Beans, Beans ... They're Good for Your Heart

We (aka You Know Who) like beans. I put them in soups and stir fry and all manner of household tasties. Well, tasties if beans are your thing. There was a time when my mom tried to make me eat some beans from a can and I was too little to say anything other than "BUG!" and she kept trying to force it and then she looked and there was a big, brown beetle in there. That pretty much ruined the bean experience for me, though I would stand at the stove and pick the choice bits of ham out of the pot as I got older. Anyway! Alpha Man enjoys a tasty pot of beans and they're very healthy and inexpensive.

I usually keep a variety of canned ones on hand but haven't seen a coupon for them since I've started couponing again. I did, however, have 3 bags of dried ones in the pantry and beans freeze well so I soaked them and cooked them with no seasoning in order to try out something that I have deemed to be wildly successful. Yes! WILDLY! Successful.

I took the pot of cooked beans and set my muffin tins out on the counter. Then I measured out 1/2 cup portions of just beans into the muffin cups.

My friend asked me "Why half cup portions?" and I went on a 30 minute dissertation on portion sizes and being able to measure them out for recipes (I wanted to make m'self look like I'm clever, you know!) but really, it's because the muffin tins only hold half a cup :-P

After that was complete, I took the bean juice and poured it in to the top. This was so they would all stick together when frozen.

Then I stuck them in the freezer till the next day, when I ran a large rectangular pan full of hot water and set the tin in it for a few seconds and let the cubes come loose, lifted them out and put them back in the freezer for 13 minutes to refreeze the sides.

Toss them in a bag and you have a dozen 1/2 cup portions to add to any recipes. 3 pounds of beans made way more than a dozen, though, I worked on this for 2-3 days before they were all put up.

They're already cooked and just need seasoning. It takes about 2 minutes to thaw 2 of them in the microwave but some recipes I don't even thaw, I just toss them into whatever pot they're going in.
By the way, from a budget standpoint, this is waaaaayy less expensive than beans from a can it just takes more work plus you have the added benefit of knowing what's in your food.

And it's NOT a big, brown beetle.