Red Beans and Rice

I’ve always wanted to make a red beans and rice type recipe that you hear all about from New Orleans.  The only trouble is I have children that won’t eat the spice and I am not a big fan of meat.  How do you accommodate the family?  Well here is what I came up with and I did the user-friendly Slow Cooker version.

In a skillet on Medium heat cook the:

Onion

Green Pepper

3-4 cloves of Garlic (garlic in everything for Rachel)

Trader Joe’s 21 Season Salute  or other spice favorites

(This is also where you would throw in some spicy cayenne pepper if you didn’t have kids.)

6 Chicken Sausages sliced up (or you could use the veggie dog substitute)

Throw the heated mix into your Slow Cooker along with the red beans.  (I used 2 cans but some better cooks soak their beans overnight.)  I also added 2 cups of cooked brown rice at this point, while others like to put their mix over the rice at serving time.

Very important!  Add 2+ cups of water (you could substitute broth) so it can simmer together.  I would add more depending on how long you are going to keep it in the Crockpot.

I’m sure my version doesn’t compare to the spicy, ham soaked original but I felt good about feeding my children something healthy and hot for the evening (plus you throw cheddar cheese on anything and they'll eat it!)  Those are the only two requirements.  The next night we ate leftovers (good with tortillas) after another full day of curriculum night, Walk a Thon, and work.

Here is a picture of Mason on the first night after a full day of school, piano lessons, soccer practice, and now eating standing up while doing homework.  This is the kind of month we are having.  I never thought I would be the family or mom that is signed up for everything.  We only do one sport at a time but things tend to all pile into one time/day and you end up saying yes to everything because you want things to go well for your children and follow through with your commitments.  I’ll let you know how that theory works out for me in the next year.