Four-Bean Salad

Okay, so you know three-bean salads. They're delicious, healthy, full of protein. Well, I upped the ante and added a fourth bean. I know; I take some pretty intense culinary risks. This healthy and filling salad is perfect with tortilla chips, on a green salad, on pasta, or on its own. Enjoy the protein and the hearty taste! This recipe is based off of a Real Simple recipe and makes a huge bowl.

Slow Cooker Three-Bean Chili

I made some chili for a friend's work competition early last month. It was super-easy, since I just put it in my slow cooker all day and let it go. To make it stand out amongst the competition, I used cocoa powder (think mole sauce) and three different kinds of beans (since I wasn't using any meat). This recipe makes about five full servings.

Guest Post: Anthony's Perfect Black Bean Burger, served California-style

Please welcome my partner and best friend, Anthony, for the next guest post! The best part about this recipe is that I got to taste the result and it was incredible. Enjoy!
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This is my favorite recipe for preparing black bean burgers. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I've tasted few recipes that even come close to this one. It's flavor- and texture-rich, and even better, it's easy to prepare. It is the perfect dish to serve with a beer for a late-spring supper on the porch or rooftop, but it is hearty enough to fill you up during these colder months too. This recipe is adapted from "Spiced Black Bean Burgers" at epicurious and makes four burgers.

Vegetarian Chili

Tonight was one of those nights where I have a lot of food in the house, but nothing to really make. So, I took a bunch of leftovers and things in my pantry and decided to make a chili. This is really easy (especially because I used a slow cooker), and because I used a meat substitute, your carnivorous friends will enjoy it as well. I made a small volume of chili, but you can multiply the recipe as much as you want! This recipe makes three to four servings.

Guest Post: Veggie Quesadilla with Baja Sauce

Here's another guest post, this time from the wonderful Ben! There is more information about Ben at the end of this post. Thanks so much for sending this recipe in, Ben. I hope you all enjoy!
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Quesadillas are my comfort food. I love that there are so many possibilities and you can cater to a wide variety of cravings. Having the quesadilla in my corner is very comforting since I can often use extra ingredients from previous recipes. Using as much of the vegetables in the refrigerator's crisper before it spoils for as many meals as possible is both exciting and frugal. So once a week, I can usually clean out my crisper and have a delicious meal in the process.

For this week, I had several bell peppers, an onion, a handful of mushrooms, and some cheese, all of it leftover from a pizza I made. I also had some leftover corn and rice from a meal the other day so I reheated that for a side. The ingredients below made two large quesadillas.