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Better Than the Freezer Aisle: Copycat Weight Watchers Santa Fe Beans and Rice
Better Than the Freezer Aisle: Copycat Weight Watchers Santa Fe Beans and Rice
8
Servings
11
Ingredients
36
Comments
This copycat freezer aisle recipe is a great alternative for those over processed, high in sodium diet freezer meals. You get the benefit of a low point meal and the satisfaction of knowing you made it yourself!
8
Servings
11
Ingredients
36
Comments
Ingredients
- 15 ounces drain and rinse Black Beans, Canned
- 15 ounces drain and rinse Kidney (Dark Red) Beans, Canned
- 8 ounces Tomato Sauce
- ½ cups Salsa
- 2 tablespoons Taco Seasoning
- 1 cup Sour Cream, Fat Free
- 15 ounces drain Whole Kernel Corn, Canned
- 2 cups Cheddar Cheese, Mild, 2%, Shredded
- 4 cups cook Brown Rice, Short-Grain
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoons Black Pepper
Containers
Supplies
Cooking Instructions
Freeze For Later Cooking Day Directions
Bake
These directions help you cook or prepare this meal PRIOR to being frozen for serving later (see Serving Day Directions when you are ready to prepare it to eat).
Why would I want to freeze this?
- In a large bowl, combine beans, tomato sauce, salsa, taco seasoning, sour cream, corn, half of the cheese and cooked rice.
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Make From Frozen Serving Day Directions
Easy Assembly/Ready to Eat
These directions help you cook or reheat this meal AFTER it's been frozen for when you are ready to eat it.
- Thaw: In fridge
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Make It Now Cooking Directions
Oven Cook
These directions are for cooking this recipe to serve immediately and NOT to freeze for later.
- In a large bowl, combine beans, tomato sauce, salsa, taco seasoning, sour cream, corn, half of the cheese and cooked rice.
- Season with salt and pepper. Combine.
- Transfer to a greased 9x13 baking dish.
- Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
- Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
- Bake for 5-10 minutes longer until cheese is melted.
Nutrition Facts
- Servings Per Recipe
- 8 Servings
- Serving Size
- 4"x4" piece Amount Per Serving
- Calories
- 436
- Total Fat
- 9g
- Saturated Fat
- 4g
- Trans Fat
- 0g
- Cholesterol
- 21mg
- Sodium
- 1377mg
- Total Carbohydrates
- 69g
- Fiber
- 11g
- Sugar
- 7g
- Protein
- 22g
- WW Freestyle
- 9
36 Comments
Join the discussionAwesome recipe taste better than the the packaged frozen meal.
Scratching my head at this, it has over twice as much sodium as the recipe it copies.
It’s for 8 servings 🙂
With what you are saying then if sodium is for the whole 8 servings I can eat the whole 8×8 pan since it’s only 436 calories?
Hi Pamela, our nutrition facts have been updated (site-wide) by our Registered Dietitian since those previous comments. The nutrition facts listed are for one serving of the recipe and have been verified. Please let us know if you have any further questions, and we apologize for any confusion!
WW=
Calories 260
Fat 6g
Sodium 580mg
Carbs 39g
Sugar 5g
Protein 11g
This receipe=
Calories 349
Fat 4g
Sodium 1229mg
Carbs 59g
Sugar 7g
Protein 21g
Calories went up, Carbs went up significantly, and the sodium content skyrocketed! This isn’t healthy!! I know that Once a Month Meals said it was for 8 servings… that doesn’t make sense. If you divided all of them by 8 then only the sodium makes sense and none of the other values make sense.
We had our MenuBuilder team run this recipe again and the nutrition information listed is correct.
The point is that compared to Smart Ones, total calories nearly doubled, total carbs nearly doubled and total sodium nearly doubled. The numbers for your version came from your “menu builders”.
If Smart Ones is the baseline, then this recipe is not as healthy.
I am uncertain where you are getting your sodium numbers. If you rinse and drain the canned beans (as instructed), use “no salt added” corn (drained anyway) and tomato sauce, use low-sodium taco seasoning, and do not add any salt to the rice or to the final recipe, it is under 250mg of sodium per serving, even with full-fat cheese and sour cream. The key is using low sodium or no salt added ingredients and rinsing the canned beans (which is honestly a bit messy, considering how they are packed).
ONCE A MONTH MEALS could have been much more specific in its descriptions, but this recipe is fantastic AND healthy.
