Red Beans and Rice is my favorite crock pot dinner:

• You don’t need to make any sides
• Veggies, whole grains, protein, legumes, all in one bowl
• Super for your gut health
• Unique creole flavors that we don’t experience on an every day basis
• Excellent for babies and toddlers with few teeth
• EASY
• Great leftovers

Let’s talk ingredients:

Polska Kielbasa: there are three kinds commonly found in the grocery store: 100% beef, 100% turkey, and a mix of beef, turkey, and pork. I get the mix. The all beef sausage is wayyyyy greasy and the turkey sausage lacks flavor, so if there is a mixed meat option available, go with that one. – I’ve seen other recipes that include pork butt and bacon along with the kielbasa, and you’re welcome to throw some in if you’d like, but to keep things on the cheap (and not overly salty) side, I chose to only include kielbasa.

Veggies: The celery, carrots, and bell pepper are optional, although I highly recommend you include them to up the overall nutritional value of the meal. You can buy preshredded “match stick” carrots, shred your own with a cheese grater, or use a salad shooter. I’m not big on excess small appliances, but I honestly use this salad shooter ALL the time for shredding and slicing carrots, potatoes, cucumbers, cabbage etc. (I’m not affiliated, I just love the product.)

Red beans: I recommend using 1 lb dry red beans (rinsed), but you could also use 3-4 cans of drained and rinsed small red beans and reduce the water to 3 cups. (Like I did in the photo below)

Cajun Seasoning: I use Tony’s Original Creole Seasoning but any cajun style/ creole spice blend should work. I just like Tony’s because it has a warm flavor to it without being spicy, so our toddler can enjoy the meal with us. It is very salty though, so combined with the bouillon it makes a well seasoned dish that doesn’t need any extra salt!

In order to get a creamier consistency I blend about 1/3-1/2 of the mixture in my food processor. You could also use a blender or submersion hand blender. You don’t NEED to partially blend the dish, but I think it lends to a nicer texture than the beans just sitting in a thin broth.

Gut Health:

Your belly is going to love this FIBER! But I’ll give you a fair warning. If you’re not used to eating a high fiber diet, you may suffer from a little bit of “bean bloat” after eating this meal. However, that’s a sign that the good bacteria in your gut are feasting on the nutrients you supplied them with and they’re working hard to utilize that energy to give you some leveled up digestive health. You’ll find that consuming legumes, vegetables, and whole grains on a consistent basis will help regulate your digestive tract and actually stave off future incidents of bloat. So keep at it, and enjoy other foods that have beans and vegetables like my turkey veggie chili, and coconut chicken curry.

Freezer Instructions:

The instructions on this one are pretty easy.

• Rinse the beans
• Throw everything MINUS THE WATER into a freezer safe gallon baggie
• Freeze.

Leaving out the water makes it easier to break up all of the ingredients straight out of the freezer so you don’t have to waste any time thawing before dumping the contents of the bag into a slow cooker. Once everything is in the slow cooker, add 6 cups of water and set the slow cooker on high for 6 hours and low for 9 hours.