My husband was craving spicy. We had black beans prepped, fresh Brussels sprouts that needed cooking, and our perennial pantry occupant long grain rice and frozen spinach (you can sneak that in just about everything).

So start the rice (directions on the bag, but sub spice blend for salt per below), roast the Brussels sprouts (425F, quarter the B. sprouts, salt, pepper, roast ’til done).

Make it interesting & spicy:

1. Cheesy, whole long grain rice: cook according to the directions with a heavy pour of McCormick taco seasoning blend in lieu of salt. (Side note: we bought a gigantic container of this at Costco recently – cheaper and less hassle and plastic than trying to recreate the blend myself from components, and it’s great for making lentil-quinoa faux ground beef taco filling!) When rice is fluffy and done, add a bunch of frozen spinach and stir it in. Add a LOT of nutritional yeast, a dash of garlic powder, and a generous sploosh of lemon juice and stir it in. Taste and adjust. I was going for cheesy and mildly spicy, which this achieved. Probably better to sauté the garlic in the pan before you cook the rice, but that’s hindsight for you.

2. Beans: microwave ’em and add a hot sauce – all we have right now is D.L. Jardine’s Texas Kicker Habanero Hot Sauce XXHot. Did the trick.

3. Brussels sprouts: I have a jar of hot pepper paste made by Sap’s Fine Thai Cuisine in Austin. It’s like the ground pepper from the hot pepper oil without the oil. I used that generously.

Voila. Two vegetables, a whole grain, a protein, and lots of hot. (I did not add any of the hot stuff my second time around. I’m out of practice.)