#OAMC Beans, Beans, Most Magical Fruit

29 January 2010 1,597 views 14 Comments

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I’ve used dried beans before, but usually just in soup mixes. I typically go the lazy way out and buy canned beans. Nuthin’ wrong with that.

However, this past week I’ve been reading blogs and interacting with friends on Twitter who have challenged me to use dried beans both for their frugality (’cause they ARE cheaper than canned) and for their healthfulness (no preservatives, etc.). Okay! No biggie.

Dried beans (all varieties) are on sale for $1 for a 1lb bag at Safeway this week. I picked up 1 bag of pinto beans and one bag of black beans. Last night, I soaked the beans to be cooked up today while I attempted to do a little Once A Month Cooking.

The pinto beans turned out nice and soft, so I turned them into “refried” beans. Not that much frying goes on, but whatever. I won’t attempt to give you any sort of recipe, because I am NOT the expert on this. I just fiddled with spices until I got it semi-decent. I resisted the urge to just sprinkle the beans with some pre-made packaged taco seasoning. I need to learn to make my own. Looks easy enough.

Anyway, this is what I did:

Spread some beans out onto a flour tortilla. (pre-made)

Sprinkled it with some free cheese.

Topped it with some free salsa.

Then wrapped it up.

I was able to pre-make 12 burritos (because we ran out of tortillas).

Cole and I ate 2 for lunch, so I am freezing 10, along with about 1.5 cups of leftover refried beans.

The 1lb bag of black beans (which we go through like MAD at our house) yielded 5 cups of prepared beans. I put them in 2 c. portions (except for the 1 leftover cup) in regular sandwich bags.

And then stuffed the sandwich bags into a freezer bag.

I’m feeling a little granola-mama-ish today. I’m going to start my whole wheat bread and work on my homemade whole wheat tortillas! I started the tortilla dough last night according to a recipe I found. I hope they turn out!! I’ll let you know!

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14 Comments »

Budgets are the New Black said:

I am so on the same page as you and am determined to start buying only dried beans (once my supply of cans has run out). We, too, eat our share of refried beans so I’m going to give that a try for sure. Definitely would love to know how your tortillas turn out! I’m still just in the thinking stages on making my own bread products…

[Reply]

Kelleigh Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 2:47 pm

I’ve been playing with my bread machine lately, and really enjoying it. I’m kinda worried about the tortillas, but excited, too!!

I’ll be sure to let you know!

[Reply]

# 29 January 2010 at 2:27 pm

Sarah said:

Good Job Kelleigh. I’ve never done beans before, but you inspired me.

[Reply]

# 29 January 2010 at 4:29 pm

Gina said:

Oh, Kelleigh - yes, you really NEED to make your own taco seasoning! I’ve been making my own for about a year and I love that I can significantly cut back on the salt…plus it TASTES better! I use this one from allrecipes.com with a little less salt: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/taco-seasoning-i/detail.aspx And I make it in a bigger batch (typically multiply by 4 or 5) and put it in a cute little half-pint Mason jar in my spice cabinet.

Hooray on making your own refried beans and some super inexpensive bean burritos! Whooo-hooo!!!

[Reply]

Kelleigh Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 5:12 pm

Oooh! That looks awesome! I just printed the recipe off and will go get the ingredients soon!!

[Reply]

# 29 January 2010 at 4:37 pm

Sandra S said:

I use dried beans all the time. I do the quick soak method where you boil the beans for five minutes and then let them sit for an hour, then I use my pressure cooker to cook them. After you bring it to pressure you cook for eight minutes, remember to release the pressure before opening. I have beans ready to freeze in about an hour and a half. You can’t fill a pressure cooker more than half full so keep that in mind and you need to use about twice the amount of water as beans.

[Reply]

Kelleigh Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 5:10 pm

Sounds like I need a pressure cooker! That sounds MUCH more convenient.

[Reply]

Kim Reply:
January 30th, 2010 at 7:51 pm

Pressure cookers/canners are wonderful!! You’d never regret having one.

[Reply]

# 29 January 2010 at 4:48 pm

Kristin said:

I just found a recipe for beans using a crockpot. So I also bought some beans at Safeway. Haven’t actually tried it yet but hope to soon. I am also going to try that taco seasoning recipe. Have been wanting to make my own.

[Reply]

# 29 January 2010 at 8:26 pm

Kim said:

Great job! If I get my list done I’m hoping to make up some chili to can.

[Reply]

# 30 January 2010 at 7:53 pm

aimee said:

This is EXACTLY what I’ve been doing too. Using the dried beans is so much cheaper it was really hard for me to justify spending more for canned when it only takes a little more effort for the dried. Check out http://fromchapelhilltochickenville.blogspot.com/2010/01/homemade-hummus-photo-tutorial.html for making hummus (which I then freeze). Soooooo easy.

[Reply]

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