A little encouragement means a lot...+ a bean recipe list

Long story short: the last time I made rice and beans, my children ate it. No frozen pizza afterwards, just a can of peaches to go along side.

The time that I fixed that recipe before this last time, I had mixed up the water:bean ratio. (Read--crunchy rice resulting in a what appeared to be a somewhat scorched mess when I tried to fix the problem by adding water and cooking it longer and not being attentive enough. Or something. :) We ended up eating something else for dinner. I scooped some of it into a container to save for my own lunch for the next day anyway. When I pulled it out, I explained that this time I had used black beans, how it colored the rice, etc., and my children wanted to taste it. They liked it. Then the last time I made it, one of the kids said something about liking the black beans. Since I had already opened the pinto beans, I said that I would use black beans next time. The same child said something about it being a favorite meal. (That statement has not been repeated to my knowledge, but I remember it well. :)

This recipe was not that well-received at first. If memory serves, we had to "supplement" the meal with additional food later. But as time has gone by, my children have learned to like it more. They do not all like it equally, but they will all eat it without complaint. For me, the fact that if I continue to make this recipe occasionally, it will be familiar in an emergency situation when there is no opportunity to "supplement" it is priceless, because it will be one less thing that's strange in a stressful situation. If you need encouragement to try something like this, I hope you find my experience encouraging enough for you to give your children (parents, spouse, fill in the blank) a few tries with ingredients so that they have the chance to get used to it. There may be some recipes that will never be tried again, but with perserverance something will work for your set of circumstances.

My goal was to learn how to cook beans starting with dry beans. Here is my list of what I consider to be successful bean recipes that worked for my family, all in one place (they are currently spread throughout this blog):

--the recipe just mentioned, which will probably usually be made with black beans from now on. This dish ends up being rice and beans together in one dish. The original post with changes I made is dated May 29th.

--the recipe that I just made Tuesday, which ends up as wonderful refried beans in the crockpot, and which we used with tostadas. You may remember that the last time I made these I mentioned that I used a 7 oz. can of green chilies as a substitute, and it was too hot. This time I used about half of a 4 oz. can. It was still too hot, but better. I would probably still use the same amount of the green chilies, but nowhere near the amount of black pepper mentioned, which I believe was the culprit. I'll change that next time, and see what happens. Live and learn. The original post on this is my June 19th post, where I indicate changes I made.

--this recipe, which I have only made one time before, but which was pretty well-received. I plan to repeat it in the near future. This also ends up as a one-dish meal with the rice and beans together. The adaptations I made for it are found in my July 11th post.

Well, the encouragement I received the last time I made rice and beans means a lot to me. Now that I have a few recipes for beans that I can fall back on, the plan is focus more on other items in my food storage that I need to learn to prepare. So much to do, and so much to learn. Hopefully my children will like the recipes I try. Or at least learn to.... :)

The bean count

Well, we had rice and beans last night, and it was the probably the most consistently well-received dish of its kind yet. I don't know if that's because the kids are getting used to eating more rice and beans, if they were just trying to be encouraging because I find it difficult to really vary the stuff, or if it was just really that much better tasting. One liked it more than the others, and while one had to be encouraged to eat more, (and did) as far as I know, everyone did walk away without asking for an alternate meal. At any rate, they said they would eat it again, and that puts another win in my column. Running count: Beans:2 Me:3.
I started with this recipe, but as usual, I did my "use what I would reasonably have in food storage" routine, and here is how I changed it:
---soaked the beans most of the day instead of just rinsing them and dropping them in boiling water. They came out about right in the time frame given, so I'm glad I did.
---dried parsley in place of the parsley sprigs
---onion powder in place of the scallions or green onions
---garlic powder in place of the garlic cloves
---olive oil instead of peanut oil
I just guessed with the amount of the onion and garlic powders, and a small (fortunately) problem with the rosemary arose when I thought that the recipe called for fresh so I was "guessing" and put in a teaspoon instead of a 1/4 teaspoon, but I reread the recipe soon enough and was able to scoop a great deal of it out right after it was in the oil, and a little later on as well. A result of this was that it tasted a little on the strong side, but since I don't know how much was actually left in, it's a hard call. We'll have to see how it comes out when I do it right the next time.
While I recommend that you check out and try this recipe on your own, with all the changes, the thing I am probably recommending the most is the flavor combination--I hope that the original author(s) of the recipe wouldn't want to pull their hair out if they were to see the above changes. These would probably taste even more delicious (like I've said, I like rice and beans, and hey, I have lunch today as well :) ) if they were prepared in the intended manner, but I just don't think I would have all that is called for in terms of ingredients in storage, so I want to know now what I'm realistically looking at. Plus, we have phone service working, (not always available in emergency situations) and it's nice to be able to call your best source (in my case, Mom) when you have questions about the effects of adding too much rosemary.... :) Just trying to work the problems out now, and it's nice to end up with a recipe in the "plus" column.
You may wonder why I focus on the rice and beans. When used together, rice and beans are a complete protein, and protein is essential to a healthy diet as well as potentially being difficult to find in an emergency situation. I search for recipes with dried beans so that I will know how to get them edible in the most efficient ways possible. Hey, dried beans will store for a long time if stored properly. I will be trying out and posting about other kinds of recipes, because food variety would sure brighten an emergency situation. But last night we had these rice and beans, plus rolls from the recipe I linked to earlier (that we made Wednesday), and called it good.
That is, until a few hours later when we put out a frozen pizza (cooked, of course) for the kids. That's a pretty hefty "snack" at our house. Just trying to tell the whole story.... :)

What do we already have/do?

