Saturday, April 28, 2012

Quinoa and Black Beans

No, not my recipe, but a fabulous one!!  This one was given to me by my friend Cortney who got it from Amanda Segeberg

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped or minced
3/4 cup uncooked quinoa, RINSED & DRAINED and toasted
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup frozen corn kernels or lima beans
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed & drained (or dried beans soaked and prepared ahead of time)
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Heat oil in medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add onions and garlic; saute' until transluscent/soft. Add cumin and cayenne pepper and cook one minute. Add quinoa, chicken broth, salt and pepper. Bring to boil, then cover, reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat. Stir in corn or lima beans, black beans and cilantro.

Can be served immediately or refrigerated and served cold.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

hmmm.... Beans instead of oil....

Now I know why we are told to have beans in our storage!! You can use them in place of oil.. How great it that??!!! I got this from Crystal, a fellow prepper.


If your recipe calls for oil, you are going to use a bean puree. What is a bean puree you ask? It’s simply cooked beans with enough water to whirl in your blender. If you want a simple way to try this, take a can of beans (the entire can) and dump it in the blender and blend it. Done.

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What I do is drain the can or jar of beans, rinse them, then put them back into the jar and fill the jar with cold water. Then I pour them into my food processor and blend them until smooth. Then I use them one to one for the oil.
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If your recipe calls for butter, you are going to use cooked, drained beans.

For substituting beans for both butter and/or oil you are going to use a 1:1 ration. That means if your recipe calls for 3/4 C. oil, you are going to use 3/4 C. bean puree. If your recipe calls for 1 C. butter you are going to use 1 C. beans. You’ll use the same measurements for beans as your original recipe says to use for either the oil and/or butter.

When wondering which beans to use-you are going to match color for color. If it is a chocolate cake, use black beans. If it is a spice cake, use pinto beans. If it is a white cake, use white beans. Now, here is the tricky part…you can also use white beans in chocolate cake but you can’t use black beans in your white cake. Your family will wonder what all of those black specks are. To be safe, you can use white beans in almost anything.

Now, you’re going to add the beans however your recipe says to use the butter and/or oil. So, if your recipe says to cream the butter with the sugar-you’re going to cream the beans with the sugar. If your recipe says to add the oil to the dry ingredients, you’re going to add the bean puree to the dry ingredients.

If you are using beans in something like brownies or cookies that are supposed to be chewy, the beans will not make it chewy-it will be cake like. So if you’re family is big on chewy that doesn’t mean you have an excuse not to use beans. It just means you need to use half oil/butter and half beans. It will still be chewy and you’ll still be saving money and adding fiber and protein! Remember, I’m not big into all or nothing-even a little or half is better than nothing and it’s important that your family likes what you make!