Hello and HI, Happy Halloween if you're into that sort of thing, happy end of October, happy fall, all of the happy.
It's a really busy week so I'm thinking if I just type HAPPY over and over it will be come true?
Maybe I'll get lucky. What does NOT require luck, though, is the super simple ultimate refried bean dip we have here before us.
...WHAT did you do this weekend? I ate all of the foods. It was glorious and today I'm craving raw veggies, which is rare. 
Lighter stuff, you know? Just for like a day, nothing insane. Is it fine if I present to you a light recipe topped with sausage?
I gotta be me, after all.
Depending on the ingredients you use here (check labels, etc), this is an accidentally gluten- and dairy-free recipe, which DEFINITELY makes it a health food. I've seen several recipes for marinated beans around the internet, and I'm so excited about all of them. White beans absorb flavor pretty quickly and you're left with the creamy beans, tangy dressing, and sharp + crunchy vegetables. You could absolutely make this year-round as well since dried rosemary works just as well as fresh.
...
Southern comfort food time!
That also happens to be pretty healthy, frankly.
We don't eat a lot of beans around here, but I'm trying to change that. I don't have anything against them, but dried beans take 93 days to prepare, and canned beans are salty and there are just always things I'd rather eat, so we keep them around for dips and the odd Mexican meal, and that's kind of it. Mainly we eat beans out in the world at restaurants and that's that.
But! Last week we ended up making dinner for Jay's grandmother at the last minute and she's all about super cozy flavorful comforting things. I mean, who isn't? We had just been to the farmer's market and there were FRESH crowder peas there. Not dried. Not canned. Actually off the stalk which happens for about 30 seconds each year, and then everything gets processed for the winter. So we bought them, we stewed them, and we pickled some glorious little tomatoes to go on top. I used the same pickling liquid I do for chow chow, but these are basically pickled tomatoes with turmeric. The brightness on top of the really earthy beans is PERFECT. I served these alone once and with a piece of salmon on top once, and both are great options depending on how much food you want to imbibe (always go with the max). Here we go!
...
Beans, beans, a wonderful fruit...
No, just no.
We're getting kind of creative with our meat-free meals over here as we move through the months of my husband being a vegetarian. And by vegetarian I mean that he definitely made pasta last night with what he thought was Soyrizo but really pork chorizo and ate it anyways.
Small details, though, he'll have me tell you.
But these beans. Beans that are in fact a legume, not a fruit, as the dumbass song suggests. And I get that legume doesn't rhyme with poot or fart or gas or flatulence BUT MAYBE THAT'S THE POINT that if you called things what they really were then the world would be a little bit better off due to not having silly songs about fiber? ...
Beans, beans, what a wonderful fruit...
You know the drill. Ew.
And, ew because I kind of don't like beans. I don't HATE them, but sometimes the texture isn't the sexiest thing I can think of to eat (don't EVEN), and there are usually ten thousand more calories that I'd like to eat that I don't want to waste on fibrous legumes. So, we don't eat beans much.
BUT, there's this new French-ish restaurant in Greenville that's run by a bunch of Americans who also own a lot of other restaurants and they have a green lentil salad that I absolutely adore. And I figured it out. The lentils aren't mushy, and I like them that way. If they get cooked too much I die a thousand deaths and demand to be taken to McDonalds at 1am because I SWEAR I'M NOT DRUNK AND I'M STARVING AND WHY DO YOU HATE ME? ...