Easy Peasy Red Beans and Rice

Many moons ago I bought a book called "Desperation Dinners". It promises home cooked meals for frantic families in 20 minutes flat. Well, I'm a little too type B personality to be frantic, but there are times I don't like to linger in the kitchen any longer than necessary. Like when it's 110 frikkin degrees, for example.

I had a late afternoon appointment today and wanted something easy to throw together. AND I was informed by my son, several times, that we needed to eat before 7pm because there was a new Fairly Oddparents coming on. No pressure there!

So I whipped out my old copy of Desperation Dinners and found this lovely beans and rice recipe I had never tried. I found it really did come together quickly, and I only had to use one pan to prepare it.

It went nicely with this brown sugar cornbread that I found at some insignificant obscure website. *cough*martha stewart*cough*

(I made that earlier in the day)

Not bad for 20 minutes!

Ingredients:

2 tsp olive oil

1 large onion chopped

2 med ribs celery chopped (I left this out)

1/2 large bell pepper

2 tsp bottled minced garlic

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce

2 bay leaves

1 can (14 1/2 oz) chicken broth

1 pound kielbasa (cut into 1/4 inch slices)

1 can (15 1/2 oz) kidney beans (rinse and drain)

1 3/4 cup instant rice

Directions:

1. Heat the oil over med heat in skillet with lid. Add chopped onion, celery, and bell pepper. Cook about 4 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in garlic, thyme, basil, oregano, pepper, tabasco, and bay leaves.

2. Raise the heat to high and add the broth. Cover the skillet and bring to boil.

3. When the broth boils, stir in the sausage, beans, and rice. Reduce heat to med low, cover, and cook 5-10 minutes. If broth disappears before rice is tender, and 1/2 cup water...I also threw in some splashes of red wine I had sitting around.

P.S. If you do decide to make that cornbread, I wouldn't make it in a loaf pan as instructed in the recipe...it took forever to get done all the way through.