Beans Again, and Again

You will never hear me stop talking about beans. I am a rather new bean convert because they are so absolutely amazing and I discovered their value later in life. What I like best is the super high fiber content, good protein amount( and coupled with a whole grain, a saturated fat free complete protein source), outstanding vitamin and mineral content, versatility, taste, and dirt cheap price tag. No wonder so many people in this world live off of beans as a main staple of their diet. In fact, I have actually eaten beans in Africa, over and over again many times accompanied by fried bananas and rice. So what keeps us from having more beans in our diets than we do?

I know the little song about beans being musical fruit, etc. No need to repeat the whole thing, but one way to combat that is to leach out some of the sugars that are difficult to digest. I do this by soaking my beans for 24 hours at least, rinsing them a few times within that time period, and cooking them in a crock pot while I sleep. The soaking takes care of a good portion of the sugars and is the easiest thing you will ever do in the kitchen. Then cooking them overnight in the crockpot is the second easiest thing you will do. Watch my video and you will see what I mean!

Another barrier is not having enough recipes to use them in. I can help you there too as you will regularly see bean based recipes here at Orange Tree Lane, along with thoughtful research about the many wonderful nutritional benefits of eating them. I use them also to save money so that we can eat better quality meat. Since a bag of beans costs about $1.50, we can enjoy vegetarian eating on some nights of the week and then spend more on the meat we do buy. The cows we eat are grass fed, hormone free, free range “happier” cows, and that makes me happier too.

I’ve chosen some old favorites for this week’s menu with an eye towards beans in the Quick Black Bean Enchiladas and Julia’s Favorite Chili. That one in particular is in the classic Orange Tree Lane style of making red meat a part of our diet but not the star of the show by sharing its role with, you’ve got it, beans. I have also included two breakfast recipes so that you can spend a few lazy holiday mornings practicing a new recipe for a meal that is typically in a rut. They will be worth the effort, I promise! I hope you are having some relaxing time with those you love.

Again, singing the praises of beans,

Molly
Test Cook and Research Specialist for Orange Tree Lane

PS- (Increase the amount of beans in your diet gradually for the greatest comfort. And soak them!)

See an older post about beans:
http://orangetreelane.com/blog/beans_for_your_heart