Black Bean Stew

Yesterday, I knew I was planning to go out for a 9-10 mile run today, so I made plans for dinner to be served before my wife had to leave before 6 PM today.  Not always an easy task.  Normally, I make just enough food on Sunday so that we can have Sunday's leftovers for Monday's meal... this helps a lot in meal planning, but Sunday night, we were having left-overs from the homemade pizza on Saturday, so I was totally out of sync.

No problem, because I still had 1.5 quarts of homemade chicken stock from the previous week, black beans, and some veggies... time to experiment, and it worked- so here's a new recipe for Black Bean Stew... Cherry style!

3/4 quart of chicken stock

1/2 cup dried black beans

1+ cups of chopped celery- chunky with the leaves

1+ cups of chopped carrots- make them chunky

1 cup diced tomatoes

1/4 cup chopped onions

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1.5 tsp chili powder

1.5 tsp garlic powder

1.5 tsp cumin

1 tsp cayenne pepper

Put ALL the ingredients into an empty quart container, mix the day before and seal.  Place it in the refrigerator until ready.  The next day, about 12-24 hours later, dump all the ingredients into a saucepan and place on the stove.  Heat until just about boiling and then let simmer for about an hour.  If you have time, make some cornbread and serve with the stew- we used left over corn bread and it was the perfect match.  Remember all the seasonings are to your desired taste, but I think that putting them in, at least in part, the night before is essential in the flavor of the dish.  As a variation, use red beans or kidney beans. This dish would also qualify as something to sprinkle some chia seed into it.

Enjoy!