Smoky Black Bean and Rice Stoup

As you may tell from the word "stoup" this is a Rachel Recipe from her Express Lane Meal cookbook (link below). I changed it a bit so I'll give you my adapted ingredient list (not tons different)
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- one pack of Turkey Bacon (baked it in the oven)
- Bay leaf
- 2 celery ribs
- 1 onion
- 4 garlic gloves (but I use a jar so I estimate this one)
- 1 cup frozen corn kernel (I didn't feel like putting it back so I used the whole bag:)
- 2 15-ounce cans of black beans
- ground coriander (I'm not putting spice measurements cause I just use what I want)
- chili powder
- ground cumin (my favorite spice)
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons hot sauce
- 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
- 1 quart low sodium chicken stock
- 1 cup brown rice (I recommend sticking to the cup because I added more which soaked up the broth so I added more stock and it just kept soaking it up, however since it was so thick I used the leftover to make rice and beans with sausage!)

Veggies went in first, then the corn and black beans (half a can of black beans were smashed to thicken it). then spices, stock sauce and rice. Pretty easy.

I chopped up some avocados (topped with lime juice), onions and fresh tomatoes for a topping along with some shredded cheese.

I served it with biscuits, but for some reason they didn't make the picture:)

Garden Fresh Salsa!!!

This is by far my favorite salsa. I got the recipe from my friend's husband, who is from Mexico.

I'm going to list the ingredients but not amounts because the fun part is you can add more or less of things depending on your tastes or even how much you have.

Ingredients:
tomato (great way to use up those garden tomatoes)
avocado
onion (I used red but have done with white etc.)
chopped garlic (mine comes from a jar)
jalapeno pepper (or substitute - I used a small amount of hot chili pepper from my garden)
cilantro
salt
lime juice (I've made this with both a little lime and a lot and it's great both ways)

Just chop it all up, mix and enjoy!