Crocking it out

As of yesterday, Yuengling is officially sold in Ohio! Now that you don't have to go out of state to buy the stuff, I wonder if people will drink it all the time or if it will lose some of its appeal. You know what they say, you always want what you can't have...

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I mentioned this fantastic crock-pot recipe website a few posts back and this weekend I made one of the recipes from the site. I have a few picked out that I want to try but on Sunday, I decided to make white bean and sausage soup. I loooove sausage but it's not the healthiest. However, chicken or turkey sausage is a great alternative that I'm hoping to incorporate into more meals. Sunday was gorgeous but chilly and this soup definitely hit the spot. It was super easy too! I calculated the calories in the soup because I was curious, since it seems pretty low-calorie based on the ingredients, and it came out to approx. 1,510 calories for the whole thing! If you divide that by six servings, it's only about 252 calories per serving. Healthy, hearty, and delicious!

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White bean and sausage soup

1 can white kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can garbanzo beans
1 tsp thyme
2 cups fresh chopped vegetables (I used carrots, celery and broccoli)
1/2 chopped yellow onion
2-4 spicy chicken or turkey sausage, uncooked
1/2 cup rice (she used cooked rice but I used uncooked brown rice and it came out just fine)
1 quart chicken or vegetable broth

Drain beans and put in crock-pot. Chop vegetables and onion into small pieces and add to crock-pot. Slice sausage and add to crock-pot. Add rice and broth and cover with lid. Cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 6-9 hours, until vegetables are tender and sausage is brown.

I cooked on high and ate some at about 4 hours in. Then, I turned the crock-pot to low and kept it cooking for another 2-3 hours, mostly because I was reading my nook and being lazy and also because it made my apartment smell delicious. I used 2 natural spicy chicken sausage but next time, I'll use 4 because that's my favorite part! I've had this for lunch and dinner every day since Sunday (no judging please) and the longer it sits, the more tasty, flavorful and thick it becomes. This is definitely one of those "better after re-heating" meals. Love, love, love it!

All in all, this soup was a great success! It reminds me of the jambalaya Tiff makes that I am OBSESSED with. I'm planning on making taco soup next. I said before how I'm not a huge fan of soup, but I seem to be proving myself wrong with all these soup posts. Ole!