Leahs Rice and Beans with Italian Sausage

I was low in funds, and looked through my cupboards and decided to try my hand at rice and beans. I looked at many recipes, and this is my own spicy version of what I came up with. This can easily be made in a slow cooker/crockpot as well. This made more than I expected, so halve the amount for a family of four. This quite frankly could have fed more than 8 people. Great to use as a hearty side dish too next to say some grilled chicken.

This is a super great dish to serve when you need your food to stretch, I must say. No wonder there are so many variations of this incredibly hearty and comforting dish!

Ingredients:

1 sweet green bell pepper - cut into 1inch chunks
1 jalapeño finely diced
1 large onion, diced
2 cans red kidney beans, rinsed of their canned juices
5 garlic gloves minced
1 Italian dry sausage such as soprasatta, skin removed, sliced thin and halved.
1-1/2 cup rice
3-1/2 cups water/chicken stock
2 tablespoons 'better than bullion-chicken flavored' is using water - which is what I did and prefer than using canned chicken stock.
fresh cracked pepper
olive oil

Directions:

In a large pot, pour enough olive oil to coat the bottom.
On medium heat, add diced onions and sliced sausages. Sautee till onions are wilted and starting to be translucent.
Add both peppers and garlic, let cook one minute.
Add beans and rice.
Add fresh cracked pepper, and additional spices you might like - such as cumin, old bay, hot sauce, etc.
Stir till all ingredients are combined.
Then add water/chicken stock/better than bullion - you might need to add additional water, since you want enough water to be at the same height as all the ingredients in your pot.
Cover with lid and put heat onto high.
Let come to a boil, then put down on lowest setting and cook for 25 minutes or until all water has evaporated.
Serve up with a sprinkling of freshly minced parsley and/or chives. I made an amazing twist of GroupRecipes.com's Foodie: Reciperules' cornbread (link provided) which I used fresh jalapeño versus the chilies and canned corn versus the cream corn as specified in her recipe. It was literally the best tasting corn bread I ever did make.
Photo shown is my dish served along with GR's own Recipesrules' Cornbread Mile High and Moist recipe that I made to go along with the dish: http://www.grouprecipes.com/61838/cornbread-mile-high-and-moist.html