BEANS

I’ve been trying to make an effort to eat better, healthier.  One of the things I know you should do is eat more beans, because they are full of protein and fiber, and no fat.  And I like beans.  So I decided I would try to be really, really healthy, and frugal as well, and buy dry beans and cook them.

Well.

First of all, I could never remember to soak them the night before.  And of course it would have to be on a weekend, because I don’t have TIME to cook beans during the week.  It takes so LONG!  And like I said, first of all you have to REMEMBER to soak them.  Which I simply could not do. 

So on Saturday morning,  finally I just went for the "quick" method, where you rinse them and boil them for a few minutes, then let them sit on the stove for an hour or so before cooking.  I did all that, then followed the cooking instructions.  They start you off with 2 – 2 1/2 hours.  Well, that was most assuredly not enough.  I kept cooking for three, then four hours.  FINALLY they started to soften up.  But they never really got as soft as the canned beans.  The outer shell was still a little hard, and the middle was very mushy.  It ended up being an all-day affair, and in the end, I had a less than satisfactory bean.  All in all, I would just have to say this did not work for me.

If I can ever remember to start soaking the beans on a Friday or Saturday night, when I am sure I can stay at home the next day for two, three or four hours, maybe I’ll try again, and see what happens.  But really…do I want to be a slave to a pot of beans?  It’s bad enough when you can’t go where you want to go and do what you want to do because the dryer is on.  Now I have to tailor my life around a pot of beans as well?

The beans I made were "okay."  They were not great.  They were not "delicious."  They certainly weren’t worth all the trouble.  So I think probably what I’ll do in the future is buy lots and lots of canned beans, and open the cans whenever I want to have beans.  

I like the taste and the texture of beans from the can.  Yeah, they can be a bit high in sodium, but I have no problem with rinsing them off.  It won’t remove all the sodium, but it will remove some.  And when all is said and done, I think it’s better to actually EAT some canned beans, than to NOT eat cooked beans, because you don’t have the time to make them, and even if you did, they don’t come out that good.

I think this is a good compromise.

Next time, I’ll talk about baking bread.