How To: Cook Dried Black Beans

Since we moved into our new house I've been trying to stay on a budget and save as much money as possible...let me rephrase that...I've been trying to save as much money on the essentials so that I can buy more non-essentials (like more white dishes for my collection). Charles seemed unimpressed when I explained this intuitive logic to him last night as I was cooking up an entire pound of dried black beans. Although the process is long (about 13 hours), the actual work involved is very minimal and most of that time is just spent waiting.

I researched how to cook dried beans and there are quite a few different ways to cook them, but I chose the method that I thought would be the easiest, even though it was the longest. This method is perfect as long as you don't need the beans until the next day. (If you need to cook them quickly everything I read said pressure cookers are the way to go as far as ease and taste.)

Step 1: Soak 1lb of dried black beans in 10 cups of water for 8 hours or overnight (I just soaked them in the crock pot so there would be less dishes to wash)

Step 2: Drain and Rinse beans, discarding any split open beans

Step 3: Cover beans with fresh, clean water in crock pot (so that the water covers the beans by about 2 inches)

Step 4: Bake on high 5 hours, then check to see if tender, if not, keep baking and check every hour until they are tender

Step 5: Drain, rinse and divide up beans into freezer-safe containers and freeze for later use. They can be


I estimate that by using dried beans instead of canned beans I saved about $10. Not too shabby! I bought the dried black beans in the bulk section at Whole Foods so that helped a little too with the price. Now I'm off to Home Goods to find something for $10 =)

New Home: First Meal Plan!

We finally closed on our house, moved almost everything over here, and officially moved in a week ago this past Saturday. This past month has been so hectic with the long nights working at the house, that we have been eating horribly and slacking on our plant based diet so I whipped up a delicious meal plan for our first week in our new house to get us off to the right start in this new home. We are trying to save money for some new living room furniture and area rugs so I'm also trying to stick to a strict budget of $100/week on groceries for us...which means I need to make as much as I can from scratch to save money. (I am lucky to be getting free apples from a friend's orchard next week so that helped save some money!)

Here is what I came up with~ (For those who want to avoid soy products or include meat in their meals substitute it anywhere you see "tofu" or "tempeh". I would suggest going to a farmer's market and buying an organic whole chicken, roasting it and then using it throughout the week in the recipes below and a pound of lean grass fed beef.)

Breakfast:

Homemade Cereal w/ almond milk

Homemade Oatmeal w/ berries
Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Muffins

Lunches:

Froze Meals (5)~ Charles

Asian (noodle dish, salad)~Saturday
Salads (3) ~Christen
Soup (2)~ Christen

Leftovers~Sunday

Dinners:

Chili with Fresh Bread

Soup/Grilled "Cheese" (use a non-dairy cheese, or hummus) Sandwhiches

Homemade Pizza

Burrito bowls (lettuce, tempeh, black beans, lime rice, chips, salsa)

Homemade Black Bean Burgers with Homemade Baked Fries and Homemade Buns

Italian with Salad and fresh bread (noodles, sauce, tempeh)

Leftovers

Snacks:

Muffins

Pumpkin Bars

Homemade Granola w/ soy (or coconut milk) yogurt

While Charles is all on-board with the health benefits of a plant-based diet he still wants to be able to eat junk food sometimes, but we also don't want to bring any food into the house that we wouldn't allow Isabelle to eat, so he brings his chex mix, oreos and frozen Healthy Choice meals and keeps them at work and has them for lunches when he feels like it. It works out really well for us and is a great compromise that keeps us both happy. My next goal though is to start making homemade frozen single serve entrees that Charles can bring with to work and throw in the microwave, like he does with his Healthy Choice meals, but I have a feeling that is going to take a lot of research and taste testing to get to that point...so for now I'll focus on all the food eaten at home being the best it can be.   =)

Another way we are saving money is by having Charles go grocery shopping on his way home from work, which saves me an extra trip, plus his work is only 15 minutes from the Whole Foods, and it takes me an hour to get there from our house. I've been using the "Our Groceries" app on my iPad to create the lists and then I can send the list right to his iPhone when he gets to the store. I'm loving the new arrangement!

I would like to know if anyone has ever made frozen homemade pizzas. I would love to make some of those and keep them in the freezer! Healthy plant based ones are like $10 at Whole Foods! I do like "Amy's Kitchen frozen vegan meals, they seem to be pretty healthy, and are tasty but are pricey.

