I don't know what I'm doing beans and rice.

Oh man. Tonight I had no idea what the fuck I was doing. I had leftover baby spinach leaves from last week's salad recipe with a little bit of bell peppers and half a large red onion. I also looked in my pantry and saw all the bags of dried beans I've had for so long and never got around to cook them. So I thought "Hey! Beans + vegetables + rice = black beans n rice!"

I quickly looked up an easy black beans n rice recipe on AllRecipes.com and found Jamie's Black Beans and Rice. It looked easy enough. Cook some rice. Fry some veggies in oil in a pan and add sauce then serve over the rice. Lets do this.

I got the missing ingredients to complete the recipe, except for the enchilada sauce specified in the recipe. I couldn't find any at the grocery store. (Canada eh!) Instead I got an Old El Paso fajita flavouring pouch and a can of tomato sauce. I was hesitating on getting the jar of restaurant style salsa instead.

When I got home I took the bag of black beans an suddenly realized they were fava beans. Womp womp... Meh, I thought I could just boil them and it would be fine right? WRONG! Those motherfuckers take THREE HOURS TO COOK! And that's only after YOU SOAK THEM OVER NIGHT! God dammit. After chopping up all the vegetables, cooking the rice and getting ready to start stir-frying the veggies and the beans, I had to run out last minute to get a can of black beans. It was 10:30pm and I knew the grocery store was closing at 11, so I had to haul ass and hustle before they closed otherwise I'd end up with a recipe for "rice".

I race down there, grab the damn beans, and head back home again. Now let's get cookin'.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup of Uncle Ben's converted white rice. (Converted white rice doesn't stick together)
• 1 19oz can of black beans.
• 1  regular sized (15oz-ish) can of tomato sauce. (Preferably use the enchilada sauce)
• 1/2 a red onion.
• 1 yellow bell pepepr.
• 1 big handful of baby spinach. (From one of those pre-washed boxes at the grocery store)
• 1-2 tbs of chilli powder.
• 1 tbs of salt.
• 1 tbs of Mrs Dash Extra Spicy seasoning.
• 1 tsp of sugar. (Preferably brown sugar, this is to reduce the acidity of the tomato sauce.)
• 1 sachet of Old El Paso fajita mix.
• 2 tbs olive oil.

The cooking

1. Cook the rice according to the directions on the box. Fill a pot with water and a pinch of salt and boil the rice until it's cooked. Then strain and put aside.
2. Heat the pan to medium heat and pour the 2 tbs of oil in the pan.
3. When the oil is hot, add the chopped onions and fry them until they become transparent.
4. Add the diced peppers and cook until tender.
5. Strain the beans from the liquid in the can and add them to the pan with the rest.
6. Empty the sachet of fajita mix over the vegetables and stir. Cook for a couple of minutes.
7. Pour the can of tomato sauce or enchilada over the vegetables in the pan and stir.
8. Add the chilli powder, salt, Mrs Dash seasoning and sugar and stir to mix well.
9. Add the baby spinach and mix them in until they get all soft and mixed in with the sauce.

Using tomato sauce as a replacement for the enchilada sauce wasn't the best thing to use, but definitely worked in the end thanks to the extra spices. I suggest you add them to taste so as to get right amount for yourself. 

Additionally, adding about a teaspoon of pure cocoa in there would definitely give it a little extra something that would go well with the mix.

This was a frankenstein recipe from the rest of vegetables I had from last week's salad that I made and I am really glad it turned out so well. It tasted even better when it was reheated. It's all vegetarian too! If you want the extra protein, I guess you could add like a pound of ground chicken in there or something. I didn't want to use any. I felt like I had been eating a lot of meat lately and wanted to give my digestive system a break. Also, the small amount of groceries I had to buy made me save money and I was able to feed myself for 4 days! Isn't that fan-fucking-tastic?

Enjoy!