Forbidden Rice with Black Beans

Hi everyone! Today's Vegan MoFo prompt is: Goth Day – Blues, purples, blacks? Let your dark side shine, so I made forbidden rice with black beans. Zach said it looked like "dinner from the Black Lagoon," but it was really good! I cooked the rice in vegetable broth, and added salt & pepper to the black beans.

Here's Leela, fitting perfectly inside her own personal sunbeam...

Peace. :)

Brown Rice and Black Beans

Hello on the 9th day of the Vegan Month of Food! Continuing my dollar store vegan week, my dinner tonight was brown rice (leftover from last night) and black beans. 

I'd been planning to redo the back-to-basics black beans recipe to spice up my dollar store beans, but then I noticed that Goya included a recipe on the can, and I just so happened to have all the other ingredients on hand (other than the seasoning mix and cider vinegar they mentioned). The onion, green pepper, and garlic were left over from last week, and the others were staples I've had for a while: olive oil, oregano, and pepper (my addition).

Ingredients:
--2 T olive oil
--1/2 cup white onion, diced
--1/4 cup green pepper, diced
--2 cloves garlic, minced
--1 can black beans, undrained
--3/4 cup water (I'd use less next time, maybe 1/4-1/2 cup?)
--1 tsp oregano
--1/4 tsp pepper 

Look at these cute little measuring cups from my sister! :)

Directions:
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, green pepper, and garlic; cook for 10 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients, bring to boil, then lower heat and simmer (I covered it for a bit, then uncovered it). Directions on the can said to simmer for 10 min., but there was still a lot of liquid (probably since their recipe called for a seasoning mix to be included), so I ended up raising the heat a bit and cooking for longer. So, yeah, less water next time.

Apart from taking longer than I'd expected, the black beans turned out really well, and I liked my addition of the pepper (using much less than in the back-to-basics black beans). Now I have two recipes for black beans; woo-hoo! Served with the leftover rice that only needed to be reheated in the microwave, it was an easy meal and only required one pot, the kind of cooking I like, haha! 

Lunch was a combo of dollar store (pasta) and leftovers (salsa, tortilla chips, and Daiya cheese from the picnic), as well as the staples of soy milk, vegan butter, salt, and pepper to complete the mac & cheese. 

Leela and Buttons have been in rare form recently. Leela was a whirlwind of energy this morning, darting from here to there, so I helped her get out her energy by playing with her with various toys and yarn. And Buttons has been perfecting her jumping skills. Last night she was crying and crying for more food, but she'd already had enough, so I was ignoring her as I made Zach a PB&J for work the next day, but Buttons demands attention: She jumped up onto the counter, startling me, and kept trying to get at the peanut butter. I was able to hold her at bay long enough to finish making the sandwich, thankfully, and then she hopped down. And then tonight, Leela was trying to finish her dinner, and Zach sat down in the doorway to block Buttons (who'd already eaten), but she was determined and leapt over his legs the second he let his guard down to turn his head and tell me something.

So, here's pictures of Leela and Buttons at calmer, more relaxed moments.

Peace. :)