BBQ Pork with Beans and Rice

Tonight I had planned to make Creamy Chicken Pot Pie from Now Eat This by Rocco Dispirito. It sounds good and is made from a rotisserie chicken which is also good because someone else has cooked it.(side note- have you noticed that you can buy a rotisserie chicken from the store for around 8.00 but if you want to buy a chicken you roast yourself, it will cost way more than that? I have always found that strange) Turns out that there were no chickens ready when I hit the store. On to plan B.

I had some homemade guacamole left in the fridge from taco beef on polenta the other night so Mexican it was! I picked up some pork that was on sale and decided to make some beans and rice to go with it.


Okay. So here is my big confession.... I can't cook rice. No matter what I do, it turns out bad. I bought a rice cooker and ate rice that I cooked in it for years. Big M comes along and tells me that brown rice is not supposed to be kind of crunchy (what?) and makes me rice in a pot that is beautiful and not crunchy. So I throw the rice cooker out and follow his instructions. Crunchy, burned or runny. He makes rice all the time that is beautiful. Rice perfection continues to elude me so I gave up and bought instant rice- at Walmart.

I cooked the instant rice according to the box (boil water, put in rice, wait 5 minutes). I added some low sodium chicken broth, chili and onion powder to the water. Perfect! I then mixed in some black beans and mushrooms and cooked it for a bit longer. Nowhere near authentic, but it tastes really good. I topped it with some cheese (Cracker Barrel Cheese Snack. Individually wrapped and 60 calories each. Perfect for on meal and prompted a discussion with Big M about what a "cracker barrel" might be) and some parsley from my garden. The guacamole is my peach salsa that I blended in the Magic Bullet and is the brownish paste on the side. I don't know how to make green guac but it tastes awesome.



Now I am waiting for my 10lbs of blueberries to be delivered. I think I will start with blueberry cornmeal muffins.