Brazillian Black Beans

-This is what Andre pretty much grew up on, his mom makes it all the time! (She is native Brazillian!) Its cheap, easy, flexible, and uses food storage (yay!)

black beans (dry or canned)
1 onion, chopped
1 sausage, sliced & cut into quarters (just to clarify: like deli sausage, not breakfast sausage)

Cook the above together. Depending on how much time we have we'll either cook dry beans in the pressure cooker (1-2 hours) or the crock pot (for Sunday Dinner). Or if I'm using canned beans I just do it on the stovetop or in the microwave (quick weeknight dinner). In that case I dont put sausage in it, and will just cook whatever kind of meat we have on hand separately & put the strips on top. (or sometimes we dont even have meat with it). Sometimes I add cumin, garlic salt, and/or lime juice to it, but you don't have to.

Cucumber and Tomato Salad

1 cucumber, sliced & quartered
1-2 tomatoes, chopped
olive oil
salt & pepper
balsamic vinegar

Mix cucumbers & tomatoes in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with balsamic vinegar, and salt & pepper it liberally. Serve with black beans and rice- we layer it all and eat it together. Mmmmmm! (by: Bethany S.)

*Andre's family also eats it with a fried, sunny-side-up egg on top. But I think thats kind of weird, and I usually don't have the time to do it or I forget. So I usually leave it out unless I'm trying to really impress him, haha. :) I do admit though, it does taste okay/pretty good. And its a good source of protein.