Curried Black Beans and Rice with Sausage (sort of)

Here is a little background on me and my life. I am the mother of four children, one of which is VERY picky. That is partly my fault. Growing up I was very picky, so picky that I didn't even eat chicken nuggets or hamburgers from McDonald's. I lived on hot dogs, bologna sandwiches, mac n cheese, mashed potatoes, and pinto beans with cornbread (but only if my grandma made them). Oh, I ate things like cereal, pizza and pancakes too, but that was pretty much it. My dad loved food and was a really good cook. He liked many different types of food and we would always go to the restaurants he wanted. His rule was that I had to try at least one bite. Well, I was also of the stubborn disposition, so I would take a bite and sit there with it in my mouth until everyone else was done with their meal and it was time to leave. Then my dad would let me go spit it out. I was always picky, until I left for college, then something happened and I began trying all kinds of foods and found that I loved the flavors and textures of a really good meal. (So, my "freshmen 15" was more like 20-25. Some of you our there know what I'm talking about.) Unfortunately, my husband was a picky eater as a child too, and so our third child got hit with a double whammy of "pickiness." He is so picky that he won't even eat pizza! Occasionally my other children will take turns at being picky, but not as bad as #3.

Anyway, meal times have been very frustrating for me over the last five years or so. No matter what I make, someone is going to be unhappy with it. If all the kids are happy that means I made corn dogs, french fries and mac and cheese (oh, wait, one of my kids won't eat corn dogs...), and then my husband is not happy. His thinking is that corn dogs are more a lunch meal instead of a dinner. Recently, I decided that I would look through my cookbooks and try all the recipes that I have been afraid to try simply because I KNOW that someone is not going to like it.

I want my kids to be exposed to new foods in the hopes they will learn to like them earlier than I did. I also want to provide them with nutritious foods that will give them the vitamins and energy they need to stay active and healthy without too much fat. My husband and I are also trying to set a better example of being active as well, but I will cover that tomorrow.

Here is the recipe that I tried last night. I knew that the kids were not going to like the sound or look of it (and I was afraid my husband would rebel too), but it looked good to me so I made it anyway. I was right, 2 kids ate nothing but plain rice, kid #3 made himself toast, and the oldest finally tried it after much coaxing. She liked it and even ate some leftovers for lunch today. I'll put the recipe down as it appeared in the book, but I didn't have any curry powder, so I added a few other things to it for flavor. This is a regular occurrence with me, so get used to it.

Black Beans and Rice with Sausage

1. 1 tablespoon olive oil
2. 1 med onion, minced
3. 1 tablespoon curry powder (I used a little cumin, chili powder and garlic salt, if I had to guess on amounts I would say 1/4 -1/2 teaspoon of cumin and chili powder and just a spinkle of garlic salt. We like a mild flavor, add more to make it spicier. Oh, I also added a pince of dried red pepper flakes)
4. 1/2 pound smoked turkey sausage, thinly sliced
5. 3/4 cup chicken broth
6. 2 cans (16 ounces each) black beans, drained
7. 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar (optional) I didn't have so didn't use
8. 3 cups cooked rice

Start the rice cooking.

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Cook onion and curry powder, stirring well until onion in tender. (I added chopped red, yellow and green bell peppers, and button mushrooms to the onions because I had them on hand).

Stir in sausage and broth; simmer 5 minutes. Stir in beans; cook until hot, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in vinegar if using it. Serve over rice.

Once again, this recipe only took 20 minutes from start to putting on the table and that was the rice cooking time. It makes 10 servings.

267 calories, 5 g fat, 16 mg cholesterol, 481 mg sodium