The Healthy Tales

Posts Tagged ‘friday’

Happy Friday!  I am glad the weekend is here.  I’m heading home to visit my family so no cooking for me this weekend.  I am hoping to see if I can bring back some chicken rollups though as I haven’t had any in a very long time.  We’ll see though.

So this is my first week with Freezer Food Friday.  The purpose of this meme is to share a meal that you can make ahead and freeze to eat later.  So this week, my recipe is for Red Beans and Rice.  It is an old southern favorite and one that freezes very well.

Red Beans and Rice

• 3 cans of Green Giant Red Beans, drained**
• 1 small onion, diced*
• Smoked sausage, diced (use up to 1 pound)
• Celery, diced*
• garlic, minced (to taste)
• Cajun seasoning (to taste)
• Brown Rice

Saute the onion, celery, and garlic in olive oil.  Remove.  Brown the sausage in the same pan.  Drain sausage on paper towel (pat to remove excess oil & grease).  Put beans in a stock pot and then stir in the sausage, onion, celery, and garlic.  Add 2 cans of water to pot and let cook for 30 minutes.  Add cajun seasoning for flavor.  Serve over brown rice.

I tend to do 1/4 cup rice, 1/2 cup bean mixture.  You can serve with cornbread or muffins.  The Vitatop Corn muffins work well and they are only 1 WW point.

This recipe will make 6-8 servings depending on how you serve the rice/bean ratio and the points will be around 5-6 per serving depending on rice/beans.

*frozen, diced onion and celery will do.  If you have a Kroger, look for the Recipe starters bag that has celery, onions, and green bell peppers already diced and use that.  It saves time and money.

**any brand will do but they should be red beans if you absolutely cannot find them you can use Kidney beans but there is a taste difference.

I was looking for some new health related memes and came across Freezer Food Friday.  This meme is dedicated to passing along recipes that can be made ahead and frozen.

Meal planning is one of those tasks that I am terrible in doing.  I always have the grand idea to sit down and think about what to cook but then I head to the grocery store and it all falls apart because I didn’t plan right.  I tend to buy items but none of them go together and when I do have a recipe in mind I’ll forget an ingredient.

After not planning appropriately, the next downfall of mine is making enough meals to get from Monday through Thursday.  Typically that is just one recipe stretched out over 4 days with 2 people.  So by the time Friday hits, I’m tired of eating the same thing or we’ve run out and I don’t want to cook.  So I’m going to try the cook and freeze half method.  I think this will help with the budget as well as help with the weekend revolt I tend to have against the kitchen.  The revolution leads to eating out which blows the budget and packs on the pounds.

I’m excited to start this meme on Friday.  I am going to try and ensure most of my recipes are Weight Watcher Friendly as this is my healthy blog.    My first recipe will be for my favorite – Red Beans and Rice so come back and grab this freezer friendly, and heart healthy recipe!