Using Dry Beans, my quick and easy overnight routine

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When you look at ways to squeeze your grocery budget, there is hardly anything more rewarding than using dry beans. Here are some great reasons to give up on the canned stuff, and use dry beans:

• More Natural
• Lower Sodium
• No BPA (from the cans)
• Fewer calories
• More fiber

...to name a few. I also find that I can get away with half as much ground beef in many recipes if I add beans. Keep the protein and lose the fat! Yay! 

I may be biased because my dear sis-in-law works for a local dry bean producer.  Since we eat them all the time, it's handy to buy them in bulk at the local plant to save money. Plus it's a great way to support local food producers.  Last season we actually grew them ourselves! This is another reason dry beans are a good choice at our house. 

As for the money savings: using Pintos for an example: canned beans go for about 60 cents to $1 per can. One can has about 1.5 cups of beans. One pound of dry beans yields 6 cups cooked, so 1/4 a pound is the same as one can. Dry beans go for 80 cents (bulk price when I buy a 25lb bag) to $1.30 per pound at the grocery store. This means a 1/4 pound costs as little as 20 cents! Canned beans are 200% more expensive. (See, this is a homeschool post! How do you like my math?!)

Ok, on to the process. First, sort the beans. The best way to do this is to spill them on a clean counter-top, spread them out, and look them over. When they are harvested, tiny bean-sized pebbles can get into the mix. Some times you won't find any, sometimes there a several. But I will tell you, the first time you bite into one in a bowl of chili, you will wish you hadn't skipped this step!

sorting the beans into a colander

Then wash them. I put them in a bowl and cover with water, and agitate them with my hands. Pour through a strainer/colander, and we're done!

At this point I put them into the slow cooker and cover with water at least 3"-4" above the beans. I like to cook up 2+ pounds at a time in my 6 quart pot. This is for a few reasons, and none of them include me eating 12-15 cups of beans at one sitting. :)  I like the convenience of canned beans as much as the next gal, so I cook a LOT at one time and then freeze in "meal sized" portions, so they are ready to go, just as fast as canned.

I do all of this at night, and then put the pot on low and forget about them until morning.

~edit 3/11/13~ If you find they don't get done overnight, your slow cooker may by cooler on "low" than mine. I'm finding there is quite a variation. Try doing it on high if they don't turn out the first time. If your slow cooker was manufactured after 2007, it will cook at these higher temps. If it was manufactured before 2007, maybe you should buy one with all the money you're saving not buying canned beans!~

Also, as a commenter noted: if you are cooking Kidney Beans, be sure they do boil for at least 10 minutes to remove naturally occurring toxins. See this link for more information.

All that's left to do is strain them off...

Rinse well and bag them up....

and freeze!

Now wasn't that easy? I freeze them in quarts (about 3-4 cups) because my family is bigger and we like a lot of them. But you could freeze a can sized portion (1 and 1/2 cups) in a sandwich bag, fill a gallon freezer bag with those smaller bags, and freeze them that way. Another great way (sorry, no pics of this) is to spread them on a cookie sheet to freeze individually, then dump into gallon bags. Then you can use a cup measure to scoop out exactly what you need every time!

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A note about, ummm, "the after-effects of beans":I am told it is the sugars in beans that produce the gas. The sugars in beans are water soluble, so many suggest soaking the beans before cooking, and draining off the water they soaked in. Cook in fresh water. To keep this a simple slow cooker routine you could soak (power off) overnight in your slow cooker.  In the morning, rinse and replace them there with fresh water, turn it on and cook on high for only a few hours. They should be done by lunch this way. Also, the fresher your beans, the less gassy they should be, so I'm told. We happened to grow these beans ourselves, so they were fresh!

Need a yummy recipe to use those beans? Try the Best Home-made Chili (scroll to end of post), that was demonstrated at our local farmer's market cooking demo. Also, our local bean producer puts out a cookbook! Be sure you try the Coffee Bean Brownies!

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Here's a favorite recipe using dry beans:

Black Bean Chili!

Nothing can have a better start than bacon, can it? As you may know, I love cooking with beans, and I recently got a great deal on some dry black beans. So I cooked them up using my usual overnight method, and froze them in bags. Having that all done made this a quick and easy soup to assemble. My hubby declared it one of his new favorites. *score!*

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Homeschool definition of a "working lunch"

Wyatt

Mayda

Emma

Tyler

What goes better with Saxon Math than Pizza? :)

Good day to be good and tired.

Today was one of the last indoor winter farmer's markets. (There will be one more.) It was so warm outside that I think people were too busy raking cornhusks out of their flower beds to come shop. Being a slow day meant I had more time to visit with other vendors. It was so fun to see everyone. I had a customer ask if it was worth all that work *gesturing to my table of baked goods* for what I made at the market. My mind fluttered through the 10 hours I spent baking, kneading dough until nearly midnight for a new "cuban" bread to offer (which no one bought... sad for the customers who lost out, but my family is thrilled they get to eat it all).... and I told her, "I don't make much, but it's worth it. I love being here!"

