Quicker (and Lighter) Red Beans and Rice

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As a food blogger, I get a lot of great comments and emails and I also get a few more interesting ones. So before I get an email telling me I’m the Antichrist for using canned beans, tomato paste or chicken sausage in this dish, I will preface this post by saying that this recipe may not necessarily be 100% authentic.  Thankfully, it’s 100% tasty.

See, it kind of starts when my “holy trinity” is really a “holy quintiply” (?) because of the use of frozen stoplight peppers rather than a green pepper.  And then I used canned beans and chicken andouille sausage.  Oh, the horror!  Actually, now that I think of it, this meal would fit perfectly in the Cooking with Trader Joe’s cookbook, since all the ingredients are from there.

At any rate,  there are two things you already know (or should know) about me: I like quick meals (especially one pot meals!) and my metabolism has waged a war against me, so I need to eat healthy 98% of the time (and that’s just to maintain my weight and complain all the time about how I eat healthy and exercise but don’t lose weight).

This is the first time I’ve used chicken andouille sausage, and it was very tasty. I admit, a few years back I was skeptical about substitutions like this.  To this day, I still won’t use ground turkey in place of ground beef.  But, I’m a convert in other regards – and so is my husband. I have found some really delicious chicken sausage that is a healthy alternative to your typical pork sausage, and now I don’t even think about buying the pork variety most of the time.  My husband commented a couple times about how much he enjoyed this, and how he’s looking forward to the leftovers for lunch.

Quicker (and Lighter) Red Beans and Rice

18 thoughts on “Quicker (and Lighter) Red Beans and Rice

  1. Nothing wrong with canned goods-to a certain point. As long as you enjoy it and it’s tasty then go for it! I’m a “bean” man so this recipe is right up my alley Elly!

  2. This is a gorgeous dish! There is nothing wrong with lightening things up or using canned beans. I think it looks great!

  3. Canned or not, this dish sounds delicious. I use canned chickpeas and kidney beans more often than not … can’t say there is an enormous difference in quality and when you’re working, have a family, etc., etc., using canned beans in a dish is most definitely not the worst thing in the world!

  4. I’ve been trying to find healthier (and EASY) meals to make every day and this was so easy and delicious! Even the kids ate it! 🙂 I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on your blog for ideas!

  5. Looks delicious! I want to make this for dinner tonight but don’t have any chicken broth — think it doesn’t lose too much flavor if I just add water?

  6. Thank you for sharing this! It is in our regular dinner rotation and my husband enjoys it so much that he learned how to make it – now his is better than mine 🙂

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