This nugget of a recipe packs a lot of flavor in a simple dish. This was also a one pot meal since we didn't have to cook the chicken, onions, green peppers and green chili peppers separately.

We love using Thrive's freeze-dried foods because of the convenience, time-savings, less clean up and less waste. We can use the amounts we need without having excess available that we need to plan into another meal that week.

A quick example is onions. With Thrive chopped onion, I can scoop out a 1/2 cup and let it refresh while the meal is cooking. Another HUGE, and I mean HUGE benefit is I don't have to peel the onion and chop it. Don't you hate when your hands smell like onion and your husband or kids walk in the kitchen and wonder why you're crying? Yep, been there.

For this recipe, you can substitute whatever foods you have on hand instead of using Thrive. This meal makes 2-3 servings and can easily be adjusted to make a meal for one or a meal for families of four or eight. Another great thing about Thrive Life foods, is that if you want a little more chopped chicken and less beans in a recipe, just scoop out the amount you want. You don't have to be concerned about not using all your fresh ingredients because Thrive food won't go bad. Why is freeze-dried the best? Read about Thrive Life's amazing process and Nutrilock promise here.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Thrive chopped onion

1/2 cup Thrive green bell peppers

1/2 cup Thrive sweet corn

1/4 cup Thrive green chili peppers (optional)

1 cup Thrive chopped chicken

1 15 ounce can of no sodium or low sodium black beans (drained), or 1 1/2 cups Thrive instant black beans

1 to 1 1/2 cups cooked instant rice (whatever brand of instant rice you prefer)

12 ounces salsa (can be a store brand or homemade)

2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon oregano

Serving suggestions:

1/4 cup Thrive shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

1 tablespoon Thrive cilantro (optional)

1 diced avocado (optional)

Directions:

1. Cook instant rice according to directions. Since I made this in 1 skillet, I cooked my rice in the skillet I would be using.
2. While rice is cooking, scoop 1 cup of Thrive chopped chicken into 2 cups warm water and let it refresh for 15-20 minutes. Thrive chopped chicken is already cooked. You can choose to let your chopped chicken refresh while cooking but since the rice was being made, I wanted to get a jump on refreshing the chicken so the meal takes 20 minutes total.
3. Once rice is done, add remaining ingredients and spices. Since I used a can of no sodium beans for this recipe, I didn't make Thrive's instant black beans. If I would have, they only take 20 minutes to cook and also have no sodium. I was trying to keep this to 1 skillet for easy clean up.
4. Serve with shredded cheddar cheese sprinkled on top, cilantro or avocado.

With any of our recipes, you'll notice the lack of added salt and the use of low sodium or no sodium foods. You can feel free to use salt either in the meal while cooking or add it at the end.