Healthier Crockpot Red Beans

This Louisiana born girl loves her some red beans and rice. Especially, if they resemble Popeyes red beans and rice... But when you look at the copy cat recipes and see all of the fat/lard/grease that is contains and the calorie count its almost enough to make you swear them off. Almost.

My mom always made red beans and rice with a thinner stock base rather than loading it up with fat. It's delicious! This is a crockpot adapted version of her recipe. It's so easy to set the beans on to soak the night before. I also use my rice cooker and set the brown rice on to cook about 2 hours before dinner time.

CROCKPOT RED BEANS AND RICE

1 lb. red kidney beans
1-2 bay leaves
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 lg. onion, chopped
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. pepper
Rice, cooked
Fresh chopped parsley
Meat (optional) - I prefer cajun Conecuh sausage

Rinse beans in cold water (sorting out bad beans as you add them into the crockpot)..

Soak beans overnight in the crockpot
Cook in 3 quarts of water for 2 hours.
Add all other ingredients(excluding meat and rice) and cook for an additional 2-3 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low. Add meat about 30 minutes to an hour before serving.
Serve with hot rice. 

TIPS: Don't add the meat too early. Some sausages end up drying out if they are in there too long. Also, you will most likely want to add more salt to taste. I would suggest not adding it until serving because too much salt slows the beans cooking process down and they will not soften as quickly with additional salt.

Yummm. =)