"Triple Threat" Mexican Sausage and Beans

I love my slow cooker (often called by the brand name "Crock Pot"). Basically, you toss in a bunch of meat and veggies, turn it on, and it cooks up a mountain of grub.

Yes, it's slow, typically 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high for most recipes. But that means you can add your ingredients, turn it on low, go to work, and when you get home you have meals for the next several days. Or turn it on before bed and wake up to a pile of tender meats, beans, and flavorful veggies. 

Here's a hearty recipe that you can really customize to your liking. I call it "Triple Threat" because it uses three colors of peppers and three kinds of beans.

Ingredients

3 sweet peppers (1 red, 1 orange, 1 yellow)
1 can black beans
1 can white kidney beans
1 can red beans
1 pound of lean turkey sausage, raw
1.5 cups of your favorite salsa
1 head of broccoflower
1 teaspoon cumin

Directions

1. Squeeze the turkey sausage out of its casing into a pan. Brown until only slightly pink in the middle.

2. Drain and rinse beans. Cut broccoflower into florets.

3. Deseed the peppers and slice thickly.

4. Toss browned meat and everything else into the slow cooker. Cook for 6-7 hours on low or 3 to 3.5 hours on high.

Yield: 5-6 meals

Options

• Add onion, garlic, mushrooms, jalapenos or green bell peppers if you'd like.

• If you like your veggies crisper and more colorful, add them only in the last couple hours of cooking.

• To radically change the flavor and amount of heat, switch salsas. I like a mild green salsa verde best, but anything works. Look for one with low sugar or no sugar added.