As I’ve said before, it’s
important for gluten-sensitive people like me to be sure to get as much dietary
fiber into their diets as possible.
Fiber promotes the removal of waste from the body and does other good
things in the digestive tract to keep your body working properly. I used to eat whole wheat bread, pasta, cereal
and many other wheat-based foods that are normally considered to be part of a “good”
diet…and I felt lousy all the time. The
breads, pastas, and cereals that I now eat are mainly corn or rice-based which
don’t really supply enough fiber. The
trade-off for me is that I feel much better than I did two years ago, but I
have to make a special effort to get fiber into my diet to keep me healthy. During my gluten-free years, I’ve made a
profound discovery…beans are nature’s perfect food!
I’m not talking about just
green beans here. I’m talking about lima
beans, kidney beans, navy beans, pinto beans, and black beans just to name a
few. They are packed with fiber and
protein and, because the protein in beans is plant-based, you don’t get the
artery clogging fat that you get when you eat most meats.
At the grocery store, you can
buy beans in a can or you can buy dried beans by the bag. Or…you can do what I do…I buy dried beans and
then can them myself. Dried beans are
much cheaper than canned beans. If you
take the time to can them in a pressure canner, you’ll have canned beans that
taste just like what you’d buy in the grocery store.
This past Monday, Charming
and I went to Costco to shop for some things that we like to buy in bulk. I ambled down the aisles with Charming in
tow. (If I don’t keep him focused on
shopping, he’ll stop and graze at every “sample tasting station” in the store. When he likes something that they’re serving,
he’ll give me “the nod” to pick up a sample as well. Since these foods are usually gluten-laden
items like chicken fajitas, spicy buffalo breaded chicken tenders, pot stickers
or chocolate chip cookies; I gladly hand the tasty morsel over to him and wipe
my hands off afterwards.) Anyhow, when
we walked down the aisle where they keep the beans and rice, I noticed they had
10-pound bags of dried pinto beans for $7.79!
For me that’s akin to winning the lottery or finding a bag of yarn at
the thrift shop! Yay!
When I got home, I put half
of the beans into my biggest mixing bowl and covered them with water. After letting them sit overnight, I put them
on the stove in my biggest cooking pot and boiled them for half an hour. While they were still hot I put them into
clean jars, added one teaspoon of salt for quart jars and ½ teaspoon of salt
for the one lone pint jar that I had. After
loading up the pressure canner, whose water had been heating up on the stove, with
the jars and bringing the canner up to ten pounds of pressure, I let it do its
thing for 1 ½ hours. When the timer went
off, I simply turned off the heat and pushed the canner to the back of the
stove to cool. In this particular
instance, I canned half of the batch in the morning and the other half in the
evening. This allowed the canner to cool
down completely before I processed the second batch. Safety is extremely important when working
with a pressure canner.
From that half bag (five
pounds) of beans, I got nine quarts and one pint of canned beans. So when I want pinto beans I just grab a jar,
heat them up on the stove or in the microwave, season them and eat them. I also use them cold on salads and I often mash them, season them, sprinkle with cheese, heat them and eat them as a dip with gluten-free taco chips. They're extremely versatile.
I will can the rest when we
have another rainy or snowy day and I have nothing else pressing to do. Assuming I get eighteen quarts of beans from the
10-pound bag of dried beans, the cost per quart is roughly forty-three cents
per quart! You may be able to get a
15-ounce can of beans in the grocery store if they’re one sale, but the going
rate is closer to seventy-five cents per can.
A quart is enough for Charming and me for lunch, with seconds! Where in America
I know, I know…you’re
thinking that it’s been three months since I stopped working and I’m sounding
like I’m becoming emotionally unstable over dried beans, but it’s not only the cost
savings. It’s the great feeling I get
from knowing that I’m capable of doing things that support a happy family
unit. Providing good healthy food at a
low cost is part of that. The sewing and
knitting and spinning and canning and gardening and herb drying and all the
other things I’ve been doing are all part of helping to support a healthy
family unit. A side benefit of the last
three months (not working) is that I’ve noticed an overall sense of well-being
and happiness. I am so thankful that I’m
getting this opportunity to not have to work for someone else. Although I seem to work constantly at home,
whether it’s cleaning the house or working on my art projects, I am happier and
healthier than I’ve ever been and I thank God and Charming for this wonderful
opportunity.
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| Filling the hot, sterilized jars with the beans. Allow 1" head space. |
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| Six jars of hot beans in the already heated water of the pressure canner. Quarts need 1.5 hours at 10 pounds pressure, Pints need 1.25 hours at 10 pounds pressure. |
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| And you end up with...Magic Beans! |
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