Beans, Beans, Beans

I've been asked about more recipes for beans and I'll go ahead and include other legumes in that. For some reason I don't really think of "recipes" when it comes to beans but rather what I can add beans into. There are the basic bean recipes that most people are familiar with like
baked beans
chili
refried beans

but then there's this whole world of adding beans to several meals. You can cook a whole pot of beans and add your favorite seasonings and some like it with a ham hock but you can also add beans to meals that we don't always think of. For instance salad. Salad is a great place to add beans.

Fresh green salad - try adding garbanzo (aka chickpeas) or kidney beans. Better yet, add a few scoops of three bean salad on top of your green salad
Texas Caviar- this is a salad made with corn and beans...I'll be making it and posting it on here eventually. But basically any type of chunky corn or bean salsa is a great place to use black beans or black eyed peas. So consider making a 3-bean salad or some other bean salad that you like.
Soups - you can add beans to most soups either whole or mashed to thicken a soup. Try adding Northern White Beans pureed in veggie soup or whole beans to a pasta soup (like minestrone). Don't forget to add a legume like lentils to your soup cooking. They have great flavor and add another healthy food source to your meal.
Dip - You can puree your beans and add olive oil and seasonings to make a healthy bean dip. My kids love this. Hummus is made from chickpeas as well and is a good dip that kids usually like. make a layered dip with pureed pinto beans for chips...using sour cream, cheese, and guacamole.
Spread- Hummus or other bean dips make a healthy spread to put on sandwiches instead of mayo!
Side Dish- How about serving a lentil/rice side dish. I've seen several recipe for this and I made one recently in my crock-pot that I'll be posting soon. Once I made this huge pot of them I served it as a side dish with dinner and often use some of the leftovers to thicken my homemade soups. My kids tell me that they don't eat lentils but they eat them in soup this way! I've seen beans and rice as a side dish too. Try adding some spices like curry to give it some kick.
Mexican Style- You can add beans to just about every Mexican style meal in one way or another. Add beans to your taco salads, your taco soups, your tacos! Mash them for bean dip (which we already mentioned), mash them to use them in burritos and on tostadas. Use beans as the main ingredient to your taco lasagna to make it vegetarian.

I continue to look for more bean recipes though as they are a healthy way to feed my family in a very cost effective way.

Tips for getting kids to eat beans if they hate them:
mash them, puree them, mix them in (it's all about being sneaky)
serve small beans instead of huge ones (like black beans and black eyed peas and chickpeas instead of lima beans and kidney beans that are so big!)
serve white beans (kids seem more open to eating a white bean than say a red or black bean.
put a small amount into a recipe (this gets them introduced to them without serving a huge scoop of plain beans on their plate)

Friday I'll be posting my White Bean Chili recipe