Plant Based Diet: French Bread

I love this recipe I found. It's fat free! There are only 4 ingredients in it: water, bread flour, salt and yeast. Charles said it's by far the best bread I've ever made, and I would have to agree with him. It has a thick, crunchy crust on the outside and a soft and fluffy inside, a true French Bread.

Because there is no fat in this bread, it can go stale very quickly so it's best served within hours of being baked and will only last about a day before it starts to dry out...of course in our house that's not a problem since the whole loaf disappeared within an hour. Even if it does go stale on you it makes excellent croutons. 

Ingredients:

1 1/8 c warm water 

3 c bread flour 

1 1/2 t salt

2 t yeast

Method:

• Place ingredients in bread machine and select the "dough" cycle
• Once the bread machine beeps to confirm the dough is ready, take it out and shape it into a 12 in loaf
• Place the dough on cookie sheet that has been lightly dusted with corn meal
• Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour
• Using a sharp knife, make 3 cuts on the top of the dough
• Let rise in a warm spot (or warm oven) for 30-45 min (remove dough during preheating)
• Place a pan filled with water on the bottom rack of the oven, to help produce steam during the baking process
• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees
• Bake for 20 min

If you have a bread maker, take 5 minutes to throw your ingredients in it and impressive your family and friends with a bread that looks and tastes like you spent all day in the kitchen!

Plant Based Snacks: Baked Potato Chips

My family is doing fairly well on our new Plant Based Diet. We have "fallen of the wagon" a few times but overall are doing well transitioning. The hardest part is not meal time...it's snack time. In our house snack time is usually after dinner and before bed, when we are watching T.V. Chips and salsa get old fast, and Doritos, Cheese-It's and Pringles no longer cut it anymore. We needed healthy (or "healthier") snacks to help us stay off temptation so homemade potato chips sounded like the perfect solution...and of course a perfect excuse to buy the mandolin I've been wanting forever =)

The recipe is very simple:

Wash a potato (or two, or three), dry it off and slice it into as thin of slices as possible

Spread sliced potatoes on a cookie sheet and using cooking spray (Whole Foods sells a great Olive Oil one), mist both sides with oil

Bake for 375 for about 7-10 minutes, or until golden brown

Lastly, slightly salt them right when they come fresh out of the oven

We practiced with the straight slicer instead of the wavy slice because we could get it thinner, we still need to figure out the correct temperature to cook them on with the thinner slices though because they cook afaster. 

And, of course, because our mandolin was new we had to use it to cut a few french fries as well (which we did fry up in a little grapeseed oil, but I would like to try them in the oven next time instead)

So there you have it, a snack that's just as healthy as roasting potatoes for dinner =) There is only one problem with this snack...I spend about 30 minutes, baking up a couple batches of these, and everyone eats them within 5 minutes of taking them out of the over so I'm not quite sure yet on the best storage method =)

Super Healthy Chili

Well with our new eating habits under way, I needed to think of a great plant-based recipe everyone could enjoy and would actually eat. The easiest recipe to do that with was chili. It went over so well I ended up having to make another batch the next night so the guys could pack it for lunch too. This chili is definitely hardy enough to stand on it's own, but Charles has always loved his chili over pasta noodles, so I bought some great whole wheat organic pasta noodles at Target to go with it. The really nice thing about this chili? It has a TON of protein in it, more than you would find in a piece of chicken. It's also very easy to make, with most of the ingredients able to be stored right in your pantry until you need a quick meal. AND since you aren't using meat, there is no panic that you forgot to pull ground beef out of the freezer or making sure you cook it well enough. 

Ingredients:

1T grapeseed or olive oil (optional)

1/2 package tempeh crumbled (optional) You can find tempeh at Whole Foods, or most natural food stores

1 package of chili seasoning (simply organic makes a great one)

1/2c-3/4c water

2 (15oz) cans diced tomatoes, undrained

1 (15oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 (15oz) can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1/3c dried lentils (I used red lentils)

Method:

Saute the tempeh in the oil for about 1 minute

Add the water and chili seasoning and continue sauteing another minute until sauce thickens

Add the tomatoes, beans and lentils

Stir to mix and let simmer about 10-15 minutes until lentils are soft