Black Beans and Rice

I tend to live on a college kids budget, so beans and rice is a pretty huge staple. It's a fix it and forget it meal most of the time, tasty, and very inexpensive. It's also not as bad for you as frozen pizza! This is a recipe that I conglomerated together from a few recipes. It's got a Cuban tilt to its flavor, and the yellow rice recipe is a pretty simple mathematical equation with some spices! Also: Most of this recipe calls for ingredients "to taste" I like a lot of onion and garlic, and I like it zesty, so I tend to be a bit heavier handed with the vinegar/lime. My suggestion is to season lightly unless you know how you like it seasoned, otherwise, maintain the proportions. (Or follow the list and adjust as you like to flavor it!)

Black Beans
Either 1 16 oz can black beans, well rinsed, or the same volume soaked beans.
1/2 medium onion finely chopped
1/4 red bell pepper finely diced
1 tomato, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 tbs dark brown sugar
1 tbs of olive oil
1 tbs white or apple cider vinegar (or the juice of a lime or two if you have it on hand)
1/2 tsp annato powder
1 tsp chili powder (to taste)
Salt and cracked black pepper, to taste
Chopped Cilantro - as garnish

Combine onion, bell pepper and garlic in sauce pan with olive oil. Simmer until vegetables are soft. Add the tomato and the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a simmer, cover with a lid, and set to cook. Soaked black beans will take a while, be prepared with stock to add to beans to keep them flavorfull if you use soaked beans. Canned beans are done in about 30-45 minutes.

Yellow Rice

My grandmother makes a wonderful spanish rice, which I followed as a recipe for eons, but I've fallen in love with yellow rice, thus the shift to this recipe. This is also great for the rice cooker, but I would suggest stirring once throughout the cooking, preferably early on, which will keep the yellow from the saffron threads more even.

1 cup rice
2 cups stock
3-4 threads of saffron
1 tsp annato powder
1 tsp chili powder
2 handfuls of frozen mixed vegetables
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients together in a sauce pan. Bring to boil. Cover with a lid, reduce to simmer. Cook until dry. (Or..combine all ingredients in a rice cooker. Follow rice cooker instructions.)

* Note Annato powder is sometimes difficult to find. I've been most lucky in the ethnic spice section for finding it. Here's a bit of info on what annato is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annato