Last weekend we had our final church group meeting before summer and the dinner theme was ‘taco night.’ Upon seeing the signup list, I quickly chose rice and beans…because I love cooking rice and beans. 🙂 They’re cheap, healthy and are easy to ‘doctor up.’

I made 2 lbs. of these Dominican style beans. And then made a giant pot of Tex Mex restaurant style rice (2 lbs. of white rice or 5 cups uncooked).

And everyone was well fed and happy at the party.

But the one who was the happiest about these beans and rice…Cuatro. That kid LOVES, loves, loves beans and rice. He would eat them for every meal if I served them. But we believe in balance, and not inducing too much gas in toddlers…so we serve them once or twice a week.

After eating a third bowl of leftovers, my husband declared that he wanted to start having a weekly beans and rice night…and being the budgetarian that I am, I obliged. So now I just need to decide if we’re going to have rice and beans “every Thursday night” or just make them as I remember to soak them 😉

Anyways, here you go.

AUTHENTIC tex-mex restaurant style rice. Pay close attention to the directions. Because my guess is that you aren’t cooking rice like this. But you might not go back to the ‘directions on the bag’ way every again.

Buen provecho! (Or Bon Appetit in Spanish. Not wait, that’s French. It would be “Enjoy your meal” in English. Whatever, you get the point.)

Buen provecho!

{Please note the serving size below, and that this calls for 2 lbs of rice. It’s easy to 1/2 or 1/4 if you just want to make for a meal. It nearly fills my 6 quart suacepan, as you can see below.}