Tonight's dinner?

A couple weeks ago, during our heat wave  of +30's with humidex with no end in sight, I thought I would save myself and M. some additional heat that our oven causes by making one big dinner. That way, we can avoid having 4 elements on at one time for a couple consecutive nights. Also, since we still live in an apartment that has no dish washer, I knew this recipe would create less dishes. In the summer, I try and avoid labor intensive dinners so that we don't sweat while making dinner OR sweat while washing dishes... too much info? EWWWW!

Well, I under estimated the time it would take for this dinner to cook in the oven but the results were very much worth it! We only had to suffer for about 3 hours (including pre-heating time) of almost 40 degree temperature in our little apartment.

Sausage, Green Bean and Rice Casserole
by Stephanie Barke

Ingredients:

• 1 19fl oz can of diced tomatoes
• 1 bouillon cube (any flavour) -TIP- We blend the tomatoes and bouillon cube together. Not necessary, however.
• A hand full of green beans (as much or as little as you like)
• 1 standard can of chickpeas
• 1 1/2 cup of sprouted rice and quinoa blend- Tru Roots (you could also use any type of rice but the directions below are based on using the rice blend)
• 3 large carrots
• 3 Tofurkey sausages - Italian style

Directions:

• Use a large and deep casserole dish with a lid.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Add all ingredients in the casserole dish. 
• Ensure that the chickpeas are drained and rinsed.
• Crumble the bouillon cube and scatter it in the dish (if you did not blend it with the tomatoes)
• Cut the carrots up in bite size pieces.
• Cut the Tofurkey sausage in bite size pieces. 
• Once all ingredients are in the casserole dish, add a full can (use the tomatoes can) of water and mix it around.
• Cook it in the oven, covered.
• After an hour of the casserole cooking at 400 degrees, reduce heat to 375 degrees for 30 minutes. The casserole should be done in an hour and 1/2. You know that it's fully cooked when the rice is cooked. I check on it every half an hour and give it a good stir.

Before:

After:

This dish lasted M. and I three days. The dinner was more delicious with each passing day. Also great to freeze and heat up later on!

As I mentioned, probably not the best idea to make this in an apartment with no central air and an oven that seems to heat the apartment more than the actual oven itself... but, it did save three days worth of major dishes. So, a win-win over all!

Bon Appetit!