Dinner in a pinch

My mom and I were on our way to yoga class, and then discovered that we had the wrong day and time. We decided to go shopping instead, and by the time we were done, most of the day had slipped away. We had to come up with a meal for dinner, QUICK! My Dad was coming home, and my sister and brother in law were on their way over too. So I took the leftover black beans and turned them into a delicious and hearty soup with garlic, onion, carrot, sweet potato, cilantro, and celery and it only took about 15 to 20 minutes to cook the veggies. My family likes a little extra flavor, so I took about 2 tablespoons of salsa and stirred this in with cumin and sea salt. There was some leftover brown & wild rice so that was a great side dish, and I took the kale my cousin sent us home with and threw together a raw kale salad filled with grated carrots, sliced snap peas, tomatoes, sunflower seeds, and roasted soybeans for a little bit of crunch. It was dressed with some tamari, lemon juice, brown rice vinegar, and olive oil. They had the meal with some chicken, while I skipped that part. My niece and nephew especially liked the brown rice. (The dessert is described in the next post.) All of this took from 30 to 45 minutes to whip up. It's really possible to have tasty healthy food that doesn't take forever to prepare leaving us time to play outside in the late summer sun.