Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Beans!

I did cook on Tuesday night, I just didn't blog.  I couldn't take the glaring eyes of the five loads of laundry sitting in my room anymore, I had to fold them.  I would have rather blogged but the laundry won the battle.

Tuesday night I made tacos for dinner.  Tacos are easy, I hope you can make tacos on your own, if not email me and I will send you a tutorial. ;)  Along with the tacos I made beans.  Homemade refried style beans.  I say refried style because they weren't refried, just mushed up. 

One of the moms in my mom's group posted this recipe on Facebook.  I have been thinking about making refried beans at home so I thought I would give it a shot.  Here's the recipe, it's from a blog called Budget Bytes.  Her recipes look pretty easy and yummy.  Plus they are affordable.

I followed the recipe exactly but will make some changes next time.  Here's the recipe:

(Not) Refried Beans
Prep time 15 mins
Cook time 4-8 hours
Servings 9

1 Pound dry pinto beans
1 Medium onion
1 Medium jalapeno
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
10-15 cracks of black pepper
6 Cups water
1 Tbsp salt

1. Spread the dry beans out onto a baking sheet to pick through them and remove any stones or bad pieces. Place the beans in a colander and rinse with cool water.

2. Slice open the jalapeno and remove the seeds and ribs by scraping with a spoon. Dice the jalapeno and the onion. Place the onion and jalapeno in the slow cooker along with the garlic, cumin, chili powder, and black pepper. Do not add the salt.

3. Add the sorted and rinsed beans to the slow cooker along with 6 cups of water. Give everything a good stir to distribute the seasoning. Secure the lid and cook on high for 4-5 hours or on low for 8. It's okay if they cook longer, they'll just be easier to mash.

4. After cooking, remove as much water as possible and reserve it in a bowl. Mash the beans and add the reserved water back in as needed. Make the beans a little thinner in texture than you'd expect because they will thicken as they cool. Season the beans with salt at this point. By adding salt at the end, you'll need to add less and the beans won't be so tough. I used approximately 1 Tbsp but add a little at a time until you're satisfied. Serve warm!

I cooked my beans on low for 8 hours, next time I will cook the beans on low for 6 hours and then on high for 2 hours.  My beans were a little crunchy, not horribly, but enough for Jon and I to notice.  Also, I mashed my beans with a potato masher but will use my stick blender next time.  Our masher is perfect for potatoes, but not good for small beans.

Overall the beans were great.  They had great flavor, not too spicy and even Carter liked them!  For being low fat I like them even more.  I am a big fan of the refried beans at our favorite Mexican restaurant, or lard beans as my brother-in-law and I call them, but there is no way they're low fat!  (Hence lard beans.)

Give this recipe a try, it's super easy and tasty!

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