Dorm room rice and beans

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I used to call this dish dorm room rice and beans, because that's where I ate it a lot. Or during my first few years out of college where I wasn't too great at managing a budget while paying off student loans. I'm confident this is not an original recipe (if you can call it that) and it definitely isn't gourmet. What it definitely is though: a cheap, quick, belly filling, reasonably nutritious meal for 4. The variations on this simple meal are limitless, and I'll show two examples below.

Serves 2-4

You'll need:

  • 1/2 lb protein of choice, cooked and diced or crumbled
  • 1 can (15 oz) beans of choice, rinsed
  • 2 cups (uncooked) rice
  • 1 cup broth or 1 bouillon cube (or equivalent)
  • 1 cup water
  • salt + pepper, hot sauce
Instructions:
  • Combine ingredients in rice cooker or in a pot on the stove, and cook the rice according to the package instructions. That's basically it.
My first example in the picture above is instant brown rice, black eyed peas, Cajun smoked sausage, 2 cups of water, and 1 cube of chicken bouillon. Enjoyed with some habanero hot sauce.


A more recent one I made involved instant brown rice, chili beans (not rinsed, whole can in), 1/2 lb ground beef (2 1/4 lb frozen burger patties, actually), 1 cup of water, and 1 tsp of Better than Bouillon Beef paste. Enjoyed this one by itself, no hot sauce required.

These are even 5 year old approved!



P.S. - a fun but gross story: I had a coworker who meal prepped a version of this weekly from dry ingredients. His also had some greens thrown in. He called his version turd salad. Every time I make this I think about that - quietly of course, my kid would never eat this if I called it that even once.