Technically speaking, this is one of me and my spouse’s oldest dinners together at home, aside from the specific ingredients. Which is one of the biggest draws of this particular recipe: you can swap things in for other things all over the place.

We used to use hot dogs instead of sausage, for example, because they were cheap. It works okay. If you like hotdogs.

Time: About 30 minutes.

Stuff You Need

• Sausage (we use beef kielbasa)
• 1 can of baked beans
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• Rice
• A pot to cook the rice in
• A big pan to cook everything else in
• Optional: spices and stuff (I use chili powder, garlic powder, and ground pepper)
• Optional: cooking sherry

Directions

1. Measure out the dry rice into a pot. I usually do about 1/3c per person.
2. Add around twice as much water as rice to the pot, put on the lid and turn the stove on high.
3. Wait for it to start boiling, then turn the heat to just above low - on my stove it works great at just under 2 - and keep an eye on it until it isn’t going to boil over.
4. Turn the heat on under your big pan to medium, medium-high. On my stove it’s about a six.
5. Slice up the sausage! I like to do about half an inch thick or thinner. This is the most prep-intensive part of the whole thing. (If you use something that’s already in roughly bite-sized pieces, you can skip it, but heck if I know what’s out there.)
6. Put the sausage in the pan and let it brown. I usually add the garlic powder and ground pepper right here.
7. I like to use the time it takes for the sausage to brown to wash the knife and cutting board. It’s about the right amount of time, and it gets things cleaned up while I’m still in Kitchen Work mode.
8. Pour in a splash of sherry, if you’re using it, then stir the sausage slices around in the pan.
9. Open the can of tomatoes and pour them in. Stir.
10. Open the can of beans and pour them in. I usually add the chili powder here. Stir.
11. Turn the heat down to medium-low and let it simmer for ten, twenty minutes, stirring whenever you feel like it.
12. Once it’s not looking liquidy any more, turn off the heat under the pan and the pot and go set the table or whatever.
13. Serve the beans and stuff over the rice, in a bowl.

If you have it, you can put some grated cheddar cheese on top - I find it tastes better that way. But it’s not necessary and cheese goes bad, so it’s hard to guarantee having it around unless you eat lots of it.