Cookin' Up Those Dried Beans Easy

Brandon and I aim to eat as healthy as we can (however, we allow indulging from time to time, of course!), but we are always learning new things to cook and ways to make meals better for us. I make it a goal to not use canned or packaged foods. And I never buy prepackaged or frozen meals-- have you seen the sodium in those things?? Not to mention all the preservatives that nobody can pronounce? I began buying dried beans a few months ago. You see, even if you're buying veggies canned, they still add sodium and preservatives and all that extra junk that your body straight up doesn't need. So. I'm going the more natural, and cheaper, route. Whenever I have recipe calling for black beans (or whatever kind) and I'm out, I go buy a 2 lb bag of dried. Then overnight or during the day I'll dump the entire bag into my awesome crock pot and add about three times as much water as there are beans. All I do next is turn the knob on low and leave it there til I get up in the morning or it's been about 8 hours. Now, I do recommend you stir it a couple of times to make sure the beans on top aren't getting left out and are getting to soak up some water.

Once they're all cooked up, I turn it off and leave the crock pot sitting until the beans have cooled off. My next step is to bag them in quart size ziploc baggies to go in the freezer. I probably ought to measure the amount of beans I put in each bag, but I just haven't made the time for it when I'm baggin' them up. I once read (I can't take the credit), that two pounds of dried beans will equal to about 7 or 8 regular cans of beans. And it's all for 3 or 4 dollars!!

 As you can see, these are already frozen. I did those up about a week ago. And since I'm all about nutrition, here's some info about various types of beans! This is all for cooked/boiled beans.

Black Beans:                                      Pinto Beans:
Per 1 cup                                            Per 1/2 cup
Calories                         240               Calories                  120
Total fat                         0.6 g              Total fat                  0.5 g
Saturated fat                 0.2 g               Saturated fat          0.5 g
Polyunsat. fat               0.3 g               Cholesterol             0 mg
Monounsat. fat             0.1 g               Sodium                    0 mg
Cholesterol                   0 g                  Total Carbs             22 g
Sodium                         6 mg                Dietary fiber           8 g
Potassium                    801 mg            Sugar                       0 g
Total carbohydrates    45 g                  Protein                    8 g 
Dietary fiber               15 g
Sugar                          0.6 g
Protein                        15 g

Black eyed peas:
Per 1/2 cup
Calories                     99
Total fat                      0.45 g
Saturated fat              0 g
Cholesterol                0 mg
Sodium                       0 mg
Total carbohydrates   18 g
Dietary fiber              6 g
Sugars                        3 g
Protein                       7 g

There's a few for you! Can't you see how beastly beans are for you? Eat some beans!! And, you know, I seem to remember that they always seem to have a rhyme that goes along with them.... ;)

Until next time! :)