Bean there done that ;-)

Black Beans are one of our Favorites

Legumes are a main portion of our long term food storage.  "5lbs per person per month" is the direction from our Church Leaders.  Beans are packed full of life sustaining nutrition.  We especially love black beans, but often use red kidney, garbanzo navy, pinto and lentils.  We try to incorporate beans into many meals.  We often will use beans in place of meat or to reduce the amount of meat included in a recipe.  If properly packed and stored legumes have a shelf life of over 30 Years! There many great benefits from using legumes in our diet.      

 

Nutrition - Beans can provide a large portion of the required protein, fiber, iron, calcium and minerals our bodies need.  They are low in fat and take on the flavors of spices and dishes well.  Each type of legume has it's own nutritional profile.  1 Cup of Black beans for example has 15 grams of Fiber and Protein and also provide Iron (20%), Vitamin C (5%) and other vitamins and minerals. If you eat beans with rice or corn you will have the right combination for proper protein synthesis.

Cost - Beans are a very low cost item with a lot of nutrition.  They can either take the place of meat in dishes or just a good addition to them.    A great way to help make your grocery budget stretch is to incorporate dry bean to your diet.  You can buy canned beans for convenience but using dry beans is even more economical, one pound bags are typically under one dollar but will yield 5-6 cups of cooked beans (or about  2.5-3.5 cans of beans).  6 Cups of beans for less than 1 dollar!     

Cooking  - We will post a lot of bean recipes in the future, watch for them.  We try to incorporate beans in meals, but also try out various side dishes rather than the usual sides.  We often will reduce the amount of meat in a recipe in favor of more beans, Chili for example.  Beans can be added to any rice dish, stew or soup.  We often will add several types of beans to recipes making 3-4 bean chili, soup etc.    

Varieties - There are around 1000 types of Legumes worldwide.  We suggest trying our some new verities with your family, try out various recipes for each type.     

Clover root; Nitrogen nodules (clover is a legume)

Beans in the Garden -  Many beans grown in the garden can be picked early(green beans) and if left on the plant will dry to be harvested as dry beans.  It is fun to look through seed catalogs at all the various varieties. Legumes are nitrogen fixers or they accumulate nitrogen from the air into nodules on the roots.  These nodules then make the nitrogen bio-available in the soil and for surrounding plants.  Many gardeners will "inoculate" their legume seeds to jump start the process. Beans plants either grow as a bush or climbing vines.  We have a permanent trellis on the south-side of our house for climbing beans.