Crockpot Beans & Rice

• This is one of my favorite easy recipes. I don't generally use the crockpot much because I feel like it turns everything into an overcooked mush of grey yuck, but I modified this recipe from one I found in a book and it's great. I can eat it breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It has canned soup in it, but you don't get that weird canned-cream-of-whatever-soup-1950s-casserole taste at all. I also doubled the proportions of the original recipe because I like to make a lot of this as it reheats really well, but if you want less it would obviously come out well with halving the recipe.
  
  

Crockpot Southwestern Beans & Rice

• 5-6 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 bell peppers (I usually use red for the color), chopped
• 1 chopped onion
• 1½ cup brown rice (I use Trader Joe's Brown Rice Medley which has brown rice, black barley, and daikon radish seeds, but plain brown rice works just fine)
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 2 cans cream of celery soup
• 2 cans black beans
• 2 cans green chiles
• 2½ cups cheddar cheese (I use Trader Joe's lowfat Mexican cheese blend and kind of wing it on how much I add, usually less than the amount the recipe suggests)
• 1-2 Tbsp. taco seasoning
  
  Saute onion, celery, and other veggies until translucent. Add rice and sauté for 4 minutes, stirring. Add vegetable stock and celery soup, mix until smooth. Stir in black beans and taco seasoning. Pour into crockpot and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. Mix in green chiles and cheese, cook for ½ hour longer.