Red Beans and Rice

We returned to 100 Days of Real Food today for more inspiration. We changed up Lisa's recipe a little to fit our time table and canned beans.

In a large pot we fried up 6 slices of bacon in a little olive oil and removed it from the pot. While we sliced up half a big onion, half a pepper, and 2 celery stalks, we

prepared a pot of rice. For that we minced and melted 2 cloves of garlic in a little olive oil, added 3 cups of water, brought it to a boil, added a little salt and 1 1/2 cups brown rice, waited for it to boil once more, turned it down to the lowest setting and forgot about it.

We drained most of the bacon grease from the first pot, retained a little for taste, added a little more olive oil, and softly cooked the veggies for a short while with some salt, black pepper, and red pepper (just a little so everybody could adjust the heat later for themselves).

Then we tossed in 2 rinsed cans of red kidney beans (the recipe calls for soaked beans), 2 minced cloves of garlic, the bacon, and 2 bay leaves.

We added one of the cans worth of water, brought the goodness to a boil and simmered it for about half an hour. (The recipe calls for a an hour and a half. But we got real hungry and traded in some extra goodness for a quick fix. It turned out quite scrumptious nonetheless.) Before eating we fished out about half of the beans with a slotted spoon and smashed them up, returned them back, and mixed it all up for a nice thick consistency,

To serve we prettied the dish up with  a few sliced green onions. Not bad for a tired an grumpy bunch at the end of the week. 

Thanks for the recipe! It was yummy.

Potatoes and Beans

This was a busy little thing; but fun.

First things first, we peeled and cubed about 1 kg of potatoes covered them with water and half a tbls of salt and turned on the stove. Separately we got another small pot of water going.

While that was out of the way Lucy washed 2 handful of petite green beans and chopped their ends off.

Shortly before the potatoes were starting to boil, we fried up 8 slices of chopped bacon in some olive oil and then added 2 sliced cloves of garlic.

That's when we tossed the green beans into the pot of boiling water for just a few minutes until they were slightly soft.

After the potato water had been boiling for just a few minutes and the spuds were starting to get soft, we drained them and added them to the bacon and garlic to fry them nice and toasty.

As we were getting happy with it, we added a pile of chopped rosemary leaves, and a bit of salt, and pepper.

Finally we tossed in the softened green beans and 1 can of drained pinto beans.

What followed was one scrumptious munchdown. (Live feed from Lily: "I love all kinds of beans. ... Except school beans.")