This week is Beans Week over at Good Cheap Eats. In case you didn’t know, that’s my little food blog that I started about a year ago so that this place didn’t get too cluttered with food. Eating and cooking is a huge part of my “life as mom,” but I’d say most people aren’t the glutton that I am and maybe you don’t want to hear as much about food as I would like to talk about it. So, Good Cheap Eats was born.
For the last couple months, I’ve been hosting a series on how to build a frugal pantry. Even though I am the hostess, I’m learning a ton from my guest bloggers, readers, and the research I’ve done to make sure I get my facts straight. If you haven’t yet read it and are looking to reduce your grocery expenses, browsing this frugal pantry series may be helpful.
As a way to coordinate the two blogs and my brain cells, each Ultimate Recipe Swap here matches the ingredient of the week over there. (In case you’re wondering, next week is Fruit.)
Beans are a regular part of our diet, with us eating them at least twice a week for dinner as a main dish or an accompaniment. Back when we were getting out of debt, we ate beans in some form 3-4 times a week. Eventually, it made the children cry to see Mexican food on the menu — again? We ate a lot of tostadas back then.
But, they’ve since grown to love beans again, especially now that Meat’s Back on the Menu!
Here are some of our favorite bean dishes:
What’s YOUR favorite recipe that uses Beans or Lentils? Share it with us today.
Here’s how to participate in Ultimate Recipe Swap:
1. Post your recipe on your blog. Please mention www.lifeasMOM.com in your post so that your readers know where all the other good recipes are hanging out. Then, come back here to add the link to your post to Mr. Linky below. (Find instructions for Mr. Linky here.)
OR
2. If you don’t have a blog, simply post your recipe or tell us about it in the comments section.
3. Above all, please stick to topic. Today is beans and lentils. So if your recipe doesn’t fit, it will be deleted. Thanks for understanding.
Have a story to go along with your recipe? We’d love to hear it!
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Mine was an older entry from our blog, but it’s still my favorite. Beans are such a great staple, we use them for so many things!
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I really need to fix beans more often. Thanks for reminding me to do so.
I linked up an oldie but goodie!
Thanks for hosting!
~Liz
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Beans, beans the magical fruit ☺
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I love beans and lentils! So many awesome recipes!!
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I linked to my Lentil soup – so yummy and easy!
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Beans have become a favorite of mine the longer I am in the kitchen…so versatile, and healthy! My White Chili recipe has become a staple recipe in so many of my friends’ homes…hope you love it too!
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I LOVE beans and lentils. I just over the past year have discovered how tasty and low-cost they are. Thanks for this swap!
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This is such a great “challenge”! As flexitarians we eat beans and lentils all the time! I am always on the lookout for more great yummy recipes!
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These are ingredients that I don’t have very much experience with however, I did happen to make enchiladas this week that I linked up here:-)
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Beans…so good and good for you!
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My three-year old never hesitates to eat beans ever since I informed him that “beans, beans, they make you fart”. Whatever works! Lots of new recipes to try, thanks.
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My favorite lentil recipe: cheesy mustard lentils. To make: cook lentils (brown, red, yellow, whatever). Drain, but do NOT rinse. Add mustard (anything but honey mustard). Add cheese (dark yellow is preferred, but any kind works). Enjoy hot. Mmm… my mouth is watering…
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Check out this awesome brownie recipe using black beans. http://www.lukeannandboys.blogspot.com
posted on wed 4/21/10
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Beans are an excellent choice. There was a time, I never used beans and then, I found them and now we enhance many recipes with different kinds of beans.
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I’m not blogging anymore so I’ll just post my recipe here. I love lentils (good thing, too…my hubby grows them so I get as many as I want every summer). This is the best lentil chili every and it’s really lowfat too (which is important to us since we’re working on lowering hubby’s cholesterol!)
Lentil Chili
Ingredients
* 1 pound lean ground turkey
* 1 (49.5 fluid ounce) can reduced-sodium chicken broth
* 2 cups lentils, rinsed
* 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
* 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
* 1 medium onion, chopped
* 1 tablespoon chili powder
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Directions
1. In a Dutch oven, cook turkey over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Add the remaining ingredients; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes or until lentils are tender.
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I just made these pineapple lentils tonight and they are so good!
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I linked up to an older recipe, too! It is an awesome stew in a jar that is perfect for keeping your pantry stocked with “convenience” food. It cooks fairly fast, too!
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Lentil Loaf is my favorite!
EASY LENTIL LOAF
From “The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook”.
Cook 1 1/2 C of rinsed lentils in 3 1/2 C of water until tender.
Partially mash lentils and mix with 2 medium onions that have been sauted in a little water. Add to the onions and lentils:
2 C cooked rice
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 C catsup or barbecue sauce
1 tsp sage
1/2 tsp marjoram
Press into a sprayed loaf pan and spread catsup or barbecue sauce over the top.
Bake for 1 hour.
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Hi, I just found your blog and my black bean soup that I posted today seems to fit you requirements! You have a ton of great recipes, I can’t wait until I have more time to look around some more, thanks!
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Here is a great recipe using black beans:
Black Bean Salsa
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup red onion, diced
1 can corn , drained
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cilantro
1/4 cup olive oil
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 can black beans, drained
tortilla chips
In salad bowl, combine peppers, onion, corn, garlic and cilantro. Add olive oil, vinegar, lime juice, salt and pepper; toss. Add black beans, toss well and serve with tortilla chips. Enjoy!
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Honey Baked Lentils rock my world! I can mix up this recipe in 5 minutes (using affordable, shelf-stable ingredients), stick it in the oven for an hour or so, go do something else, and then dinner is done! It goes really well with sweet potatoes or winter squash, which can bake along with it.
I’m looking forward to browsing the other recipes. Thanks for hosting this!
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I posted a recipe that got me featured in a local Chicago paper…but I’ve got another one on my blog today that I love just as much: Polenta e Fagioli. You’re 100% right, if more people ate more beans, we’d have an awful lot less debt – AND we’d be healthier! A pound of beans is about $2 and has about 12 servings!
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