Jambalaya

I’m always looking for unique spins on classic foods for us to try. It’s easy to get bored with food making the same things over and over, so I always keep my eyes peeled for something new that we might like to try.

I made this jambalaya in the fall, after I saw it on the Whole30 Instagram feed with this guest doing the posts. I was looking for something warm and comfort foodish and it seemed to fit the bill.

I liked how it uses cauliflower rice instead of real rice, because that is always a sneaky way to get some more veggies into our diets. Really my only complaint was that the original recipe was HOT. Spicy hot. Jacob loved it but I couldn’t eat a lot of it. So you’ll see in my ingredients that I’ve adjusted that and also added some other things to the mix. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast diced (I used the chicken tenders and that worked fine!)
• 3/4 frozen shrimp
• 6 oz. smoked sausage (I used a couple of chicken apple sausage links)
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 medium yellow onion diced
• 2 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 cup frozen okra
• 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 3 cups riced frozen cauliflower
• 4 tbsp. creole seasoning (I used much less, maybe start with 1 tbsp. and go from there, 4 was way too much in my opinion!)
• I also added a little chicken broth
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• sea salt and pepper to taste

What To Do:

1. In large pot or dutch oven, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add onion, garlic, bell pepper and chicken and saute for 5 minutes or until vegetables soften and chicken is cooked through.
3. Add shrimp and sausage to pot along with creole seasoning (I used much less than what the recipe called for, so be careful with this stuff because it is spicy!), sea salt and pepper and saute for another 5-7 minutes. (saute longer if you want to brown your sausage)⠀
4. I run my frozen cauliflower through my ninja chopper to rice it. Add in frozen riced cauliflower and mix until combined and warmed through.⠀
5. Stir in canned diced tomatoes and okra and turn down to low heat.⠀
6. Simmer for about 20 minutes stirring often until raw tomato flavor is cooked off.⠀
7. Adjust seasonings as needed and serve hot.⠀

Leaving you with a picture of my sweet middle. Sometimes I feel like he gets overlooked a lot these days between a pretty dominant older brother and his baby brother hehe. Lately Jude has taken to wanting cake pops and tells me when we pass a Starbucks. He also calls them “tank tops” and it cracks me up every time. Love him so much and have enjoyed my days with him.