Beans

People often ask me how I get my family to eat less meat. For me, its easy. I supplement with beans.

If you could look in my freezer at any given time, you would see an assortment of frozen beans. Black beans, white beans, red beans, adzuki beans, pinto beans, etc. About once a week, I soak and cook up a big pot of each then divide them up into plastic bags and freeze them for later use. This is so much more economical than buying beans in a can. Have you seen the prices of one can of beans? Its ridiculous!!

Aside from the pinto beans I have purchased at the cannery, I buy all my beans in bulk from Azure Standard. I choose the organic ones and most of them are grown in the US. Even then, they work out to be cheaper than store bought canned beans.

Now, beans take a lot of forethought which I why I try to stay ahead of myself and have them in the freezer. Here is my process for making beans:

First, I sort out the beans. I always pick thru them carefully as I find lots of little rocks in them. I dont want my family to munch down on one of those! After sorting the beans, I put them in a bowl of water and let them soak for about 2 days. I drain and rinse them a few times while they are sitting on the counter. Then one morning after breakfast I give them one last good rinse and dump them in my crock pot. I cover the beans with water and let them cook all day until I am ready for bed. (Some beans will still absorb water as they cook, so watch them and add water if needed. You can always drain off extra later.) I turn them off and let them sit in the pot overnight. In the morning, they are cool and can be sorted into plastic bags. I put 2 or 3 cups in a bag and then put them in the freezer.

Then I can use them in a pinch when I am making dinner. I use them in Kellys chicken tortilla soup, chicken enchiladas, bean dip, white bean chili, and much more. I add beans to spaghetti to stretch it a little, I put beans in sloppy joes instead of using all meat, I have even made cookies using mashed white beans instead of butter.

We eat beans atleast 2 times a week, sometimes more. If I use a recipe that calls for ground beef, I usually cut the meat down by about 2/3 and fill use beans in its place. And the kind of beans I use depends on what I am cooking. White beans go good in casseroles and soups. Black and pinto beans serve as a good substitute for meat. Black and pinto also work well in any mexican dish to stretch it out a little.

I have been asked to store foods for "a rainy day" and beans are easy to store and cook (although the process is lengthy). So I am always looking for ways to use them and incorporate them in our diet. Not to mention they are CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP!!

Now, here is an easy recipe for a delicious bean dinner:
At Sunday dinner a few weeks ago, my mother in law cooked a ham. I bummed the bone off her and used it for ham and beans with cornbread. This was so easy and SUPER tasty!

about 8 cups of pinto beans, sorted and presoaked
1 large onion roughly chopped (I like the pieces cut big so I can fish them out later, I am not a fan of cooked onions)
ham bone with leftover meat on it
salt and pepper

Put everything in the crock pot on low and let it cook for about 10 hours. The leftover meat will fall off the bone as it cooks so there is no need to try and cut it off. Stir it around and get the bones and onion pieces out before serving.

I served it with cornbread and put the leftovers in a plastic bag in the freezer for an even easier meal in the future.