Beans beans the magical fruit, the more you eat the more you ______!

A good budget friendly food is beans. Any kind of beans that are dried are usually cheap. You can get 1 lb of beans for about $1 per pound. Sometimes less if you buy bigger quanities. There are some basic steps for making them.
1. Soak for a few hours(I do this during the day)
2. Before bedtime rinse beans
3. Put in crock pot
4. Add water till covers the beans
5. Add salt and spices to your preferance
6. Turn on low
7. Cook all night
8. In the morning(when I take kids to bus stop) turn off
9. Let cool till room temp
10. Put 2 cups of beans per freezer bag
11. Put in freezer

I usually will cook a ton of beans one day and freeze them for later use. One reason is because my husband loves beans but doesnt like the smell of them when cooked. ?? I dont understand it but try my best to avoid his funny faces he makes when he smells them. I use these beans in most of our meals to add lots of protein. As most of you know, my 4 daughters are all vegetarians by choice so beans come in handy in our home.
Here is an example of how much you could save

99 cents 1lb of dried black beans
Each pound makes about 10 cups
Thats about 9 cents per cup. Making it 18 cents (most cans have about 2 cups per can)
Average cost of canned beans is 79-$1 per can.
5 cans of beans for the same amount of buying 2 cans. I think I will make my own.

Not only is this a budget friendly meal, you dont have any extra added preservatives and what not. You can add no salt or spices so it will be no sodium.

Idea's for use
1.Chili
2.Black Bean soup
3. White bean and ham soup
4. add to any meal for protein
5. Mash and make refried beans
6. Snacks-my kids love garbanzo beans to snack and and yes you can find them dried too.
7.  Small meals-my daughter will eat a 1/2 cup size portion before a soccer game or practice.
8.  Bean dip
9.  Add with Mexican rice and have burrito's
10. Hummus anyone?


When I let mine cook all night, I get up early to get my girls off to school. I simply throw some beans in a thermos with some chili powder/cumin/salt and some extra juice from the crock pot.  When its cold out my girls love warm food at lunch time. Super hot in the morning but cools just enough for them to eat at lunch time. This is why I cook them at night time. You certianly could cook them during the day and use them for dinner time. Its just easier for me because my husband dislikes the smell of beans and it saves on energy when you cook at night. 


Now days you can find just about every single type of bean dried. I have been lucky enough to find dried garbanzo beans at Whole Foods and they cook up just the same.In the picture above, garbanzo beans are in the top bowl.  My girls love snacking on these beans. Best part is that I put no salt in them and my kids have that much less sodium in their diet. Cant wait to make some hummus.