A Frugal Recipe

Each week I plan to post a frugal recipe or meal that I have made recently.


This week its Jambalaya. I didn't plan to make Jambalaya, it just kind of evolved from a combination of items that I found on sale.




This Hillshire Farms Smoked Sausage was marked down at Food Lion to $1.49 and has a sell by date of June 13th. The Tomatoes with Chipotle were on close out and I had a coupon. And I always have rice on hand. My favorite is the Walmart brand, BUT it has to be the long grain, converted one that comes in a 2 pound bag. Its every bit as good as Uncle Ben's Converted rice.





Here's the recipe I used.

JAMBALAYA

2 tsp vegetable oil
1 package of smoked sausage cut into bite size pieces
1/2 a large green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 a medium onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/2 cups uncooked long-grain white rice
2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 can of diced tomatoes with chipotle

Cook the rice according to the instructions on the bag or box in a medium to large size sauce pan. While the rice is cooking, saute the onion, bell pepper and garlic in the vegetable oil in a frying pan, until slightly soft. Add the smoked sausage and cook until slightly browned and heated through. Add the tomatoes and heat just until everything is hot. After the rice is finished cooking, add the contents of the frying pan to the rice, as well as the paprika, thyme and the can of tomatoes.

You can adjust all these ingredients to suit your own taste. You could use more or less of all the ingredients. I would love to make this same recipe using chicken or shrimp or best of all, all three meats ... smoked sausage, shrimp and chicken!

This recipe makes a large pot of food and my family loved it. We had plenty for a meal and left overs for a couple of days.