Showing posts with label Beans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beans. Show all posts

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Butter Beans

As part of the experimental menu plan that I made for this past week, we tried the Butter Beans for dinner tonight. WOW! I mean, seriously, since my family doesn't really like beans that much I was expecting myself to be the only one eating these. While my 3yo didn't prefer them, everyone else ate them up! And not only did they eat them, they *liked* the Butter Beans. My dd normally dislikes lima beans, but she liked these. Anyway, here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

One bag dried lima beans, $1 (less at Walmart)
1/2 stick margarine, $.25
salt, $.05
pepper, $.o5

Total Cost: $1.35 (and this makes quite a lot, we have leftovers)

Soak the beans overnight, or you can do the quick soak according to the directions on the bag. Simmer over medium heat for an hour or so. Add the margarine, salt, and pepper. Continue to cook over medium heat until the beans are soft.

This recipe seems to be fairly foolproof. I soaked them for about 20 hours instead of just overnight. Then, I cooked them for an hour, put the whole pot in the fridge, left it there for a day, took it back out, added the margarine, salt, and pepper, and cooked until the beans were done. The were so delicious! Now, don't ask me why I went through all of that, but it just had to do with my busy schedule.

My inspiration for making this dish came from the Hillbilly Housewife.

Head on over to Saturday Stirrings at It Coulda' Been Worse to get many more yummy recipes.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Tuscan White Bean Soup

1 lb. small white beans, $.65
3 Tbsp. olive oil (or whatever kind you have), $.50
2 onions chopped (I used one), $1
1 cup finely chopped carrots, $1
2 tsp. fresh chopped rosemary (I didn't have so I left this out)
3 cloves minced garlic (I used minced garlic from a jar because that's what I had on hand, you could also substitute garlic powder), $.50
10 cups chicken or vegetable broth (I used boullion and water), $.25
pepper and parmesan cheese for garnish, optional (we didn't use)

Total cost: $3.90

Wash and soak beans as directed on package.

In a large soup pot, heat oil and saute onions and carrots (and rosemary if using) until soft. Stir in garlic, beans, and broth and bring to a boil. Simmer uncovered until beans are tender (mine took a couple of hours).

Transfer 1/3 of the soup to a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Then return it with the rest of the soup and stir.

We ate this with homemade bread and it was wonderful.