This recipe is a healthy choice with the turkey bacon and all the veggies. You can add more “bam” if you increase the chili powder.

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped finely
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
3 cloves garlic, pressed or 2 tsp. minced garlic from the jar
3 cans of Bush’s chili beans (Pinto Beans in chili sauce)
32 oz. chicken stock
6 strips of cooked turkey bacon, crumbled
1/2 to 1 tsp. chipotle chili powder
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

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Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot. Cook the onion, carrots and celery over medium heat until they begin to soften. Add the garlic and cook for 1-2 more minutes. Pour in the three cans of beans, the broth and the turkey bacon. Stir in the chili powder, salt and pepper. Simmer for 15 minutes.

To thicken the soup, use a flat spoon to smash about half of the beans against the wall of the soup pot. Simmer for 5 minutes more and keep smashing until you have the soup to the thickness that you like.

Serve with a salad for a heart healthy, rib-sticking family meal.

Julie calls this a “potchky,” which is Yiddish for a “pain in the butt,” because it has a lot of steps to assemble. I love Yiddish, because the words often sound exactly like the thing they’re describing. Recipes like this are worth the work, though, because they are mouth-wateringly yummy. If you have leftover potatoes to use from a Sunday dinner, it makes a super-easy Meatless Monday meal.

2 medium Yukon Gold Potatoes, cut into ½ cubes (sweet potatoes may be substituted-highly recommended if you like them)
2 tspns. chili powder
1 cup coarsely grated Monterey Jack cheese
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 cup salsa verde (easily found at supermarkets)
4 cups coarsely chopped spinach
4 8-inch flour tortillas
3 oz. chilled fresh goat cheese, coarsely crumbled
Olive oil

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Mix potatoes in bowl with oil, chili powder, salt and pepper. Place potatoes on baking sheet and bake at 400 degree Fahrenheit until tender (about 25-30 minutes). Cool potatoes 15 minutes. Mix in Jack cheese. Meanwhile, sauté spinach in olive oil and garlic.

Arrange tortillas on work surface. Place sautéed spinach on the bottom half of the tortilla, topped with potato mixture, then goat cheese and 2 tablespoons salsa verde. Fold plain tortilla halves over filling, pressing to compact. Brush with oil.

Heat large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Place 2 quesadillas oiled side down, in skillet. Brush tops with oil. Cook until quesadillas are brown, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to sheet in oven to keep warm. Repeat with remaining quesadillas.

Cut each quesadilla into 3 or 4 wedges. Serve with remaining salsa.

We hope you enjoy this healthy new recipe and you embrace cooking as one of the best ways to save money.

This week our featured recipe comes from Lidia Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali, who have a new cookbook called Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipes.

Note from Lidia: “Cauliflower is one of my favorite vegetables, and I regret that many people don’t sufficiently appreciate its unique flavor and nutritional value. This is not the case in Molise, where it is cooked often and creatively, as exemplified by the following two simple vegetarian pasta dishes. The first recipe, maccarun ch’i hiucc, is zesty with garlic and peperoncino.”

½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for the pasta pot
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
7 plump garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
½ teaspoon peperoncino flakes, or to taste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 large head cauliflower, cut in small florets
1 batch (1½ pounds) Fresh Cavatelli (preceding recipe), or 1 pound dried pasta
1 cup freshly grated pecorino (or half pecorino and half Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano, for a milder flavor)

Recommended equipment: A large pasta pot; a heavy-bottomed skillet or sauté pan, 12 inch diameter or larger.

Fill the large pot with salted water (at least 6 quarts water with 1 tablespoon salt), and heat to a boil.

Pour the olive oil into the skillet, set over medium-high heat, and scatter in the sliced garlic. Let the garlic start to sizzle, then toss in the peperoncino and parsley; stir and cook for a minute. Ladle in a cup of the pasta cooking water, stir well, and adjust the heat to keep the liquid in the skillet simmering and reducing gradually while you cook the cauliflower and pasta.

With the pasta water at a rolling boil, drop in the cauliflower florets, and cook them for about 3 minutes, until barely tender. Drop in the cavatelli, stir, and return the water quickly to a boil. Cook another 4 to 5 minutes, until the cauliflower is fully tender and the pasta is al dente (if you are using dried pasta, it will, of course, take longer).

Lift out the florets and cavatelli with a spider or strainer, drain briefly, and spill them into the skillet. Toss well, to coat all the pasta and vegetable pieces with the garlicky dressing, then turn off the heat, sprinkle over the skillet the grated cheese, and toss again. Heap the cauliflower and cavatelli in warm bowls, and serve immediately.