Cooking When You're Sick

I'm mostly all better from the cold I've had for the past week, but I thought I'd share this with you since you may need something easy to put together at some point.

I knew I needed to do some cooking when my husband was standing at the fridge asking what he was supposed to eat. We can only get takeout so often, and the soup I'd pulled out of the freezer wasn't too appealing to either of us.

Let me just get this out of the way: The crockpot is my very good friend. I had some sausage in the freezer, plenty of canned goods, and 2 crockpots, so I put everything to use. When I feel lousy, there's little better than recipes that mostly involve nothing more than dumping things out of cans into a crockpot.





Slow-Cooked Black Beans and Kielbasa

2 cans (15 oz. each) black beans
1 can (14.5 oz) stewed tomatoes
1 cup frozen yellow corn kernels (I just used a drained can of corn)
2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic (I just minced a couple of cloves)
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 lb. kielbasa sausage (whatever kind you like)

Rinse and drain 1 can of the black beans, and pour the beans into the slow cooker. Add the second can of beans with their juices to the cooker. Add the tomatoes with their juices and the frozen corn.

Sprinkle the garlic, chili powder, and cumin over the mixture and stir gently.

Cut the sausage into 6 pieces (I did 8), and prick each piece with a fork. Place the sausage pieces over the bean mixture, but do not stir. Place the lid on the slow cooker, turn the cooker to low, and cook for at least 6 hours or up to 10 hours. (The bean-sausage mixture can also be cooked on high for 3-4 hours.)

Serve over rice, if desired. (I made rice in my little crockpot. Just put in the same ratio of rice/water as if you're cooking it on the stove, then set crock to high and let it cook 2-3 hours.)