Beans

You would think I'd write about beans more, given that my blog title has to do with them.....I wonder how many people are actually searching for beans and find this instead? Still love the title though, and don't plan to change it anytime soon!

I took a whole strip of ground between the sidewalk and the street, you know the weed-prone strip that belongs to the city, but you are expected to water and keep the weeds out of? I planted a row of giant sunflowers and two rows of bush beans....they're up now, and last night I saw the neighbor on her walk do a double-take and stare quizzically at them, probably wondering what the crazy neighbors are doing now!

chili

We got 14 pints from that recipe.....plus two meals for three of us, not too bad.
Canned it up this afternoon, then opened a jar for dinner. I was afraid the pressure cooking would turn the beans to mush, but they were fine. It was a little bland, but there is virtually no salt cooked in, so I don't mind adding salt in the bowl.

chili recipe

ten cups of beans, washed---about 5 quarts of water to cook in


bring to boil, simmer til tender, I used a canner to cook in, then drained off most of the liquid---left just enough to cover the beans


two onions, cut up fine, and browned in a little olive oil


ten tomatoes---I got these five for a dollar, they were cracked---peeled and cut up


five pounds of hamburger, browned and drained--this is a lot of meat, but it was on the edge of freezerburning, so I just used it up



1 tablespoon cumin

2 tablespoons mild chili (we buy ours in Hatch on the way to Tucson every year)


2 tablespoons garlic powder


3 tablespoons Penzey's adobo--this doesn't have salt in it


3 tablespoons Penzey's southwest seasoning



Since there isn't any salt in the cooking, I add some commercial adobo at the end, just to taste



simmer all together, being careful not to let it burn


It was good, a bit bland, but the youngest member of the household does not like spicy food, so we can add to it in the bowl.

Since it was was fishing night, I had to put it in the fridge--we'll can it today and I'll post how many jars we got.

USDA food allowances

I am attempting to feed my family well on half the USDA food allowance.
One of the first things we did was to visit the local bean elevator and purchase beans, rice, barley, and lentils in bulk. Beans average fifty cents a pound purchased this way, the rice slightly higher. I'd never had fresh dried beans before, and there is a huge difference. They cook in a couple of hours, no overnight soak, and they're more tender. Makes me wonder just how old the ones in the store actually are...

The USDA allowance chart for June 08 would let us spend $464.30 on food monthly. This is the thrifty plan. The liberal plan would be $908.90. I'm not sure how realistic this actually is for most of us. My goal is to spend $250.00 or less for food each month. Summer is fairly easy, as the garden is producing and we eat a LOT of squash and tomatoes!

We don't buy a lot of canned soup, as the sodium content is so high, but I am working on canning soups myself, to drop the cans bought to zero. The current project is chili, with cheap beans and a five pound pack of hamburger that is threatening to freezerburn if I don't use it. I don't remember how much the meat cost, but it was on sale--I will average it at 1.99 a pound.

Did you know you can ask the meat dept to grind your purchase into hamburger and they will usually do it for free? Lean hamburger has been as high as 3.99 a pound for super lean at Safeway, but they had a sale on london broil last month, it was 1.99 a pound........so if you have that ground at the store, or do it at home, that's 2.00 saving per pound, and it's better for you!