The WW meals contain parmesan and low-fat mozzarella cheese, not cheddar. This could account for part of the nutritional difference as cheddar is a fatty cheese. This recipe also has more protein than WW, which is a good thing. I look forward to trying out this recipe!
You might be comparing apples to oranges. WW serving is one package. The recipe’s serving is 1/8 of the recipe. The serving sizes might not be equal.
23 points for WW after adding all ingredients!! Not sure where 9 came from!!
Hey, Heather! We had our MenuBuilder team double check and they still came up 9 points for this recipe. We’re happy to make changes when appropriate (maybe you know something we don’t? ?) but in the meantime, we’re going to leave this one at 9. Thanks!
The “Lean Cuisine” version blows WW’s version away in every regard, including taste. I’ll hold out for a copycat recipe of the LC version :.(
They have low sodium taco seasoning, and fat free cheese. You could use less cheese… omit salt. Come on people if it’s that big a deal just make adjustments to get your desired result. I rarely do exactly what a recipe says. I use it more of a base idea and go from there. These comments are just ridiculous!
Yes, if salt too high, then lower in any way you know how. Recipe is offered here for free. Thank you.
Just leave out the tsp of salt
Has anyone weighed both versions? The OAMM seems like more food. It was heavier and it took up my 13x 9 pan rather than the 8×8 which is listed. Maybe I measured something wrong, but it looks like a bigger portion to me.
There is no way I could have fit this in an 8×8 pan.
There was an error on this recipe. We only put 4 servings in a 4×4 dish and with this recipe calling for 8 servings it should always have been in either 2 4×4 dishes or a 9×13 pan (depending on the type of recipe). I apologize for the inconvenience. The recipe has been updated now to reflect this. Thank you for bringing to our attention.
Make your own seasoning & fresh salsa, plus no salt added tomato sauce & it helps tremendously! I also use Kraft fat free shredded cheese. Use whole ingredients & it’s always better than processed & frozen!
Thanks for the recipe!!
OAMM, you should have stipulated that this recipe, as written, requires TWO 8×8 pans (or one larger pan). It is impossible to fit this in one 8×8 pan.
Also, if you stipulate low-sodium taco season, fully rinsing the beans, and no-salt-added corn and tomato sauce, the sodium level drops dramatically. You might consider tweaking this for the sodium-sensitive among us.
Even with full-fat sour cream and cheese, this recipe is FANTASTIC!!! Thank you for posting!!
We’re so glad you loved the recipe! Thank you for your feedback and for sharing how you adapted the recipe to make it low sodium – we know there are other cooks who will appreciate your tips! So you know, we are primarily a freezer cooking membership service — with membership, you would receive resources that would specify exactly how many pans/containers you need for each recipe based on the custom number of servings you choose.
Love this. So good and filling. Used lentils instead of rice. Will make again for sure.
Lentils! Fabulous idea!
Does this freeze well? Last time I froze some beans and rice it tasted so bad (rice was watery, flavorless) after that I had to throw the whole batch out. Was good before freezing
All of our recipes are thoroughly tested by test cooks to ensure quality freezing and thawing. If you ever have a bad experience freezing a meal with us, please be sure to reach out to us so we can help troubleshoot any possible issues and report it to our menu team. 🙂
It’s the canned beans that addsodium. You can use dried. Also it’s red beans in the original not kidney.
How many points is this.
Hi Janet! All of the nutrition information can be found at the bottom left-hand corner of the recipe – including the points. Isn’t it great to have access to all of that?
I’m definitely going to give this a try, but want to cut the calories, and maybe increase the servings a bit by adding zucchini… like the Smart Ones frozen version has. If you were going to add zucchini, how would you go about it? I’m likely just going to cube and go with the flow, but if anyone has any suggestions, I’d appreciate it!
Hi Sinjin! We’re happy you’re going to try this recipe! Let us know how you like adding the zucchini! We didn’t see that the original had zucchini so we’ll be curious to know the details! Thanks for your great idea!
Does anyone know whether it makes a difference if long-grain rice is used as opposed to the short-grain listed in this recipe? Thanks!
Hi Patti! Using long-grain rice will result in a slightly different outcome as short-grain rice has more starch and tends to ‘stick’ together more than long-grain rice. However, the nutritional difference would be very small- if any at all. We hope this helps! If you decide to swap out the rice, we’d love to hear how it turns out for you!
Thanks for the information and thanks for the recipe. I did use long-grain rice and I think it turned out great! It was delicious. 🙂
Thanks for the feedback, Patti! We’re glad to hear it worked out!