Mexican Rice

Today is another "left over mash-up"! 

Throughout the week I have accumulated left over: Black beans, diced tomatoes, and enchilada sauce. I thought: What is a quick and easy meal I can make and combine them?

I decided to cook up some brown rice and toss it all together and voila! 

Mexican Rice

Ingredients
2c cooked Brown Rice
1c Black Beans, drained and rinsed
1c Diced Tomatoes, drained
1c Enchilada Sauce
1Tbsp Chili Lime Seasoning or Taco Seasoning (or more to taste)

Not bad for leftovers!  Lately too many things have been going bad in my fridge because I don't know what to do with them, and my goal is to have bad food no more; so expect many other "experiments" in the kitchen coming soon!

Simple Soup

My hubby has been feeling under the weather today and requested I make soup.  I didn't have much, but figured I could make something work with what I had lying around.

Ingredients
4c Vegetable Broth
1-14.5oz can diced tomatoes
1-15.5oz can Chick Peas (drained and rinsed)
2c frozen mixed vegetables (corn, peas, and green beans were in my mix)
3oz Rice Sticks

Directions
1) Add all ingredients except noodles into pot and cook covered on medium-high heat, stirring often.
2) After 25 minutes (or when chickpeas are tender), reduce heat to medium-low, add the rice sticks to the soup and cook for another 5 minutes.

Total prep time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 25 minutes

The noodles sucked up a lot of the broth.Might add more broth, more cooking time for the chickpeas and less noodles.