Dried Beans used to terrify me.

At work we are calling these "challenging times" and while our little family isn't panic stricken - we are certainly looking to be more cost conscious. On this note, I turn to a subject that terrifies me. Dried Beans.

Dried Beans are about 1/3 of the cost as the beans in the cans, sometimes even less - in addition to the price benefit of dried beans comes the health factor: the canned beans have sodium and preservatives that I'd rather be free of. But my fear of the dried bean preparation had me sticking with the canned beans - until this week.

I'm not a bean preparation wiz - this is my ONLY use of dried beans so far. And if you're like me - this will help you tip toe into the dark cool water of dried bean use.

Vegetarian Chili with Dried Beans in the Slow Cooker

The evening before I took 1/2 a bag of black beans, red beans and white beans (so 1.5 bags total) and rinsed and sorted them well - pick out any discolored or misshapen beans. Put them in a big pot of water and boil. Once the water boils turn of the burner and cover - let it sit for 3 hours or more (I let mine sit overnight because I forgot...oops...and it was just fine). DO NOT TRY TO TASTE A BEAN AND FOR GODS SAKE DON'T SMELL THE WATER. I tell you this because I did and it was AWFUL. The thing I learned after the fact and I spent an hour on google making sure I hadn't ruined everything is that beans lose most of their gas power through this process when you use dried beans (so less tooting - another huge win of Dried Beans!).

In the morning drain your beans and rinse again, pour them into your crockpot add in two cans of diced tomatoes (if you're using fresh add them later), 1 can of tomato sauce, 1 (or more if you like yours meatier) bag of Morningstar meatless crumples, 1 bag of frozen corn, 1 onion diced and 2 peppers diced, 1 packet of chili seasoning. Crockpot on low all day.

I can't taste the difference between REAL meat and the meatless crumples - but its been a while so maybe I just don't remember how it tastes - but if you're trying to cut costs, improve your health and sneak your way into this vegetarian occasionally lifestyle this is a good first step.

I also through some baby goldfish crackers on top and that was a huge yummy topping.

ps - I know that these posts are better with photos. I know that I have an awesome camera. I also know that with a little girl pulling my yoga pants down, a dog praying to the food fairy and a general lack of coordination that it's just not going to fly. Trust me though- it looks divine and tastes damn good too.

Veggie Flatbread Sandwich w/ Hummus

This sandwich has quickly become one of my healthy diet staples. It has tons of protein, vegetables, and whole grains. It is filling and delicious. And if you make them ahead of time, can be a fancy schmancy lunch item for having company. I use my homemade hummus on this sandwich but I've also used tzatziki and mayo.

I recommend using Peppridge Farms new Whole Grain Sandwich Thins which are only 100 calories and have 5 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protein. And so so so good. Once you toast them, they stay crispy, so you can make these sandwiches ahead of time since they require some prep, put them in the fridge, and they are still crunchy a couple hours later. So when you finally get your baby down for a nap, make your beloved sandwich, and go to take a bite as the baby lets our a howl, you always come back to it later. Not that I know from experience or anything.

What you need:
-Flatbread.
-Hummus
-Cucumber, sliced thin
-Tomato, sliced round
-Avocado sliced long
-Alfalfa sprouts
-Gouda, thinly sliced (Also works well with Provolone or any other light, smooth cheese)



What you do:
-Use the hummus as a "glue." I put a thin layer of hummus between every layer in order to hold the sandwich together.
-Spread the hummus on both sides of the bread.
-Pile on the sliced avocado, cucumber and sprouts on one side.



-Place the tomato on the hummus on the other side with the sliced cheese on top


Put together, and enjoy!!

Food of the Earth

I never understood that expression - Food of the Earth...well given that all food is from Earth doesn't that make ALL food Food of the Earth? Oh, the FH told me the expression is Fruit of the Earth...if only my natural hair color was blonde. This Veggie Wrap is Earth Day friendly because you're not using any external energy to make it and it's good and Earthy with lots of Veg. So Happy Earth day.

