As I throroughly enjoy cooking and rarely have trouble coming up with ideas for meals on a regular basis, I find that I am more often stumped in the month of January.  Surely it is partly from spending a LOT of time in the kitchen during November and December baking and cooking Holiday meals for family and friends.  Also, most of us are extra concerned with eating lighter and healthier after consuming all of the heavy, sweet food.  I can say I have finally cleared out most of that and I’m no longer getting creative with leftovers. At the same time, at least in Ohio, we crave warming and comforting food during the winter months. A few of you have inquired aout new recipes on my  blog – and I have been stumped to come up with creative – but favorite recipes that I have shared so far.  My almost 24 year old son has also asked me for new ideas that would be easy for him as a single working person…

So, my inspiration came last week when reading the Toledo Blade newspaper.  There were two recipes that sounded really good –  comforting, healthy and easy!  One is a white bean and fennel stew with italian sausage – and the other is a slow cooker ham and potato soup with rosemary.  I will include the modified recipes for both in case you’d like to try them.  Soups and stews are a great way to cook this time of year.  They can easily be divided and frozen and thawed out quickly for meals over several weeks.  I’ll give you one recipe now – and one next week.

The stew uses fennel, which is a vegetable I love.  I purchased some this past week at the grocery store without having a recipe in mind to use it.  I love it cut up raw as a snack or crudite.  It is wonderful roasted – or in soups – and gives a little bit of a licorice flavor.

 

I defrosted some italian sausage and homeamde chicken stock and for convenience opened up two cans of cannelini beans and a can of diced tomatoes.  The stew comes together very quickly – and does not require a long simmer for the flavors to blend.

Color and contrast always make a dish more appealing to me too.  This one does not dissapoint.  I used a red and green kale as well as fresh spinach to balance the lighter colors of the sausage and beans.  The one can of tomatoes adds a nice red spark of color – and a good acidic taste to the comforting stew. I added a little salt, pepper and a healthy few dashes of red pepper flakes before adding the stock, beans, greens and tomatoes.

 

 

I’m so glad I made this recipe a few days ago – it has filled our stomachs and helped to heal broken hearts over losing our beloved dog of 9 1/2 years.  I hope you will try it and find it just as comforting and delicious.