Wednesday, June 22, 2011

"Beans and Rice, Rice and Beans"

If you haven't read Dave Ramsey's book, you ought to. If you can muscle through a little arrogance, you really can learn a LOT. :) haha.. I suppose he has the right to be arrogant, he's made a lot of really good decisions and has helped a lot of people out ....

Dave Ramsey suggests, in his own way, to live on "rice and beans, beans and rice" until the family finances are under control.....

I have to say. I LOVE beans.. not so much rice.. however... I don't think it's all I could eat, thankfully, I have some other meatless, healthy recipes I will share later on :) -

My mom is amazing. She brought us up on homemade bread, beans, granola, .. just about everything from scratch! I am so grateful to that and don't think I can thank her enough. This is why I get excited about having my kids see me cook these things... She did a great service to me and my sweet new family! Here is her AMAZING .. and amazingly EASY recipe for homemade re fried beans.



Mom’s Homemade Re fried Pinto Beans.. with out the Re fry

4 cups pintos washed and sorted (even if the package says it's been cleaned like 3 times, you still need to go through and separate the sad beans, rocks, and other stuff from the good beans - you don't come across much, but it's worth it!)
1 T oil
1 T salt
Place ingredients in pot and add water until covered. Bring to a boil then turn off and let soak up to overnight. Rinse and drain beans.

Now put the beans in either your crock pot or pressure cooker.
Add 1 can diced tomatoes
1 can diced chilies
1 onion, diced
1 T salt

Cover with water and cook in pressure cooker for 45 minutes or in a crockpot for 6 hours. (I don't own a pressure cooker, the trusty crockpot saves the day again!) When finished cooking, strain almost all of the liquid, reserving some just in case your beans seem dry. Puree’ or mash them using a food processor or blender.. or you can just try hand mashing them. Use the reserved liquid to make it the desired consistency. :) You can pressure can these or put them in freezer jars or baggies and freeze them.


Another TIP - You can buy a huge can of re fried beans from Costco for like 3-4 bucks - SO MUCH cheaper then buying the small cans. We bring home the big can, and separate it into our freezer jam jars and keep them in the freezer! I love the homemade, but it's nice to have one of these suckers around when you just don't have the time to make it ... and to be honest, it's pretty comparable in price.

Seriously, you have to try my mom's recipe - talk about REAL :) - Remember, this blog isn't just about saving money, it's about enjoying the world by simplifying ... not necessarily making things easy, but going back to basics... life is so much more enjoyable that way.. we get to experience the world in it's REAL form :).

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