2013 Food Challenge: Black Beans

Beans????

Why beans??? Isn't that super-hard to make??? Can't I just open a can???

If you are reading this post, you are probably trying to figure out how to eat better, and how to cook. So then why settle for mediocre with a can, when you can achieve greatness from scratch?

Canned beans have no flavor, and are usually too hard and watery. They are old (no nutrients), and most contain the BPA that leaches from the can lining. More on BPA and cans in this post: http://www.freshfoodunderground.com/2010/03/just-say-no-to-cans.html

To get the most nutrients out of your beans, make them fresh, from scratch. Go to the supermarket, or natural food store, and look for the organic beans in bins (bulk) when possible. When you buy in bulk, the price for organic beans is minimally higher than that of regular beans. And when you choose organic, you choose beans that are free of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and radiation. Those 3 facts alone will make you not even blink about your couple extra dollars.

Why black beans? Because they are so practical. Once you have a pot of beans at hand, you can serve them with rice, or put them on top of a corn or wheat tortilla with melted cheese and /or chicken, meat, pork, fish... make burritos, tacos, eat them with fried eggs, with corn bread, with tomatoes, cabbage, any kind of greens, throw them on top of tortilla chips and make nachos, use them for soup... you can eat beans in a different way each day of the week. And if you finally are completely sick of them, you can toss them in the freezer, as they freeze beautifully. Finally, beans are a great source of iron- important for us women who tend to become anemic during pregnancy, or stressful times in life. I have found them to be an effective way to obtain iron without having to resort to pills, an excessive amount of meat, or bags and bags of spinach.

Think of beans just as brown rice with a little added soaking time, and you are set to cook them. This is a post that I made for a dear friend who wanted to learn how to make beans from scratch, and has since mastered the technique:  http://www.freshfoodunderground.com/2012/04/beans.html.

2013 Food Challenge: Brown Rice

Yes, forget about white rice. No sugar-coating here, let's jump straight into brown rice. After all, why waste your own hard-earned money, or worse yet, your friend's or parent's money, on a food that has no nutrients, fiber or essential oils? Why eat fluff, and then have to take yet another trip to the store just to buy those incredibly expensive essential oils, vitamin pills and fiber? Think about it for a minute... it's nutty isn't it? Why not get all of it from the food in the first place, and in the balanced dosage that only nature knows how to make.

Here are two articles that give us a good idea of how much brown rice has... http://www.organicauthority.com/mojo-foods/brown-rice-vs-white-rice.html

and does... http://diabetes.webmd.com/news/20100614/brown-rice-vs-white-rice-which-is-better

Brown rice was one of my very first posts when I started this blog. Here is a detailed description on how to make it: http://www.freshfoodunderground.com/2010/03/how-to-make-brown-rice.html

If you decide to use a rice cooker, here is some very important info to consider when acquiring one, used or new:
http://www.freshfoodunderground.com/2010/09/not-all-rice-cookers-are-created-equal.html

If you are still doubtful about the taste of brown rice, add butter and salt to it when you cook it. Or olive oil and salt... I do it, and I love it. I also use Basmati Brown Rice, because I love its scent. For those that are concerned about the ''heaviness'' of brown rice... let it soak for an hour or longer (up to 12 hours) before cooking it (do not discard the soaking water, as it has all the nutrients in it). Soaking softens the rice, and makes it more digestible.

Please let me know if you have any questions and/or suggestions!