Winner Winner, Mexican Dinner?

Sorry about the title - I cant resist, I've been watching too much Guy on Food Network.
One of the ways I like to save money on food is by only doing a few big 'recipes' each week, say three to four dinners a week, and work with leftovers and pantry staples for the rest. That way, I use up the food in the house so nothing goes to waste, it saves me a lot of extra work doing big 'meals', and saves me quite a bit at the grocery store.
This is a recipe I got off of Food Network as well. Its by Ree Drummond (the Pionneer Woman). This is a side dish she used in one of her episodes, that i decided to make into kind of a main course, since I had all the ingredients on hand.
The only changes I made - I halved her recipe and added some chopped smoked beef sausage.
This I served with refried beans and warm tortillas, which made a pretty yummy dinner. You could probably skip the sausage entirely and it'd be a vegetarian dinner (since people seem to like that kind of thing now days).
Note that the refried beans I use are always the 'vegetarian' marked ones - they're better for you with much simpler ingredients and, to me, more authentic tasting.
This is her recipe, with my personal changes:

Cheesy Mexican Style Rice
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 large onion, chopped
1/2 a 13oz smoked beef sausage, chopped into small peices
2 cups rice 
One 14.5-ounce can whole tomatoes
One 10-ounce can whole green chiles (chop them, optional)
1 teaspoon cumin (or more to taste)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 cups water, plus 4 beef bullion cubes (since I did beef sausage. you could do chicken)
1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

Directions
-Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
-Heat the oil in a large dutch oven and add the garlic and onions. Cook, 3 to 4 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and add the rice. Stir constantly, making sure the rice doesn't burn. Cook over low heat, about 3 minutes.
-Next, add the whole tomatoes, diced tomatoes, cumin, salt, pepper and cayenne. Stir to combine and let cook, about 2 minutes. Finally, add the water/bullion mixture and stir. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then reduce heat to low. Cover, and simmer until the rice is not quite done, 10 to 15 minutes.
-Top with the cheese, and then bake with the lid off until the cheese is melted and the rice fully cooked, about 15 minutes. 

Tortillas
Warm small, flour tortillas on a nonstick skillet over medium heat, 30-45 seconds on each side, until warm and soft. Or cover the whole stack with paper towels, put on a plate and microwave for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes to warm. Cover with paper towels and a kitchen towel to keep warm.

Refried Refried Beans
For the refried beans - heat a saucepan or small skillet to medium heat. drop in the canned beans and cook, stirring regularly, until beans start to look more liquid and are heated through. Then add 1-2 teaspoons of oil, and cook a couple of minutes, stirring often, until beans absorb the oil and get a nice, almost liquid texture. Add salt to taste.

Assemble as you would any sort of taco - tortilla, a scoop of cheesy rice, a scoop of beans.
If you want to be really Tex-Mex, you can spoon sour cream over the top.

Tips and Ideas

• Assemble as many of these as you can, wrap them in aluminum foil and freeze for easy dinners or lunches.
• Make a Tex-Mex 'lasagna' by layering - tortillas, rice, beans, tortillas, rice, beans, etc. Top with cheese and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. 
• This would make a great filling for empanadas!