Terre Pruitt's Blog

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Posts Tagged ‘beans’

Not All Beans Are Created Equal

Posted by terrepruitt on March 6, 2014

You might know from my various posts that I don’t really like beans.  Beans, the legume, the protein-fiber-rich nutrient.  Not my favorite thing.  I like green beans.  And I am ok with garbanzo beans.  I will eat kidney beans but only in two things, the two bean salad (click here for recipe) or my Sausage, Beans, and Rice adaptation (click here for recipe).  But otherwise I don’t eat beans.  You may also know that I bought some dried garbanzo beans in bulk once.  Since I didn’t know what to do with them I turned to the internet for some education.  Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaThe internet said there were two ways to get the beans ready for a recipe: one was a “quick soak” idea, it requires cooking and doesn’t seem quick to me at all.  The other was a soak-over-night way.  I tried them both.  I didn’t really feel there was a different outcome to the two methods, but obviously the methods themselves were different.  I preferred the overnight soak because it doesn’t require any real time that I have to be in the kitchen.  Rinse the beans, fill the bowl with water, let them soak, changing the water a few times as they soak.  Since I haven’t taught a Nia class in the area of San Jose where I bought the last dried beans, I decided to buy some organic dried garbanzo beans online.  To get them ready for cooking I opted for the let-it-set method.  I didn’t time the soak because I had done it before and I know that overnight is good enough.  I know I let them set from one morning, until the next afternoon.  Then I rinsed them and put them on the pan to roast.  Apparently not all beans can just be soaked for about 30 hours.  Apparently some HAVE to be cooked — as in boiled.  These beans did not come out well just soaking.  I didn’t know that until I was already roasting them.

I had a huge bowl soaking so when I did the roasting I had only used about half.  So I figured that if I let the remaining beans soak longer they would be fine.  So I left them soaking until the next day.  Throughout this soaking period I had drained the water and refilled.  I even took them all out of the bowl, rinsed them, then put them back in the bowl with fresh water.  So — again, I figured they had soaked enough they would be fine.  Again, part way through cooking when I had a taste they were NOT good.  I hadn’t tasted before I added all of my other ingredients so dinner was almost going to be REALLY gross.  But I just added water and let them cook and dinner was salvaged.

But now I know.  Apparently these beans HAVE to be cooked in order for them to be edible.  When not cooked they are really HARD and they taste like a green seed.  No good.  Not the creamy mush you expect from a garbanzo bean.  Also . . . these beans, while they have not popped as the other ones I soaked did, they are letting off a very large and stinky amount of gas!  Whew!  Again my kitchen smells of bean gas.  They are gassy beans!  I have yet to cook the rest.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaSo . . . here I am again, just sharing things I learn.  Maybe I can save someone’s dinner if they are like me and think that all dried beans can just be soaked without the cooking.  I was fortunate in that what I was cooking was ok with me just adding water and letting it all cook a bit longer than I had planned.  But somethings you can’t do that to.  So if you are like me and you like the soaking method, try it on a small batch first to see if that will be sufficient.

Please understand I am not saying there is anything wrong with these beans or the brand.  I am just saying that I learned not all garbanzo beans can JUST be soaked.  Apparently some need to be cooked too!

Do you have a recipe that you use garbanzo beans in?  Care to share?

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Stretch The Meat

Posted by terrepruitt on June 15, 2013

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaI know that this would not work for every family.  This is another recipe using one piece of meat with beans as the source of protein.  I know that people have their own ideas about what makes up a dinner.  Some people have to have meat.  And not just a little meat, but a full serving or more otherwise to them, it is just not dinner.  I understand that people are different.  If that is you or someone in your family then this will not work for you.  But as long as I don’t do it three nights in a row, my husband is ok with it.  What I often do is cook three pieces of meat.  The first night we each have a piece of meat.  Then the next night I stretch the remaining piece into a meal for two.  Sometimes . . . . depends on what I am cooking in turns into a meal for four.  I have mentioned this before in some of my other post so I like to share “recipe” ideas.  Even though it is really easy to throw something together, sometimes it is nice to have someone else do the thinking for you.  With everything else that has to be done, if you can just look at something and have it all figured out — YAY!

So this recipe is pretty much like the one in Dinner Desperation.  See?  It works when you are “desperate”.

