Beans!

                                           

Yup, here it is, the obligatory beans post! No really, I know when people start talking about tight budgets, the first thing everyone says is, start eating beans! Over the years, I have fit a few bean recipes and ideas into the way we eat, helping us to be healthy and to save money. I thought today I would post a list of ideas I use regularly and some links to other blogs that have great bean recipes.

  The hardest part of using dried beans is remembering to soak them the night before. I always let my beans soak over night so I can cook them the next day. I am lucky enough to have a crockpot (which, if at all possible, you should totally get your hands on one. Once you learn to use it, you will wonder how you ever got along without it!) but you can also cook your beans low and slow on a stove top or in the oven. Here is a great tutorial on making bean soup from dry beans without a recipe. Here is a great blog post about cooking dry beans.

  If working with dry beans doesn't work with your circumstances, or you just aren't ready to go that route yet, canned beans are a good, economical substitute. I will admit, they are much quicker to work with, and some, like garbanzo beans, I think taste better canned. Oooh, and those preseasoned butter beans you can buy at Family Dollar are the bomb. Can I say bomb? Do people still say that? Anyway...

  Here are some ideas for using canned beans to stretch your budget:

• When using canned baked beans or seasoned butter beans, it seems there is more sauce than beans, so we combine another plain can of beans with it. I use canned white beans with baked beans and green beans with butter beans.
• Canned refried beans make burritos, quesadillas, taco rice bowls, dip for tortilla chips, and can be stirred into chili
• Canned garbanzo beans, aka chick peas, and other ca-nned white beans make great dips too
• Stir a drained and rinsed can of beans into pretty much any soup to make it even heartier.

Here are some links for great bean recipes:

Dried Navy Bean soup- tons of flavor, I personally leave out the tomato paste

Pasta and bean soup getting fancy with this one, but this blogger has a lot of money saving recipes

Taco soup -I have used canned and dried beans for this recipe

Black Bean Burgers -a different recipe than I linked before with some optional ingredients

Lentil tacos-can use a beef and bean mix or use all lentils

Creamy Bean Soup w/ Sausage -uses two kinds of canned beans (but you don't have to) and Polish Sausage 

Bacon and Bean soup -uses two cans of Great Northern beans and bacon

 

If you have a favorite bean recipe, share in the comments!