I decided to drop the "adventures in" because it makes for really long titles and sometimes, quite frankly, it comes out kind of awkward.
Thing is, I have been looking at other people's blogs quite often regarding food storage and self-sufficiency, and I have been really impressed. While I am not in a situation where (at least that I know of) I could even raise chickens legally, there are many people who may not have stocked up in terms of bags of rice who do raise chickens and more. We have a garden. We have raspberry bushes that usually do well every year. We have started to stock up on items (like rice) that would not be found in our garden. And here's a scary part: I have started to try to use the "emergency" food we have so that I won't be trying to learn how to use it in an emergency situation.
Let me say that I love rice and beans when cooked properly. There are so many ways to have rice and beans because of the variety of beans and the variety of methods of preparation. So I went in search of rice and bean recipes, both in recipe forums and in blogs.
My first effort was kind of disastrous. (Let it be known that I blame myself, and not the recipe and /or author of said recipe.) I was apprehensive anyway, because the one time I remember trying to cook rice and beans, it took, as I recall, a couple hours longer to actually cook the beans than I had been told or expected, and if memory serves, even then I think I scorched them.
I soaked the beans overnight, sauteed what needed sauteeing, and sat back to wait. I must say that they smelled delicious. I had company come in while they were cooking, and they remarked on that . They are more experienced in the cooking of beans than I, so I asked them about the amount of water that was still there, etc., and they gave me pointers. I cooked the rice. I covered the rice with the beans. I served the dish to the family. I put the wonderful smelling concoction in my mouth, and....blehhhh. Bland to the point of, well, nothing really says it better than blehhhh. My husband, who probably didn't want to discourage me, gave the meal about a 5 on a scale of 1-10. He ate it. I ate it. The children had frozen pizza later. Rice and beans:1 Me:0
So I tried again the next week. The original recipe that I was following is found here: http://www.chicago.us.mensa.org/features/cheats/200305.html
How I actually made it differs somewhat. I wanted to know, for emergency purposes, what would be more efficient in terms of soaking. My first venture required overnight soaking. This recipe called for boiling and soaking for an hour, allowing for same-day preparation. I did boil the beans, but I wound up soaking the beans for much longer before doing the sauteeing because I was afraid that the cooking would take longer than expected (once bitten) and nothing would be ready for dinner. That was the first change. The second change was that I used all dried spices or equivalent powders (I didn't add parsley) because I figure that would be what I would be using in a "have-to-use-the food-storage" situation. And the third change was that I fried Spam (figuring that unfortunately, I would not have access to wonderful bacon in hard times) in the pan before adding the spices. I thought that would render a lot more grease for the sauteeing, but alas, it was not so. I wound up adding olive oil , scraping up the bits of Spam left in the pan to mix with the spices. I had worried so much about the beans being sufficiently covered to soak that I had added hot water after boiling, so I had enough bean soaking water without having to add extra water.
The rice took longer than 15 minutes to cook (probably 20-25 if memory serves), but I just watched it, and it wasn't so long that I started to worry about it. I baked it. I served it. And the majority of the family liked it. My husband gave it a 6. When I reminded him of the previous 5, he upped it (I think to a 7) because it was, as he said, "a keeper."
I now have at least one recipe I can turn to for rice and beans. I know that I can make an edible dish with those two basic ingredients, and I have to tell you, this dish makes hearty portions and is filling. I saved enough for lunch for me the next day, because, as I said, I am a rice and beans fan. I forgot to mention that I saved the fried Spam in the refrigerator, and then heated it up in a separate pan when I baked the rice and beans. No reason to waste it, right? :)
One thing that became abundantly clear to me when baking beans is that they tend to, in my humble experience, take a lot of water to prepare. Everyone knows that water is vital, but having enough for cooking should be part of the consideration for storage when planning for the possibility of times getting really tough.
Official tally: one for me, and hopefully many more to come. If I can amass more recipes/experience, it will lessen the chances that I would have to make/eat the same dish every day. I can only imagine that it is much easier to learn how to do these things now, when frozen pizza is an option, than it would be to make do with unfamiliar supplies in an emergency.
I should write these things down, but here is what I believe the final tally to be: somewhere right around a dollar for the pinto beans, and less than 3 dollars for the Spam. I tend not to add in the price of the spices (though vital) because they tend to last and last, so really not that expensive overall at all. I'm sure it probably would taste better as originally written, but I wanted to make a practice run, as it were, with food storage.
Much thanks to the original poster of the recipe above. As for me, I will continue to try to add to my recipe collection. I would love to hear any suggestions/recipes that have worked for you.