Growing up, we were pretty poor. After my parents divorced, my mom moved us in with my grandmother and aunt. They grew beans and purple hull black eyed peas in the field. If we didn't grow them in our field, we went and picked in other people's field. Then, we laid them out on floor on newspaper to dry...while we frantically tried to shell them. Grandma would blanch them and freeze them, so we'd never have to buy beans for a whole year. Everyday my grandmother had butter beans (huge lima beans--3x the size of normal lima beans) or black eyed peas cooking on the stove. Most days that's what we ate...plain or with cornbread, onion or tomatoes. (We did have other things, but I remember that pot.) Beans and peas were the everyday staple. We were poor, but I don't ever remember being hungry.
When I grew up, I guess I associated being poor with eating beans. I remember telling my kids when they were younger, something along the lines "you'll know we're poor, if we eat beans all the time." Or some nonsense like that. There came a time when I got past that view of beans. We're obviously not anywhere near poor and we eat beans all the time. My kids enjoy them (most of the time) and as far as I know, don't remember my adage about beans. Thank goodness! (Note: My husband hated all beans when we got married. Now, there are only a few that he just doesn't eat. So, I don't prepare those for the entire family.)
Beans are great for your diet:
- High in fiber
- Low in fat
- Great source of non-meat protein
- Help regulate your blood sugar
- Help with weight loss
- Great source of vitamins
- Inexpensive
There are so many kinds of beans to choose from...here are a few of our favorites:
- pinto
- navy
- chickpeas
- black beans
- lentils
- kidney
- red beans
- split pea
It's been a dream of mine for a while to be able to cook a big pot of beans at the beginning of the week. Then, eat from that pot all week long. Cook once and eat all week. Busy weeks when I'm prone to stare at the open refrigerator or pantry wondering what to make.
1 Pot= A week's worth of meals!
I've been looking for a post somewhere that told me exactly how to do that. When I realized that with just a little bit of thinking on my part...that I could do that myself. This week, I sorta tried out my theory. I cooked one pot of beans and actually got 4 meals out of that one pot.
Each meal, different.
Each meal, edible.
Each meal, my kids asked for seconds.
Each meal, enjoyed immensely.
Check back tomorrow! I'll share how I took 1 pot of beans and prepared 4 meals using it as the main ingredient!
