Diet Friendly Fast Food

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  This Slow Cooker Cannellini Bean Stew with Tomatoes, Italian Sausage, and Kale has some of my favorite flavors, and I love adding the kale near the end of the cooking time so it's still a little chewy in the stew.)

My friend Lydia and I have both become quite infatuated with experiments in our slow cookers, and the experimental part in this Slow Cooker Cannellini Bean Stew with Tomatoes, Italian Sausage, and Kale was adding the kale to the slow cooker after the other ingredients had cooked for a few hours.  I was really thrilled with how the raw kale softened perfectly in the slow cooker with just a little more cooking time, and the slightly chewy kale was one of my favorite parts of this dish!

(Autumn Harvest Soup was updated with better photos in November 2014.)

Sometimes recipes that just come together out of whatever's on hand turn out to be some of my favorites, and this Autumn Harvest Soup with Butternut Squash, Kale, and Farro (or Brown Rice) is one I came up with when I had butternut squash and kale and I'd been craving Farro, an ingredient I've loved ever since I tried it in Farro with Mushrooms. The butternut, kale, and farro combination here turned out to be wonderful, but if you wanted a gluten-free version you could make this with brown rice, which would also be very tasty.