**Written Feb. 25, but something funny happened***
I try to do weekly meal planning. Over the last year, I’ve sat down over the weekend and written up a meal plan for the week. This February, however, I’ve fallen off the meal-planning band wagon. We’ve been eating scraps. Cereal. Odds and ends. And beans and rice.
I recently added the ingredients of this dish into our pantry staples, so I’ve pulled it out a few times in the last several weeks. Sometimes we have some chicken sausage on the side. It’s been a good meal for us. Sylvia loves it. I love it. The boys think it’s alright.
So without further ado, here’s how you make it:
two cans (three cups) red kidney beans
one can coconut milk
one can water
one and a half cups of rice
Drain the beans and put them in a pot that will hold twice the bulk of the beans. Warm them gently over medium low heat. Meanwhile, warm the water and coconut milk in the microwave. Add the coconut milk, water, and rice to the beans. Cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes (actually on my stove, I cook it on low-med). If there’s too much liquid left after 20 minutes, uncover and raise the heat slightly.
Easy cheesy! Plus as I tell my kids, think of all the amino acid combinations they are getting:)
***
As a note, while we were eating this meal tonight, Sylvia somehow fell off her chair. First she smashed her face into the table and then she plummeted to the ground, again, hitting her head or her face on the floor. It was a terrible looking fall. And she was so very sad. So we aborted supper. Then I held her until she stopped crying and through her hiccups asked to watch “whales show” from Fantasia 2000.
I love rice and beans. Michael dislikes beans, pretty much totally. Beans are really one of the few things that I love and he dislikes, so I try to be flexible so that I’m not cooking dinner just for me. It works out that we have “tacos” a lot, which are really more like burritos than tacos. I cook meat (1/3 lb. ground turkey or hamburger– mostly for Michael) and beans (refried beans, black beans, or chickpeas–all for me) and usually rice. Then we add other things– grated cheese, salsa, 4-cheese sauce, sour cream (or Greek yogurt recently), tortillas. I have leftovers of rice and beans with cheese to take to work and Michael can skip the beans.
Your recipe sounds good. I will have to try that one– maybe when I am cooking with the intention of having leftovers for work or one night when Michael is not around for dinner.