Brown Rice with Chicken Sausage and Cannelini Beans

Ingredients:
1 chopped leak
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Mozzarella and Roasted Garlic Chicken Sausages (Member's Mark brand from Sam's Club
1 bag Success Brown Rice
1 16 oz can of cannelini beans
1 tblsp olive oil
1 16 oz can chicken broth
4 cups baby spinach leaves

Directions"
Combine one cup of chicken broth with 1 quart of water in a large saucepan, and add an unopened bag of Success Brown Rice. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 8-10 minutes. While the rice is cooking, saute leeks in olive oil in a dutch oven over medium-low heat, about 3 minutes or until soft. Cut sausages into 1/2 inch slices and add to the pan until warm, along with the minced garlic, about 2 minutes. Next, add the cannelini beans to the sausage and leeks and the remainder of the can of chicken broth. Simmer about 2 minutes. Add the baby spinach to the mix, and cover the dutch oven while simmering over low heat, stirring occasionally until the spinach is wilted.
Drain the cooked rice, and pour the rice into the dutch oven, mixing it well into the all the simmering ingredients. Turn off heat, and serve.

This recipe, if divided into 3 servings of 2 and 1/3 cups each, will have 468 calories, or if you divide it into 4 smaller servings of 1.75 cups each, will have 351 calories.

Variation: My husband says that this is good, but a little dry, so if you want a creamy, moister version of this dish, make and add the following sauce to your rice:
1 can cream of mushroom soup, a splash of brandy, a sprinkle of tarragon, about a 1 tsp of grated parmesan cheese, enough water to thin the sauce (about 1/3 cup), and I added a tblsp of my homemade roasted garlic salad dressing to the sauce, which is great on fresh baby arugula as a side dish anyway, and well worth making to have on hand. If there is any interest in the recipe for the dressing, I will add it.

Seasoned Brown Rice with Vegetables

Have you ever checked out the nutrition label on a box of seasoned rice from the grocery store aisle? Here is an example: Rice A Roni Spanish Rice has this in one serving: 260 calories (60 of those from fat) 1030 mg of Sodium (OMG!), and 3g of sugar. There are no whole grains in the box. You can do much better with delicious taste. I dare you to compare.
By the way, I don't really like brown rice, but I like this.

As a side note, the turmeric gives the rice a lovely yellow color, and is said to have anti-inflammatory benefits, for a very low cost compared to most spices (I got .34lb of turmeric in the bulk section of Whole Foods for only $2.29.


Ingredients:
1 large bag of Success Boil-in-Bag Brown Rice or substitute 1.5 cups of Brown Rice.
1 small onion
1 medium red bell pepper
1 small yellow squash
1 tsp salt for the water to cook the rice in.

For Seasoning: Combine
1/8 tsp white pepper
1/8 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp ground turmeric
1/8 tsp Hungarian paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fine ground orange peel ( I used dried)
1 tblsp olive oil

(Hint: I combine all of the spices ahead of time and store in a zip-lock bag in my spice cabinet until I am ready to use it.)

Directions:
First, dice the onion, red pepper, and squash into small pieces. Pour olive oil into large saute pan and saute on medium heat until soft.

Next, while vegetables are cooking,prepare rice according to directions. The Success Rice only takes about 10 minutes after the water comes to a boil. If you use brown rice that has not been parboiled, it will take much longer. I add a tsp of salt to the cooking water for the rice.

While the rice is cooking, combine all the spices. Pour them over the vegetables and mix them well. When the vegetables are soft, turn the heat down to the lowest setting to keep them warm.

When the rice is finished cooking, add it to the vegetables and spices and mix everything together well in the pan.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl and serve.