Black Bean & Veggie Dinner

This is a great filler for during-the-week dinners! It's not safe for my LO so he had something different tonight but hubby & I love this dish and it's affordable!

Ingredients:
-1 bag black beans (cheaper to buy them this way, though there's a little more work involved)
-Peppers! As many different colors as you can afford to buy that week (we had green, yellow, orange and red this week - hey, they're a superfood, you know!)
-1 medium onion
-2 tsp minced garlic
-fresh cilantro
-1.5 cups brown rice (uncooked)

The morning of your dinner, rinse black beans thoroughly, and add to 6 - 8 cups of water (make sure water level is well above beans). Soak 6 - 8 hours.

Once it's time to get dinner ready, drain beans and rinse thoroughly. Add about 6 cups of water (again, making sure water is covering beans completely). Boil for approximately 1 hour or until tender.

Cook rice according to package directions.

While beans and rice are cooking, wash all veggies thoroughly and cut peppers lengthwise for chopping:

Chop peppers and onions into small chunks and finely chop cilantro:

Pour approximately 1 inch of water into a large pan. Boil water, then add all veggies:

Cook veggies for approximately 8 minutes or until softened. Drain thoroughly and return to pan. Once beans are done, drain thoroughly, and add 1 cup of beans to the veggies (the rest of the beans can be refrigerated for dinners later in the week), then add the rice. OR if you're measuring your food (like I am), keep the beans, veggies & rice separate, then measure each out for your plate:

And mix it together for hubbys:

I also used a little sesame oil on our individual plates (I used 1 tsp - it's high in fat) for flavor:

This dinner gives plenty of leftovers (and that's saying something, because hubby can EAT) - plus, you have the beans to make dinners with later in the week! Enjoy!

-Amanda :)