I had another vendor tell me that hanging around with my kids was the highlight of their market season. :) And the kids love it too: sampling new things, helping me bake, and visiting with customers. Yep, it's a fun crowd to hang around. I'll miss them all come May.

I'm tired, but it's a good tired. Hubby's tired too. He put a new motor in his work vehicle: his motorcycle. :) In and out in 10 hours must be a new record. I'm super proud of his hard work. And I'm very happy he'll be taking that to work and I'll have my van back. So tonight we grilled chicken and ate it on salad greens from the farmer's market (with bread and butter thanks to my slow sales day). It was a good day.

Easy Overnight Yogurt

I've been making yogurt for our family for over a year now, and my kids LOVE it. If your kids are accustomed to Go-gurts, this may not be for you. But if you've been paying $4 per quart for plain Greek yogurt to go with your granola and blueberries... It's time to make yogurt! It's a huge savings for us. I usually make a batch of 5-6 quarts and my total cost is $4 for the milk plus $1 for the yogurt starter. This is a potential savings of $19 for each batch!

When buying the milk, look for milk produced closer to you and from more local type dairy names. The farther the milk has to travel, the more it was homogenized. The more processed your milk is, the less likely your yogurt will turn out. I could go into all kinds of facts about Organic, non-processed, raw milk, but I'll leave it at this: Try different kinds and see what you like. If you heat your milk as we will in the first step, it should turn out fine even if you started with raw.

Moving on... For the yogurt starter, buy some at the grocery store. I've made yogurt with ultra-cheap strawberry yogurt from the mini-mart, but by far the best results came from a good plain Greek yogurt with live active cultures (the more the better! check the label to see what cultures are in it.) a 4 oz container will make 4 quarts of yogurt, so get two if you're doing more.

Here are the tools you'll need: jar tongs, mini whisk, thermometer (that at least ranges from 90 degrees to 180F), and a tablespoon.

Yes, that's a Pampered Chef Mini Whisk, and a candy thermometer.

To start with, make sure your jars are nice and clean and fill them with fresh milk. Put them in a pot with water around them up to about an inch from the tops. Heat over med-high heat to bring the milk up to temp. I put a lid on the pot to get there faster, but you won't want to put caps on the jars so you can check the temps. Just be sure you don't spill water into them. (don't mind the hard water lines on my canning pot. It's clean, we just have VERY hard water here.)

Heat until the milk reaches 175F. This ensures you've killed any bacteria that may have been in the milk, or your jars. We want to be sure we are only growing the cultures we add, not anything else. :) This is a great time to dip all of your tools in the boiling water as well to sterilize them.

175F

Use the jar tongs to set the jars out onto a towel to cool a bit. They will take a while come come down to our target temp of 95-108F, so be patient... or set them in an ice water bath, like I do. But do not skip the 10 minutes of cooling on the counter before your hit the ice bath, or your jars may crack.  This time I had one crack, so don't be surprised if it does. Just keep going with what you have.

10 minutes of rest before the ice bath

bring down to 95 to 108F range

Watch them closely, once the temp starts dropping it can drop fast and go right past your target temp, and then you may have to warm them up. It's not as complicated as it sounds. :)

Once they are in the 95-108F range, add 2 tablespoons of the store bought yogurt to each jar and mix well. I've heard you shouldn't mix too much, but when I did that I had a jar that was solid on the bottom and liquid on the top. So mix well, but don't get crazy. :) This is where I love my mini whisk!

Then quickly cap all of the jars and put them in a picnic cooler lined with a clean bath towel. Add jars filled with hot water from your pot (no caps) all around them, or in a staggered pattern, until the cooler is filled. My cooler holds 8 jars, so this batch was 5 jars of yogurt and 3 hot water jars. Cover with the towel and close up the cooler. Set it someplace it won't be disturbed overnight.

In the morning, check your jars by tipping them to the side and seeing if they "slosh". If they haven't set up yet, add more hot water  to your water jars and close it up for another couple of hours. It's not hard to do, and you will get the hang of it quite quickly!

set up nicely, with a little whey to pour off

Then all you need is to top it with home-made granola! This recipe is our favorite. :)

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Pondering Burdens

Burdens. We all have them. Usually more heavy than light. Some hidden from sight. Sometimes we are so overwhelmed by them we cannot help carry our neighbor's... defninitely no room for the burdens of our Master. And yet the Father tells us "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Mt. 11:28

Matthew 11:28-30 (Today's New International Version)
28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." 

I like that His yoke is easy. I can't use that description for anythng else right now.

Check out this version, it makes me think of it in a different perspective:

Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)
28-30"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." 

