Rice and beans are two of the cheapest food products in the WORLD and the healthiest. You can not go wrong with this combo either. In fact, in many countries rice and beans are the stable food. Not just Mexico if that is the first one that comes to mind. Many countries in South America have rice and beans as their stable food, like Brazil for example. Going to the other side of the globe, many Asian countries have rice and beans (usually varieties like Adzuki beans and other pod bean varieties) such as China and Japan. Countries like Indonesia also have rice and beans as a major component in their diets.
Why? Why would so many people groups of the world have rice and beans as such a major component to their diets? Well, rice and beans are plentiful and affordable as they are here in the U.S. The best part is that they really are great for you. They are both detoxing foods (pull bad things out of your body) and beans are a protein (leaving you well nourished and full).
I buy my brown rice (be sure you are eating brown rice to get the full benefits of the fiber and to keep your blood sugar in check because it's a whole grain) in bulk. I buy 25 lbs at a time. Scan through our label called Dinner and Side Dishes to see lots of ideas for using rice like in chicken rice burritos, fried rice, spanish rice, etc.
I buy my beans in 5 lb bags. Some of the beans that I like and use are:
pinto beans (bean dip, refried beans, beans for burritos, layered bean dip, frito taco salad)
white northern beans (chili, taco soup, mashed for wraps)
navy beans (chili, taco soup, baked beans)
adzuki beans (cooked with garlic and added to wraps or burritos or eaten alone)
black beans (taco lasagna, burritos)
Sometimes I also use black eyed peas, red beans, kidney beans, etc. for things like 3 bean salad and chili.
Don't forget this old post about beans.
I treat legumes like beans too. My two favorites are chick peas (garbanzo beans) and lentils. If you click on my beans/legumes link on the left you'll get a whole list of recipes for beans and legumes.
So, lately, when I do my meal planning (I only plan out dinners), I've been making sure I work rice and/or beans into our meal plan at least 2 times a week for dinners. That doesn't count when we have rice for breakfast (ricemeal), rice/beans at lunch, or when we have pasta (which I try to work in 1 night a week). We only eat brown rice pasta which puts even more brown rice into our diet.
Next I'll share with you another thing we do for dinner to make organics affordable and I'll give you the formula I'm currently using for meal planning. See ya Friday.
Any other thoughts on rice and beans? I can hear Dave Ramsey saying it right now! "RICE AND BEANS!", "RICE AND BEANS!" .....
8 comments:
We eat a lot of rice and beans at our house, too. Thanks for the link to new recipes!
Great post :D
Yeah! I love rice and beans. And Dave Ramsey too!
beans, rice (white rice), and something called ugali (made from corn flour) are the staples in Tanzania too. Beans and rice is very, very common. They cook both with coconut. Lentils are also extremely common. I have finally figured out how to make good Mexican beans with the beans I can find here, and it makes me very happy!
I've heard that there are particular ways to prepare beans to make them the most healthy, but I don't know for sure. Do you know anything about that? Meaning, must they be soaked, and if so, for how long, in order to get maximum nutrition? or does it not matter?
I just love beans! I am always happy to read more ways to prepare them for our menu plan.
Great post..thanks for sharing.
:)
Stop by and see me sometime over at Free2BeFrugal.
Amy,
To answer your question, I haven't heard anything about soaking beans to make them healthier. I do soak my beans overnight though for two reasons.
1. soaking them overnight cuts down on the cooking time the next day.
2. they release whatever it is that make them so gassy. So, I drain the water they soaked in and put fresh water in the pot to cook them. This way they give us less, ur, um, gas when we eat them. =0)
Now, there is a lot of info out there about soaking foods to ferment them which breaks down the foods (pretty much predigests them) to make them easier for us to digest but I haven't read anything about doing this with beans other than the soaking them overnight and putting them in fresh water to cook.
I hope that answers your question.
Thanks for reading! Love YOUR blog and am praying for you!
Jen
You can see page 495 in Nourishing Traditions for more benefits in bean-soaking.
Also, on the topic of rice and beans, I just happened to read this in Feeding the Whole Family: "Most grains are lacking the amino acid lysine, while most beans lack methionine. Beans have plenty of lysine, grains ample methionine. Together they are complete."
My family loves beans and rice!! We do several variants, many with lentils because they cook quickly.
I looked at all your bean recipes but didn't see Honey Baked Lentils, which is one of my favorite recipes for nutrition, deliciousness, convenience, affordability, and all-around awesomeness! Click my name for my version of it.
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