Diet Friendly Fast Food

Use the CrockPot to cook this Spicy Brown Rice and Black Bean Cheesy Bowl and keep the kitchen cool.

When you live where it's hot in the summer, using the slow cooker to cook amazing food without heating up the house is one of the best tricks I know.  In fact, on my slow cooker site I feature Slow Cooker Summer Dinners each year, and this Slow Cooker Spicy Brown Rice and Black Bean Bowl would make a perfect summer dinner cooked in the CrockPot.  It took me a couple of tries to get this recipe just right, and for the final version I had the wild idea of cutting up some cubes of string cheese and stirring them into the rice and beans mixture for the last 30 minutes of cooking time, so this is a spicy brown rice and black bean cheesy bowl.  Everyone likes cheesy don't they?  I tested several versions of this out on my niece Kara and her family, and they gave the thumbs up to the version with cheese, but it's definitely optional if you prefer it without the cheese.

My name is Kalyn and I am a butternut squash addict!  I inherited this butternut squash infatuation from my Grandma Denny; every fall Grandma would hack apart giant butternut squashes from her garden, scrape out the seeds, and wrap pieces in foil and bake them in the oven.  When it was done we'd eat the squash mashed up with lots of butter, salt, and pepper.  Now I'm more likely to cut the squash in cubes and roast it with olive oil, but pretty much any way you cook it, I love the savory flavor of butternut squash.  Whether you're already a confirmed fan of this most popular of winter squashes or trying it for the first time, you can't go wrong with one of these Ten Easy and Amazing Vegetarian Recipes Using Butternut Squash.  (And if you have more good recipe ideas for butternut, let us know about them in the comments.)