Romp, expedition, adventure, odyssey, quest. Along the way, maybe I’ll find better words to describe my life. My days are filled with the work of raising children, serving a retired canine racing queen, trying to run when my body allows it, hugging my husband, choosing between board games, books, and sleep, and never being truly bored.
I realized very quickly after working with college students with intellectual disabilities that many of them had food preferences they hadn’t shared or explored, because they had limited freedom to make their own meals, if any freedom at all. How do you learn to cook a vegetarian meal if everyone else doing most of the cooking in the house focuses on carnivorous selections?
To make this recipe, you’ll need the ingredients pictured above:
16 oz bag of white rice
15.5 oz can of seasoned black beans
32 oz carton of vegetable broth or stock
Value pack size of chorizo veggie crumbles, or smaller
This recipe involves no direct heat and no knives, no measuring either. The rice cooker does everything. I did nothing here, other than get the ingredients and take the photos. My younger son made this entirely on his own. Though spicy, it’s delicious and accessible to various ability levels.
Add the rice to the rice cooker bowl.Dump the veggie crumbles into the rice cooker bowl. They do not need to be defrosted. Add the black beans.Now add the broth.You can add a little olive oil, about a tsp or two, to help soften the rice, but this is optional. Stir all the ingredients.The dish will come out looking like this after cooking for about an hour, give or take a few minutes. Spicy, comforting, filling, and confidence building.
My son was thrilled and offered to cook every week. When cooking isn’t scary and intimidating, it’s amazing.
Beka Tucker 