Pizza Beans

Although my family kind of raved about these, I was a little underwhelmed. Still, day two with beans or soup is always a step up, and the recipe makes a ton, so we'll have leftovers for days.

Followed the recipe fairly closely, just subbing in diced tomatoes for crushed because I didn't have any of the latter. Also, added Italian seasoning to the sautéed carrots, onions, celery mix in addition to the salt and pepper called for in the recipe. Glad I did because I'm not sure it would have had enough flavor otherwise.

As for the dried gigante beans called for by the recipe, they were fine, although I did wonder a bit how old mine were -- ordered from Amazon a few weeks ago, but seemed like they might have been sitting on a shelf somewhere for a while.

It's a simple enough recipe, but if I make it again, I'd simplify even more, and cut the recipe in half. I'd use canned cannellini beans, and I'd definitely follow Deb's suggestion about adding some hot or sweet Italian sausage to the sautéed vegetables.