Very Veggie Hummus Wrap

What you need:
Hummus (see this post - now this Hummus I made with 1 can of Chick Peas and 1 can of Small White Beans because I wanted more beans for protein and fiber for my bun in the oven)
Wraps (I use the Carb Watch kind that have 9 Grams of Fiber)
Mozzarella Cheese
Roasted Red Pepper
Tomato
Cucumber
Red Onion Diced Small
Lettuce
Zucchini
Carrot


What you do:
1. Make the hummus. I recommend adding the white beans here because it makes it yummy with extra protein. Sometimes I add grilled chicken if we have leftovers.

2. Chop up all your Veg - now you obviously don't need all this veg - but it's a great way to use up the veg and get in your daily 8 servings. Put in a big bowl and dump in a good amount of hummus so that your vegetables get coated with your hummus.

3. Put a bed of lettuce down on your wrap and then scoop in your Vegetables. Wrap it up and ENJOY! It's so yummy and healthy and filling.

Sunshine Sandwiches

This is our first user submitted recipe post! We're SO excited by how many people wanted to participate with adding there recipes and food stories. So we'll get right to the good stuff. This comes from my good friend Nick (and his Mom), he's not only a terrific person to share a cube with but he's someone I'll stay in touch with forever...he makes really great food and he's always pushing me out of my element in the kitchen and I love that about him. So enjoy! I made this for lunch yesterday and couldn't be happier that the FH is away and that I didn't have to share and for the record I used greek yogurt and it was really tasty.

Sunshine Sandwiches
Thanks to: Nick and the rest of the Baldassaro Family

The back story: So the title didn't come from me or from my mom ... it came from whoever she got it from... maybe.. but you'll get why its perfect because its the perfect sunny day smile food and its so delicious. This time of year on a day like today it is perfect for lunch.

What you need:
pita pockets - bigger the better
muenster cheese - two inches of a normal block from the supermarket
cucumber - 1 large
alfalfa sprouts - at least 2 containers worth
fresh tomatoes - 3 or so... there should be a pretty even ratio of cucumbers to tomatoes
fresh dill
1 lemon
plain yogurt (or mayo which is way tastier but way less good for you)

What you do:

1. Put the sprouts in a bowl and fill it with water to separate all the seed pods which are annoying and drain. I usually rough chop the sprouts. the a.k.a. name of this sandwich is "sprout sandwiches". sprouts are the main ingredient and they're really hard to mix things into to get a good distribution of ingredients. so cut em up a bit but dont go crazy.
2. Cut the muenster cheese into little cubes. dice em up really small so they dont clump together and can be easily distributed when you mix later. Add to the sprouts in a big bowl.
3. Dice the tomatoes as well and make sure you take all the wet mess and seeds out before you add to the bowl. Just like with a good guac you want to keep it as dry as possible so when you add the dressing later it - well this is a drippy lunch but you want to try to keep that dressing on as best you can so you dont need all that tomato water crap.
4. Peel and dice the cucumbers too... we're talking 1/4" dice here on all these. Don't make a paste for pete's sake!
5. As finely as possible, chop a considerably generous handful of dill. we're talking this will be close to a 1/4 of a cup of dill when you're done chopping it up. Add to a separate bowl.
6. To the dill add enough yogurt (or mayo - naughty!) to have enough dressing to cover what you've got in your big bowl. maybe a 1/4 of a cup? you also want to make sure that it is a dressing and not some sort of weird dill pesto looking thing. there's a lot of dill but its definitely not the only player in this dressing.
7. Add to the dill and yogurt the juice of one lemon.
8. Mix it all up. And taste. It should be overly flavorful because you're going to be adding it to your big bowl next. If you use yogurt you're probably going to need to add some salt and that as well should be a little overly salty because this is going to season what's in the bowl. You know your way around your own tongue better than i do so take charge and get it done.
9. Add to the big bowl and mix up your ingredients thoroughly... the sprouts will not be cool with this so do your best to break them up.
10. Slice a pita pocket thing in half to make two pockets and mix the filling again to make sure you get lots of dressing and fill the pocket up.
    

I guarantee you will want more than one pita's worth of this lunch so keep that in mind when deciding whether or not it is a good idea to share this with someone else. Its a good idea to pop the pita in the toaster or the microwave for a few seconds so its a bit more pliable and not breaking up and dripping your dressing all over your plate.

final step: enjoy this deliciously crunchy slurpy good and good for you (go yogurt people!) lunch.