I can’t believe that it has been nearly a week since my last blog post. I have missed coming here and writing and so often I have thought of so many things that I want to share with you. What has prevented me from doing this of course is time. There never seems to be enough of it. Alas, here I am with a cup of hot tea and a few moments to type as my oldest two girls are outside playing on this beautiful fall afternoon.

Life has been so busy these days as I finish up work on my book. Who knew a book could take so long? It has literally been years in the making already, with creating all of the recipes, testing and editing (the never ending editing and eye strain). I love thinking up recipe ideas and being in the kitchen working on my creative ideas, but the time spent on the computer I could do without. It sucks the life out of me, which is why I also haven’t felt like writing a blog post. Any chance I get to take a break from the book, I want to spend outside going for a walk to relieve stress and spend time with my family.

I sometimes wonder if I ever would have begun this project if I had known how long it would actually take, how frustrated I would get and how much actual work it is. It seems that I have so many jobs now! I keep telling myself that it won’t be long now though and to keep on keeping on. I just hope that I won’t run into too many more bumps along the road to completion. It helps to know that there are people out there rooting me on and waiting to have a copy of their own. That makes it all so completely worth it to me! 🙂

In other news, we are all back to healthy now, except for my hubby who is terribly ill and even had to take off of work early yesterday. Still, four out of five aint bad!

Today seemed like a good day for a warm and filling meal, so I decided to make a big pot of soup. I realized that I had never made a soup with barley before and I do love barley, so barley and black bean soup it was! With lots of vegetables too of course!

Black Bean and Barley Vegetable Soup

A hearty soup with the goodness of barley, black beans and a variety of vegetables.

 Makes one large pot of soup, serves 8-10. If you need less soup, I would suggest making only half of the recipe. Soup also freezes well and can be easily thawed and reheated for an easy meal when you don’t feel much like cooking.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, pressed
• 5 medium carrots, diced (4 cups)
• 4 ribs celery, diced (2 cups)
• 1/4 cup water
• 7 cups vegetable broth
• 1 (796 ml) can diced tomatoes, with juice
• 1 cup pot barley, rinsed
• 1 cup frozen cut green beans
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• Pinch of ground black pepper
• 1 (540 ml) can black beans, drained and rinsed

Directions

1. Heat the sunflower oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the diced onion and garlic and sauté 3-5 minutes, until fragrant.
2. Add the diced carrots and celery along with the 1/4 cup of water. Cover and cook for 8-10  minutes, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are tender.
3. Add the vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, barley, green beans, bay leaf,  thyme, marjoram, basil, sea salt and pepper.
4. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer the soup for 1 hour, until the barley has cooked and the vegetables have softened.
5. Once the barley and vegetables have finished cooking add the black beans and simmer 5-10 minutes more.
6. Serve with your favorite whole wheat bread and dairy-free margarine.

Note: If the soup seems too thick after cooking, add some more vegetable broth  to thin it out. The soup will thicken as it sits in the fridge so when you reheat it, it will need more vegetable broth.

Have a good day! 🙂