WW's Red Beans, Sausage, & Rice Soup with Greens & Warm Turkey Bacon Dressing

So though I haven't posted many OOTD posts I have been cooking a lot more which means another recipe post for you!  And since I am trying to stay mostly on the healthy wagon and maybe even lose a few pounds, I bring you another Weight Watcher's recipe. 

The soup recipe is posted on WW's site as a slow cooker recipe, but after reading reviews I found that many people simply cooked it over the stove top so I thought I would give it a try.  I paired the soup with a healthified restaurant favorite - a salad with warm bacon dressing.

Red Beans, Sausage, & Rice Soup
The following recipe includes changes/additions I made to the original Weight Watcher's post.

Ingredients
1 clove garlic minced
1 medium onion chopped
1 green bell pepper chopped
1 celery stalk chopped
1 can red kidney beans rinsed and drained
2 cans diced tomatoes with green chilis undrained
9 oz andouille sausage cut into bite sized pieces
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp black pepper
5 cups chicken broth
1 cup uncooked rice

Pictures Taken by Luckey

I first add only the onions, pepper, and garlic to the pot.  I cook till the veggies become tender.  I then add everything else (minus the rice and broth) with the cooked veggies.  After everything is together, I pour in the broth.

A little note - while all this is going on, the rice is cooking on the back burner.  I didn't add the rice till the very end because I didn't want it to expand too much and become mushy.  Everything cooked together for about 45 minutes (minus the rice of course). 

As the soup and rice cook, I start on the salad...

Greens with Warm Turkey Bacon Dressing

The following recipe includes changes/additions I made to the original Weight Watcher's post.

Ingredients

1 cup frozen peas thawed

4 cups salad greens

1/2 cup green onions chopped

6 slices turkey bacon

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup lemon juice

black pepper to taste

My son mixed the peas and green onions for me...  Heehee - those are his little fingers in the corner.  He loves helping in the kitchen, and he tends to be a bit more open to new foods if he helped cook it!  So - this salad was really easy.  Basically I top the greens with the peas and green onions.

I cook the turkey bacon and remove it from the pan when it is done.  I chop the bacon and put it back into the pan where I then also add the water, vinegar, lemon juice, and black pepper.  I let it simmer for about 2 - 3 minutes and then immediately spoon the dressing over the greens.

Like I said earlier, I didn't add the rice to the soup till we were ready to eat.  We had a dinner served in multiple bowls that evening.  These were tasty good.  The soup actually had a ton of heat from the combination of the tomatoes with chilis and the sausage.  My son actually would eat about two spoonfuls of the soup and then take a drink of water immediately!  Poor guy.  He seemed to like it though.  The salad was pretty good.  It's not like a restaurant's and I'm guessing that has something to do with the turkey bacon.  But I thought it was still satisfying.

Hope everyone is getting their holiday preparations finished without too much stress!