Jambalaya

Ingredients:

8 carrots
1 bunch of celery
1 sweet yellow onion
1 green bell pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1 can chicken stalk
2 cans beef stalk
1 kielbasa sausage
2 cans rotel
2 1/2 cups of rice
2 cans chilli beans
oregano
parsley
paprika
garlic
cumin
salt
2 bay leaves
thyme

I made this for about $13 and you can see as you look at the pictures the pot just keeps getting fuller and fuller. I made this up off the top of my head so some of the stuff is going to be approximate, just taste it as you go along and you'll do fine.

Step 1:

Here is the onion quartered, if you don't have a food processor just chop decently. Don't go super fine but dont leave huge chucks unless you want to.

Step 2:

Onion chopped:

Step 3:

Chop the celery by hand, I find it goes to thin when processed. Nice chunks is the way to go.

Step 4:

Process some green pepper, seeds removed, and add it to the onion in a pot. Also add a quarter to half cup of olive oil at this point. Turn your stove on low to medium.

Step 5:

Add the celery and a can of chicken broth.

Step 6:

Add 2 cans of delicious rotel, also chop the carrots and add them. I chopped 2/3 of mine and then processed the other third so that it would go with the broth better. Now turn the stove up to about medium - medium high until it starts to boil. Then turn it down, maintain heat while you're adding the rest. You don't want it boiling but you want it hot enough for all the flavors to come out and mix together. Make sure to give it a nice stir every once and awhile.

Step 7:

Season!!! I added about 2 tablespoons of fresh ground cumin, some oregano, lots of crushed red pepper, some paprika, some thyme, some tabasco. All to taste, just add it until it starts to taste good. Don't worry about going overboard, you're about to add way more stuff so you'll keep seasoning.

Step 8:

Chop the kielbasa and add it.

Let it simmer so the flavors work their way together.

Step 9:

Get your rice boiling. Lower the temp on the soup and cover, now you're just wanting to simmer.

Step 10:

Add the chilli beans.

Step 11:

Add in the rice.

Step 12:

Oh so worth it. Let the rice sit and simmer with the soup for a just a few minutes and you'll get a nice thick jambalaya. The sausage could be replaced with chicken or left out, but you get so much flavor from some sausage that how could you ever leave it out?