Copycat Smart Ones Santa Fe Beans and Rice

Back when I was teaching full time, I only had about a 25 minutes (if I was lucky) for a lunch break. Grabbing a frozen meal as I walked out the door in the mornings was a no-brainer. It didn’t require any effort or forethought on my part, and it heated up quickly. But after I discovered freezer cooking, I realized I could make my own ready meals, like this Copycat Smart Ones Santa Fe Beans and Rice.

To help my conscience out, I figured that if I was going to eat a frozen meal, at least I could make it diet. Then, I became aware of the high amounts of sodium in those meals. So, I decided to only eat them every once in a while.

But, lately, I’ve been trying to make better (read: more whole foods, or at least as few processed foods as I can stand to get away with) choices for myself and my family. So making my own freezer meals (and trying to make them as low in calories/carbs/fats as possible) seemed like the next natural step. One of my favorite freezer meals was Santa Fe Beans and Rice by Smart Ones. It didn’t take long to find a recipe for it that I wanted to try. It was delicious – so much better than the frozen one – and it didn’t take long for me to have 8 diet friendly lunches in my freezer ready to go.

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Why Make Your Own?