Week 4: Jambalaya

1 onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 minced garlic clove

1 cup uncooked rice

1 tea chili powder

1 tea pepper

1 tea oregano

1/2 tea onion powder

1/2 tea thyme

1/4 tea garlic salt

1 bay leaf

32 ou chicken broth

3/4 cup water

1 tea hot sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

6 ou smoked sausage

1 lb shrimp

Add all ingredients, except shrimp, to crock pot.  Cook on LOW for 4 hours.  Add shrimp during last 30 minutes of cooking.

This recipe was so easy and turned out wonderful!  I just ate it with bread.  I found the recipe online and then adapted it for the crock pot, with a few minor changes.  I used smoked turkey sausage to cut out some of the fat.  Also used lowfat, low sodium chicken broth.  For the shrimp, I just used pre-cooked frozen shrimp.  Make sure to use regular rice and not instant.  Also a great recipe to change and make your own.  If you don't like sausage or shrimp, leave one out!  Also add chicken thighs or cubed chicken breasts with the sausage at the beginning.  This was my first attempt at rice in the crock pot and I was a bit skeptical, but it turned out perfect.  I did some research and found that to cook rice properly in the crock pot, use 2 cups of liquid to every 1 cup of rice.  However, as this was cooking, the liquid disappeared and  I ended up adding 4 cups of broth to 1 cup rice.  If you use this recipe on the stove instead of the crock pot, make sure to cut out some of the broth.  Enjoy!

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001041904