Bean Cuisine

You just can’t get more bang for your buck than dried beans (no pun intended)!  They are nutritional powerhouses at well under a dollar per serving.  Beans are known for their digestive benefits from fiber, but that is really only the beginning of the support they offer our bodies.  This is a fantastic article that details the array of bean benefits: http://www.healthcastle.com/beans_benefits.shtml.  On Tuesday and Wednesday, my mom and I presented food storage demonstrations on storing and cooking with dried beans.  (My inaugural “cooking with food storage” class!)  After teaching the various methods for cooking the beans, we had the ladies sample six or seven bean recipes.  I’ve posted a copy of a little  bean booklet I put together for the class.  It includes handy bean conversions, cooking tips, nutritional info, and recipes.  If it’s helpful to anyone who may be hosting a similar class, feel free to use it.  It will be posted under my Printables tab as well. 

My favorite new bean tip:  you can replace fat in recipes, cup for cup, with mashed white beans (e.g., if the recipe calls for 1 c. shortening or butter, replace it with 1 c. mashed white beans).  I made pumpkin bread, snickerdoodles, and pumpkin cookies using this method.  I have reduced the fat in recipes with applesauce for years, but using white beans not only lowers fat in a recipe, it increases fiber and nutrition. My husband and daughters have continued to gobble them up, which I guess is the true testimony to their flavor being unchanged.  I did think the texture was slightly drier, so I think I will increase the liquid ingredients in the recipe slightly next time.  I learned so much hosting this class.  I hope the ladies in attendance enjoyed it as well.  It was a lot of fun to share cooking tips and recipes, and I think it was motivating for all of us to have some new ideas to rotate our dried beans. .

bean-booklet.pdf