Black Beans and Rice...and shrimp... and spinach...

I was going to make shrimp quesadillas with black beans and rice on the side.  I have been really tired lately, though, so I didn't have the energy to make the tortillas.  Our milk/meat/cheese delivery service wasn't going to be delivering for a little while, so I had to make do with the cheese we have until then.  AND THEN John tells me that, well, he doesn't really like the dried beans cooked.  He likes the canned ones better.  I had cooked up a boat-load of back beans and frozen them and was planning on using them.  I was at a total loss.  No idea what to make.  

I grabbed the black beans out of the freezer to defrost and set up the rice cooker with 2.5 cups of brown rice/5 cups turkey stock.  As I was setting it up, I realized that it has a steamer basket.  Hmmm... Maybe steaming the beans to defrost them would make them softer, the way John likes them?  I tried it. 

While that all cooked, I chopped up 1/2 an onion and 3 big cloves of garlic and put them in the pan with a chunk of butter.  

When they were soft and smelled like heaven, I added some cumin, parsley, and salt.

Then, the spinach jumped into the pan.  I'm not sure how it got there, but it did.

When it wilted into the delicious flavors, with some help from extra butter, the now-defrosted and somewhat mushy (YES!) beans were added, along with defrosted raw shrimp.

At this point, I poured in a little bit of turkey stock to help it all along.  When the shrimp looked nice and pink, I added the rice and some more cumin.

For all my exhaustion and doubts, it turned out to be way better than I could have imagined.  It was warm and filling and yummy!

With a salad on the side!

This post was also featured at Real Food Wednesday with Kelly the Kitchen Kop!