch or a light dinner
• Acorn squash muffins: Delightful for breakfast or an afternoon snack -- or even as a substitute for cornbread with chili (see below)
• Roasted butternut squash with quinoa, sausage and greens: Amazing fall flavor and full of whole-grain goodness
• Crockpot turkey chili with butternut squash and apples: Loaded with veggies and beans, this is a fall-flavorful riff on traditional chili about which my readers rave (there's a bonus cornbread recipe in there as well!)
• Butternut squash gnocchi with sage brown butter: Don't let the craptacular photo put you off -- this is some wonderful pasta, made with squash instead of potatoes
• Butternut squash-infused rum: I'm planning to mix this rum with ginger beer for a signature Thanksgiving cocktail

So ... what was your favorite recipe (or recipes) from the 2013 CSA Share Ninja Rescue? Leave a comment: The Ninj wants to know.

Southwestern bean soup with chicken and kale (7-can soup)

Southwestern bean soup with chicken and kale (aka 7-can soup)

I'm excited to tell you about this recipe -- probably way too excited, actually, as it is only soup.

But what a soup, my friends!

Regular readers know that my favorite recipes are those that meet the following criteria:

1. Must be delicious
2. Must be simple, ingredient-wise, so it can be made with pantry staples rather than a trip to an exotic market, as well as wicked easy to prepare (read: no creme brulee torches required)
3. Should be stealthily healthy (that is, one bite should not prompt Mr. Ninj to say, "This must be good for me, right?")

This bean soup? Check, check and check.

About the same time I was reading in Eating Well magazine about low-calorie power soups inspired by a Weight Watchers garden vegetable soup, my friend Maria -- who I trust as an authority on healthy-yet-flavorful recipes, given that she is a caterer who also recently lost over 90 pounds -- posted the recipe for another Weight Watchers favorite: Seven-Can Soup.

The name says it all: seven cans of ingredients, thrown together in a pot, heated though and served.

Ridiculously easy!

Green tomato cake

Green tomato cake

I don't know about your neck of the woods, but here in Vermont, it's definitely fall.

I enjoy the change of season and the feeling of turning inward that it brings. While my wardrobe moves from t-shirts and flipflops to fuzzy sweaters and boots, my mind changes gears from gardening to loading up the bird feeders, reading by the fire and pots of chili and soup.

But when I put the garden to bed, there are always unripened tomatoes. Sadly, they never got their chance to shine and be the star of some salad, sandwich or jam. It seems a shame to just get rid of them, doesn't it?

So I don't. I let them have their moment in the sun, so to speak.

Quinoa burgers

Quinoa burgers with tomato jam

Have you noticed how quinoa is freakin' everywhere lately?

It's the new new thing.

And apparently rightly so, given the recent bruhaha over arsenic levels in rice. Not to mention all the research that tells us a diet without a lot of white rice and pasta might help us all to be a little less ... well ... how shall we say ... fluffy?

So bring on the quinoa!

I like quinoa because it's not too grainy or health-food-storish, like bulgur (oy, I tried to like bulgur because Bittman says I should, but I just can't deal with it). I can almost pretend quinoa is pasta.

(Almost.)

I have to admit, I was pretty skeptical when I tried this recipe for quinoa "burgers." My experience has been that grain-based veggie patties tend to fall apart when you try to flip them in a frying pan. Which is why, frankly, I didn't even buy burger buns when I made these; I just figured I'd call them "fritters" or "hash" and be done with it.

But --- ha cha cha! -- wouldn't you know it? They stayed in one piece! A real patty!

Tomato jam

Tomato jam

Nature is fickle indeed.

Especially in the garden.

Last year, I had greens that just wouldn't quit: kale, collards, bok choy, mustard greens, chard -- I was practically overwhelmed. But tomatoes and cucumbers? They either fizzled out or were attacked by bugs and blight early in the season.

This year? My bok choy succumbed before I got even one leaf, the Giant Fordhook chard never made it past 8 inches and the deer ate my kale (and the chard, but they seemed to prefer the kale this year, the little bastards). But tomatoes and cucumbers? I had to give away bag after bag of cucumbers, because one can only make so many freakin' pickles.

And I've put up or used up tons and tons of tomatoes.

So far, I have made tomato sauce, slow-roasted tomatoes and marinated dehydrated tomatoes, as well as frozen countless bags of tiny, perfect Sun Golds, which will reappear in ragus and bisques throughout the winter.

Tomato-peach chutney

Tomato-peach chutney

Just a quick recipe today that you might want to try this weekend, given that it is high season for both tomatoes and peaches.
Hurry, though -- peaches are ending and tomatoes are kicking into high gear, so it's like we're in that little egg-shaped intersection of a Venn diagram, or what we all now seem to refer to as a "perfect storm." But I think that's a little dark and negative when we're talking amazing summer fruit and veg.

Or maybe "Perfect Storm Chutney" is just the right name for it!

I made this chutney (remember, it's not a compote if there are veggies and vinegar in it) to go with some lovely little pork patties -- a bit like a miniburger but bunless. It was a perfect combination. But I can also see this pairing really nicely with grilled chicken.

Or how about spreading it like a jam on summer harvest zucchini bread?

Bloody Mary tomato salad

Bloody Mary tomato salad

I wish I had some great story behind this salad.

But I don't.

It's just a salad that I happen to think is pretty bloody fantastic (Heh heh, see my little joke there? I'm hilarious. Really, I am.).

Currently I'm fortunate enough to be drowning in tomatoes from my garden. This is never a bad thing for a gardener. After three consecutive years of no tomato harvest due to bugs and blight, I'm happy as a clam.

So there are a lot of tomato salads being consumed in Ninjaville, which means I have to keep looking for fresh new ideas.

I've been making this salad as an accompaniment to steaks and burgers since I found the recipe last summer. As with its namesake, the olives give it an oomph of briney goodness that is just tangy enough to complement the sweet tomatoes. And it is simple enough to prepare that you can whip it up while your steaks are grilling.