As for sharing burdens:

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (Contemporary English Version) "It Is Better To Have a Friend"
9 "You are better off to have a friend than to be all alone, because then you will get more enjoyment out of what you earn. 10 If you fall, your friend can help you up. But if you fall without having a friend nearby, you are really in trouble. " 

Isn't it interesting that Facebook makes us so aware of everyone's burdens? My newsfeed is so burdensome some days. And yet I'm glad my friends post so I can pray, and so I know where they are. But I find it really hard to share my burdens right now. I'm pretty sure "stuffing down" isn't a working way to deal, but it's what I'm good at. Just never seem to want to post real thoughts and feelings in a status box. I guess I don't want anyone to worry or pity me. But being silent about the tough stuff gives the illusion of "havng it all together" and I'm SOOO not there.

I'm so thankful for friends who have shared my burdens this year. Especially for my hubby, a good friend indeed. God is good in how he designs things.

Most of all, I'm thankful for my Father. When it's all dark in the house. The dishes done (ok, not allways) the lights out, the kids tucked in, the hubby off working... it's just me and Him. And His love envelopes me... and after a long day of shouldering those burdens my sore shoulders slump... and His burden really is lighter! I wonder why I didn't ask to carry it much earlier in the day. The load of living for me (or even for the others I want to "fix") is so much heavier than the load of living for Him, and this seems to be so logical and yet foreign to me all at once.

All I know is this. It is.

And when I am still, I know it; this is why He is God.

Philippians 4:6-7 (The Message)
6-7Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. 

~
originally posted in my notes on Nov. 6, 2009, 
about six weeks after my grandmother's passing.
More related posts over on Heart Life Page

Leather beaded braid bracelet, Photo DIY

I was recently messing around with bracelet designs, and came up with this rather simple one. I was actually working on a little harder design, like this one, and came up with this as a use for a smaller number of beads. After making both, I actually liked this one better! Plus the fun little clasp was different than usual.

Here are the tools needed. (I didn't end up needing the clothespins...)

First cut a length of leader cord (find it with the beading supplies) twice the length you need for your wrist and add some for making knots. You can always trim it down, but you can't add to it, so guess it long. :) Here's how I estimated:

Fold the leather in half and match up with a length of 22 gauge gold or silver beading wire.

Holding it with your pliers, about 1/2" down from the fold (this loop will be part of your clasp) and wrap tightly several times. Notice how the end of the wire is tipped down into the wrap, so it is buried.

Then begin to braid the leather with the wire, sliding a bead up the wire every time it comes over the braid to the top. See photo:

Once you have braided and beaded to the desired length, wrap the leather tightly with the wire again, and trim the ends. 

Slide three more beads onto the wire and draw to 1/2" from the leather, and then wrap the wire around itself to secure them there and proceed to wrap itself sightly all the way down to the leather ends. 

Cut and bury the end, and then use your pliers to bend the beaded tip into a hook that can slip through the loop on the other end.  

 Here's how that looks:

Finished:

Recipe posts:

Sweet and Saltines
Cabbage Burgers

Two Chili Recipes (scroll to end of post)

Donuts
Easy Overnight Yogurt
Using Dry Beans
Cuban Bread
Home-Made Chicken Broth
Home-Made Granola

DIY:
Leather Beaded Braid Bracelet
Home-Made Laundry Soap

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The Chicken Chick!

Cabbage Burgers, AKA Runzas

I did not invent this recipe, but it is my version of what was given to me. :) Tweaked with the advice of my dear German Grandma, Lydia. The smell of onion cooking takes me right back to her kitchen. Next month would have been her 98th birthday. It's been 2 years since she left us, and I miss her lots. How else would I have learned to love sauerkraut enough to brave trying it on apples? ;) The following recipe has nothing to do with that.

Cabbage Burgers

Dough:
   9 cups flour
   2 tsp salt
   1/2 cup sugar
mix well and add 3/4 cup shortening or oil, cut in well.
   4Tbs yeast
mix well and slowly add 3 and 1/2 cups warm water, until a good dough forms. Knead and add flour as needed (until not sticky) for about 5 minutes and put aside in a warm place to rise (I use a greased bowl in a warm place with plastic wrap over it)

Filling:
   1 and 1/2 lbs ground beef, browned with
   1 onion diced
season with salt and pepper to taste
   add 6 to 7 cups finely chopped cabbage (1/2 a large head, or one small head)
mix with meat and onion mixture and let cook until only slightly wilted. The cabbage will finish cooking in the oven.

Divide dough in quarters, each rolls out to make 6 squares (make a rectangle and cut). Spoon cabbage mixture in the middle of each square, and pull in the corners of each to make a square pocket. Turn over and let rise in a greased pan until double, then bake at 350 until golden brown.

A variation my husband loves, is to omit the meat and cook the cabbage with lots of black pepper, until it is completely caramelized. Then wrap with dough and bake as above. Very yummy, very spicy. Something akin to Hungarian Cabbage Strudel, which I also plan to try sometime in the future. But that is another post all-together. :)