Monday, March 16, 2009

Eating Green

We have been saving up christmas and birthday money for a wheat grinder. Once we got it my husband found a recipe for refried beans, made by grinding pinto beans, instead of soaking. It only took 20 minutes, and tasted way better than the store bought cans, plus we didn't have to mix it with chili.
Here is the recipe Brent found from Allrecipes:
Ingredients
  • 3/4 cup dried pinto beans
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
  • 2 1/2 cups warm water
  • 1/2 cup salsa
  1. Grind pinto beans until fine using a food grinder. Place in a saucepan, and whisk in salt, cumin, chili powder, and warm water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, and cook until thick, about 15 minutes.
  2. When the mixture has thickened, stir and cook for 4 more minutes. Remove from heat and stir in salsa. Serve as a dip, or use as filling for burritos.

Our green eating didn't end there.
After my husband spent $100 on stainless steel thermos, we had cooked wheat for breakfast. I never had any interested in this breakfast I was just trying to be a supportive wife. We actually really liked it. J liked it so much he had 3 bowls, and kept asking for more oatmeal. I liked it too, which is surprising, because I'm not a fan of most breakfast. I like pancakes or waffles once a week, I also like muffins but other than that I don't like breakfast. Oatmeal is palatable as long as it isn't mixed with milk, but every other type of hot cereal I haven't liked. Plus I don't like cold cereal, all the healthy stuff tastes like cardboard, and all the sugar stuff is not where I want to waste my daily sugar intake, not to mention all cold cereal is SO expensive! But I actually like the cooked wheat with brown sugar. Its great to like something other than toast for breakfast. Plus its so dang cheap! And when we have to bust open our food storage it won't make us sick.
I am actually so happy and excited to feed my family cooked wheat for breakfast a few times a week. I hate feeding J sugar cereal and I hate spending $5+ on healthy cereal. I can buy a 20 gallon of wheat bucket at sam's for $18.
By the way you don't have to buy expensive thermos to eat cooked wheat, it just makes cooking it super easy. Even though its also easy, it just doesn't cook while you sleep.
We finished off our green eating by eating sandwiches, with homemade bread--we love our bread maker, and homegrown sprouts.
Plus I love that we are teaching my son how food is created. I don't want children that think all food comes in prepackaged containers from the store.

3 comments:

  1. I love love love my nutrimill grinder! It was the best gift I ever received! I have never tried beans but now I'm excited to!

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  2. I will have to try those beans...what a good use of dried beans.

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