Food Friday: Rice and Beans with Cheese

We had invited the young missionaries to eat dinner with us.  M had texted me a recipe she made recently called Cheesy Rice and Beans. It looked simple and easy.  Since I was also making Brownie Trifle and Homemade Whole Wheat Tortillas, I thought simple and easy would be good.  It was!

In large oven proof pot (I used our five-quart cast iron dutch oven), brown one large sweet onion diced, 2 large cloves garlic, sliced then chopped, and one red and one yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, and diced.  This will take 5-10 minutes.

In the meantime put rice cooking in pot-in-pot in your Instant Pot.  This means put 1 1/2 cups water in the inner pot of your Instant Pot then place the trivet on top.  In a smaller pot that you can remove from the Instant Pot put 1 cup long grain brown rice and 1 cup water.  Yes, 1 cup water.  Put on cover and cook on HIGH pressure for 30 minutes then let release pressure naturally for 15 or so minutes.  Mine was longer since I forgot about it in the heat of the other things I was cooking.

Drain one 15-ounce can of black beans and rinse.

When the rice is cooked, add it and the beans to the pot with the vegetables.  Stir gently then add 1/2 cup or more of your favorite mild salsa and 2 cups grated cheese. I was not going to add the cheese but at the last minute decided to.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  I did not add any of either salt or pepper.

This is what is left over.  We were able to send another container home with the missionaries.

The whole wheat tortillas were not ideal since I only put in a little salt. I think in future I will put in the correct amount of salt then only eat part of a tortilla if I am worried about salt intake.

This meal, with the added bonus of individual brownie trifles(not the best idea I ever had due to the individual containers I used being hard to get the trifle out of...silly me.), together the beans, rice, cheese, tortillas, brownie, chocolate pudding, and whipped cream had a TERRIBLE effect on blood sugar.  Never again. It was a tasty meal but not THAT good.  I wonder how many days it will take my body to recover from putting that bad things in it along with the good things.  Well, we shall see.

I will certainly make the rice and beans again, but I will leave out the cheese.  No need for all that artery-clogging fat.  It did not add that much flavor to be worth the risk of heart attack.