busy lifestyle? eat more vegetables!

It's no secret that vegetables are good for you, but did you know just HOW good they are for you? I doubt it. Let's just start with the basics: they help you become 'big and strong', they help your eyesight, boost your metabolism, keep you fuller longer, for the most part they are 0 calories and 0 fat, and they're just plain old delicious. 

I was inspired by vegetables this past week because I started my 2 new jobs and my classes at Willy P. Being on the run I lost 3 pounds this past week, completely unexpectedly and NOT the way I wanted to. I hadn't worked out in days, I just stand for approximately 31 hours a week at my jobs, and I wasn't making enough time for myself to eat healthful meals. But not this week! I have a plan, and that plan is: EAT MORE VEGETABLES. 

So I made a recipe that I can make tonight and have for the next couple of days for either lunch or dinner, whichever one I'm home for.

Fabulous Rice & Beans, Featuring: Red Beans, Black Beans, Celery & Onions.

First: choose the type of rice you want. For this recipe I have used either Yellow Spanish Rice or White Long Grain Rice, usually I'm all about the whole grains, but this dish has enough health in it, spring for the White Rice!

Start cooking the rice (directions on box) but basically you have to let the water boil before adding rice, make sure there's enough water in the pan before adding the rice. Rice soaks up a lot of liquid. Follow directions for how much water to add per cup of rice.

Then in a skillet open a can of red beans, I personally use Goya.

Then eye it to about 1/3 of the can and empty into the skillet.

(Skillet should be on low heat)

Make sure you add some of that bean-juice that's in the can, we need that liquid for this dish.

Then, with no hesitation, start opening the can of black beans (Goya, again).

Use about 1/2 of the can of black beans and make sure you get plenty of bean juice.

(Now, if you are more partial to red beans, by all means add more red beans than black,

I just personally think the dish is prettier with more of one type of bean, instead of equal amounts)

Then cover the skillet, leave on low heat.

Now for the Celery and the Onions.

Get 2 celery stalks: clean them thoroughly, and then place them on a cutting board.

You'll want to cut the celery horizontally  and then cut those little "half moons" of celery in half.

You're basically "cubing" the celery, the best one can cube celery.

Then for the onion, I am a fan of the red onion so that's what I use for this dish.

Peel the skin from the onion, cut it in half, and then from there take the half of the onion and slice it down the middle, vertically about 4 times across, and then take the knife (be careful if you are unexperienced in dicing onions) and slice the bottom of the onion off. Click HERE for a picture.

Once the onion is diced and your celery is cubed, take the lid off of the beans (they are going to be hot and spurting at you so be careful). Add all of the onion (1/2 onion) and all of the celery (2 stalks). Stir the beans and the other veggies together. Cover lid again, keep on low heat for another 10 minutes so the celery and the onion have time to flavor up those juicey beans.

By now the rice is probably going to be done, good rice never takes more than about 15-18 minutes to be cooked to perfection. I like my rice a little al dente, but cook it to however you like.

Put rice into a big bowl, add the bean/celery/ onion mixture and stir completely until the rice is blended with the veggies. The juicey almost meaty flavor of the beans will give this meal a substance that no chicken or cow has ever provided for me. And the crunchiness of the celery will give you that crunch that I know we all desire, it will satisfy you completely. This, if contained properly can be a lunch or dinner for up to 3 days (beans tend to taste a little vinegary after a while). I would suggest heating this up in a skillet, rather than the microwave (I'm not a fan of microwaves).

Until next Blog, Happy Eating.