Mushrooms, Kale, Beans, Chicken, and Rice

—2 tablespoon olive oil
—1/2 of an onion, chopped
—1 lb mushrooms, chopped or sliced
—2 cups cooked rice (out of the fridge, so leftover)
—2 tablespoons of butter
—one LARGE chicken breast, cooked and chopped
—1 15 1/2-ounce can garbanzo beans/chickpeas, drained and rinsed
—2 teaspoons granulated garlic
—1 bunch of kale, chopped
—salt
—Garlic Salt, to taste
—Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Heat the olive oil and the chopped onion.  Add the mushrooms.  Cook until almost done.  (Done to YOUR tastes)  Add a little salt.  (Just a little because you need to “save” your salt “layer” for the kale.)  Add the rice breaking it up and letting it get soft.  Stirring it and allowing it to cook.  Use the butter to help the rice get moist (might need to use a bit of liquid too).  When the rice is soft, add the chopped chicken.  Let it cook for a little bit.  Then add the can of garbanzo beans.  Sprinkle half of the garlic over mixture.  Then add the kale.  Sprinkle the rest of the garlic over the kale.  And salt.  Then stir and cook.  Then add more salt and garlic if you want, and pepper.

With this mixture the mushrooms need to cook.  Some people don’t like their mushrooms really cooked, I do.  So I let them cook pretty much all the way as if I were going to just eat them.  When in the other recipe I don’t cook the asparagus THAT much because I like it less cooked.  So I add the rice sooner.  But in THIS recipe I wait until the mushrooms are done.   Also remember, if you are using freshly cooked rice then it won’t take as long to cook/heat up.  Also the chicken I used had been seasoned when cooked so that is something to keep in mind when you are flavoring your dish.

Kale is really a great green, however, I think it is really bitter.  So I use the salt to tame the bitter.  That is why I “save” the salting of the dish for after the kale is added.  Typically I would salt the mushrooms, but with kale, I wait for the kale.  So the salt goes directly on the kale.

Of course, this is just how I do it.  This is an explanation of the order I like it in.  You might come up with your own.  Oh, maybe you like your kale to be REALLY cooked, so you might want to add it with or after the mushrooms?  I like mine just wilted so it goes last.

So what do you think?  Mushrooms and kale, anyone?

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

A New Recipe To Love – Red Beans and Rice

Posted by terrepruitt on January 15, 2013

For two weeks we didn’t have a working stove or oven.  The oven started beeping one night.  We turned off the circuit breaker and it stopped beeping.  I used it the following night.  But then the day following that it started beeping again.  It beeped and displayed a code.  The code indicated a part was broken.  My husband concluded via internet research and taking the control panel off the appliance that he could order it and replace it himself.  Part of the reason it took two weeks to get fixed was that there was a holiday and a weekend in there.  The part being shipped was delayed because of the Holiday.  By the time we got the part and he was able to put it in, it was the weekend.  The part didn’t clear the error.  Then there were issues in securing a repairman. For those of you that know how much I love my roasted vegetables you might understand having no oven was really difficult for me.  Roasted veggies are not only yummy, but so easy to make.  A few minutes prep then in the oven until they are done leaving you time to do other things.  That is why I love my oven.  During the two weeks we ate take out.  We ordered Chinese Food, which for us equates to a few nights of Chinese Food.  I also used my toaster oven, my electric skillet, my crock pot, and my Cuisinart Grill.  So it was not as if I had no way to cook, it just put a cramp in my cooking a bit.  On the nights I have a Nia class I like to put our dinner in the oven and have it turn on about the time that class is over.  Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaBy the time I get home whatever is cooking is either done or on its way to being done.  Without that I had to come home and start cooking.  But alas I have a stove and oven again.  YAY!  I missed them.  While I was not being able to use my stove and oven I tortured myself by looking at a cooking magazine.  As soon as my stove was fixed I decided to try a new recipe.

The recipe is from Bobby Deen.  I got it out of the Food Network Magazine.   The name of the recipe is Monday-Night Red Beans and Rice and is on the Food Network website.

Not your typical Red Beans and Rice recipe. I made some adjustments, of course!  I am posting it here as I did made it.  I am calling it something different too!

Sausage, Beans, and Rice

Ingredients:

—Three turns of the pan Olive oil
—3/4 medium onion, finely chopped
—8 turkey sausage patties
—1 large green bell pepper, finely chopped
—2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
—1 15 1/2-ounce can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
—1 15 1/2-ounce can garbanzo beans/chickpeas, drained and rinsed
—1/2 cup chicken broth
—1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
—1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
—1 bay leaf
—Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
—Salt, to taste
—Cooked brown rice
—Chopped scallions, for serving

Directions

Cook the onion in the olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add the sausage, chopping it up and separating it as it cooks.  Stirring it and moving it around as necessary.  Cook until almost cooked through.  Add the garlic.  Mix the garlic into the onions and meat.  Cook for about 1 minute.  Add the beans, chicken broth, cumin, thyme, bay leaf, green pepper, salt to taste, and pepper to taste.  Stir the ingredients until it is all mixed well.  Reduce heat and cover.  Let cook about 10 minutes.

