Herein lies 3 things:
slow cooker red beans and rice
monkey bread with a new twist
Valentine’s idea
Red Beans and Rice
The original recipe came from a slow cooker Southern Living cookbook:
16 oz smoked sausage (nitrate-free), sliced
2 (10oz cans) Rotel or 28oz diced tomatoes for less heat
3 1/2 cups MSG-free broth, preferably homemade
2 t Cajun or creole seasoning, or make your own
1 1/2 c. uncooked brown rice - white works too.
2 (15 oz. cans) red beans, rinsed and drained
Slow cooker: Place all ingredients in pot. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours.
Make it boujee by adding:
1 chopped onion
3-4 stalks of celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, or bell pepper, minced (optional)
garnish with fresh chopped parsley, scallions, and/or chopped bell pepper
Comments:
- Because quality meat is important to me, I use either brats from a local farmer or kielbasa from a natural grocery store like Whole Foods or Natural Grocers. Many cheap sausages contain MSG to which my husband is highly sensitive. I slice the sausage very thin so that it seems like there is more meat in the dish. If your family likes a lot of meat, and you're making the recipe with a pound of dry beans, get two packages of sausage. Sometimes I go through the extra effort to sear the sausage separately — just for the yummy Maillard reaction which gives browned food its distinctive flavor.
- Making it according to the directions above was too spicy for my family. Replace the 20oz of Rotel with a 28oz can of diced tomatoes and it's just as tasty.
- To kick it up a nourishing notch or two: make this with dried beans cooked in broth.
- Celery is on the dirty dozen. Organic celery doesn’t cost much more than the pesticide laden conventional celery.
- I used a jalapeno because I knew I didn't have enough creole seasoning to make the dish spicy. And because I had an extra jalapeno in my fridge.
- Mom gave me several jars of her canned tomatoes in 32 oz jars. When I'm out of her tomatoes, I use 28 oz cans from the grocery store.
- If you're using store bought broth, you won't need much salt. I used homemade (unsalted) broth so this recipe needed a lot of salt.
- Parsley is excellent in aiding digestion.
- Leftovers freeze well.
Monkey Bread
I’ve been dreaming of monkey bread for a while and today’s snow day was just the occasion. I used this recipe and added a special twist per the recommendation of my friend Amy. She said to wrap a bit of cream cheese in each piece of dough. Oh wow! It is SOOOOO good. I made the dough last night and finished this morning, as the recipe gives instructions for (also for freezing!)
It was the first time my kids had experienced Monkey Bread and are already asking for another. My youngest said, “This is better than doughnuts.” He’s not wrong.
Valentine’s Idea
Each day for the first 14 days of February, I write on a heart a character trait I like about each of my children then put the heart on their bedroom door. They love it and my youngest even asked this year if I was “going to do it like every year.” One friend uses one big heart and adds a new word each day. Another friend with four kids puts the hearts all on one door, with each kid’s words in a column.
On Valentine’s Day, we take them off and bring them to the living room and discuss how we’re different from each other. My husband and I started this tradition with hopes to help our children to see how their differences are needed in society. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing?
Here’s a list of 100 positive character traits to get the creative juices flowing.
Life is hard, food doesn’t have to be.
Julie