Serve the mixture over rice.  Top with the scallions.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaThis was so good.  I used my beloved 14 inch pan that I missed for two whole weeks.  Once the beans were added my stirring was gentle as I didn’t want to end up with smashed beans, but I also wanted to make sure the spices were distributed and the bay leaf touched a lot of the ingredients.  So I stirred a lot, but not vigorously.

My typical spices consist of garlic and onions.  I didn’t even have cumin.  I had to buy it with the sausage and onion.  Yeah, I was out of onion.  I have a stock of kidney beans and garbanzo bean.  I have them both for the bean salad I like.  Plus I love to roast the garbanzos.

I actually DID put pepper in this while I was cooking it.  For those of you that know me (either in person or through my blog) you know I don’t like pepper/spicy hot, but the pepper my friend gave me (SMOKED PEPPER) I can handle a little bit of.  So I put a little in the pan while I was cooking.  When I served it to my husband I put a lot of pepper on his.  While he was eating it he kept saying he was surprised I could eat it.  He thought it was too hot for me.  I had him taste mine . . . . which had NO extra pepper and he said the flavor was a little different.  So maybe the pepper brings out a different flavor.

Either way, we both loved it and I can see this becoming one of those meals I cook often.  I can see experiments with different sausages and no meat at all.

I can also see me cooking more with cumin.

Do you like red kidney beans?  Do you like garbanzo beans?  Doesn’t this sound tasty?

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Roasted Chickpeas – A Great and Easy Snack

Posted by terrepruitt on September 13, 2011

I saw a recipe for roasted chickpeas and I thought it would be good. I can’t remember where I saw it, but I know that I wanted to do it. Then I was reminded of them when I saw it mentioned on ONMYWAYTOHEALTH. She has a link to another blog with the recipe with step by step pictures. All the recipes I have seen are basically the same.

A can of chickpeas
between 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
garlic powder*

While the oven is preheating to 450F, drain the can of chickpeas, also know as garbanzo beans.

Rinse the beans off. I heard the better you rinse beans the less they might cause heartburn and/or gas. So rinse them well.

Then most recipes say to dry the beans off, the instructions suggest using paper towel.

In a bowl mix the beans, oil, salt, and garlic. Then spread the beans on a baking sheet and cook for about 40 minutes. Most recipes say to watch them so they don’t burn.

dance exercise, Nia teacher, Nia classes, Nia San Jose, San Jose Nia, Los Gatos Nia, Nia in the San Francisco Bay Area, Terre Pruitt

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Well, ok, so are you ready for my version or at least what happened when I did it? TWO cans of chickpeas. I used two 12 ounce cans because one can is not that many. I didn’t dry them off very well, which might explain the way they cooked, but first, I think that drying them off is to help them roast and I figured they would get dry in the oven. So I drained and rinsed and sort of dried. I put them on the pan then sprayed olive oil on them. I don’t think it is really necessary to use a bowl, but that is personal preference. I used garlic salt, garlic powder, and season salt.

*I have seen so many recipes for them so basically use what you want. Use what spices you like. You can make them hot and spicy, or just really flavorful. You can add herbs. You can make them sweet. They can be flavored with whatever you’d like so go hog wild. I am going to try all different types of spices.

I would advise you to check on them while they are cooking because mine popped. Some of them popped off the pan onto the bottom of the oven. A couple landed near the element and I don’t know if it would have started a fire, but it sure start to stink. It was not a nice smell so I opened up the oven door to see what was going on and one popped off the pan. I was kind of afraid they were going to continue to do that. I didn’t see anything about that in any recipe.

Also . . . now this is where the drying might really be key, I don’t know because my oven does not cook evenly, but some of them cooked perfect and some did not. All the recipes I saw warned against burning so I was a little paranoid so when I saw the ones on the edge getting really crispy I figured they were all done since it had been 40 minutes.  Well, the crispy ones are really good. My husband kept saying, “CornNuts!” And I kept saying, “Yeah, good comparison. Awesome. I love CornNuts.” He would say, “CornNuts.” And then I would say, “I know, right? Cool.” He finally said he is not really a CornNuts fan. Ha, ha. I am. So the crunchy ones are really, really good and they do taste somewhat like CornNuts. But the ones that aren’t crunchy are kind of odd. They are kind of like a stale cracker or something. Not quiet soft, but not crunchy. I obviously need to work on the cooking of them. I had them in as long as the recipe said to cook them, but that was not enough for some of them. Increase the time because of two cans? I might just have to scoop off the ones on the edge.

I really love CornNuts, but they have ingredients in them that I am avoiding so I don’t buy them. This is a great alternative. And just like CornNuts they can be made with any flavor. I can’t wait to make more. So what should I do next? What about you? What will you do? Try it, they are a great snack. Beans are good for you!

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments »

Bean Salad

Posted by terrepruitt on July 24, 2010

On the way home from a little Nia class / meeting in Danville I starting craving a salad.  All the way home to San Jose (its about an hour) I kept thinking of what ingredients I would need.  I didn’t have the recipe with me, but since it is so easy I remembered the few things I needed to get.  Recently I went to a little party where the hostess had made a bean salad.  It had two things in it I REALLY don’t like, one thing I don’t like, one thing I love in teeny tiny pieces, and one thing I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE (not including the spices).  So on my quest to learn how to like bean and get some legumes in my diet I decided to make my friend’s TWO bean salad recipe.

1 can kidney beans
1 can garbanzo beans
1 large red pepper – chopped (big or small, you decide)
½ large sweet onion – cut small square sizes
¼ to ½ bunch cilantro – cut ½ inch size
½ to 1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon fine ground black pepper
1 ½ teaspoon of balsamic vinegar
3 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil

Drain the beans, mix everything together.  Like most salads it is better when the flavors have mixed so wait an hour or so, then eat.  Yum!

I adjusted the recipe to have MORE bell pepper (can you tell which ingredient I love, love, love?), I used a little more salt because I bought these really low sodium beans.  I mean compared to the other two brands I looked at these had about one third of the sodium.  I like that idea, but I also know that if it doesn’t have a good enough flavor for me I won’t eat it, so I actually put in 1 teaspoon plus two sprinkles.  I didn’t have granulated garlic so I used garlic powder and I probably put in more than 2 teaspoons.  I cannot tolerate pepper, but I loved her salad and she said she put in a lot of pepper so I sprinkled pepper in.  I also used 2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar.

I am sure this is an easy thing for people to make, but I have NEVER, EVER, EVER liked a bean salad before so this recipe just thrilled me.  Ya see, I REALLY don’t like cilantro either, but I think the kidney beans and the cilantro work to “cancel” each other out.  Ha!  I don’t know, but I like this salad.   I hope you do too.

Since I am on a quest to learn to eat (and like) beans, do you have a recipe that you would like to share to help me out?

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Beans

Posted by terrepruitt on July 22, 2010

Beans are so good for you.  I don’t like beans.  Well, I like green beans.  I like hummus.  I can sometimes tolerate garbanzo beans in a green salad, but if there are too many, I push them off to the side.  I don’t like legumes.

According to all the information I have seen in my fact finding mission for this post:  beans help lower “bad cholesterol” by helping it out of the body.  Beans have an excellent amount of fiber (really excellent amount fiber).  Beans have a lot of protein.  The ratio of fat to proteis is awesome.  These are some of the reasons I think I need to learn like beans.

Let’s look at two examples the kidney bean and the garbanzo bean (also known as chickpeas)

Kidney beans – 1 cup has

Calories: 225
Protein: 15.3g
Carbohydrate: 40.4g
Total Fat: 0.88g
Fiber: 11.3g
Iron: 5.2 mg
Magnesium: 80 my
Folate:  229 mcg*

Garbanzo beans (canned), 1 cup has

Calories: 286
Protein: 11.8g
Carbohydrate: 54.3g
Total Fat: 2.7g
Fiber: 10.5g
Folate: 160 mcg
Vitamin B6: 1.13 mg
Vitamin C: 9 mg
Zinc: 2.54 mg*

My next post (Saturday) I will share a Bean Salad recipe.  Come back and check it out!

*Source:  Truthstar Health website

Some additional info at: WHFoods Kidney  and  WHFoods Garbanzo

 

Posted in Food | Tagged: , , , , , | 8 Comments »

Fiber Intake

Posted by terrepruitt on July 21, 2009

Do you know how much fiber is ideal?  Do you know how much fiber the average American eats?

First of all let me tell you a little “un-detailed” story.  I visited a friend on the outskirts of San Jose one day and she had a snack sitting on her counter.  She asked me to try it and she said if I liked it I could have it because she didn’t really like them and they “didn’t agree” with her partner.  Well, I liked them, and so she let me have them.  When I got home, I had to laugh.   I was looking at the Nutrition information on the package and one serving works out to be almost  as much fiber as the average American gets per day. So it dawned on me that maybe it “didn’t agree” with her partner because of that.

Ideally we should be eating about 35 to 50 grams of fiber a day.  The average American eats less than 1/3 of that—yes, about 10 grams a day.

Now, as a refresher, fiber is the plant material that is not digested by humans.  Our digestive enzymes just can’t cut it.  It can be found in whole grain, fruit, vegetables, nuts, and beans.

So, I’ll leave you with this suggestion, try to add a little bit more fiber in your daily intake.  Do not add a lot of fiber all at once.  But do try a little bit a day.  What could you add to your diet today that would add fiber to it?

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