Oh, Beans...

Canned beans are expensive. No, wait. Let me qualify that. The variety of canned beans I prefer to buy at Earth Fare (Eden Organic and Muirs Glen) are expensive because they contain less sodium and preservatives than other beans.

My answer to this quandry has been to buy dried beans and cook them as needed. This, however, requires a level of pre-planning of which I'm not always capable. Soaking beans overnight does not come naturally to me. So I was happy to read a blog post the other day that recommended making large batches of dried beans at one time and freezing them in 2-cup portions. 

This never would have occurred to me. I'm suspicious of the freezer. Recipes always talk about making double batches of muffins or whatever and freezing the second batch, but I never do. Seen too much freezer burn in my life. And I get nervous keeping any sort of food in my freezer for over a month. But I decided to give freezing beans a try. 

What you see here is Bean Central. We've got some black beans, kidney beans, and chickpeas working. Blair wandered into the kitchen while I had all these on the stove and was like, "Ooh, what are you cooki--Ah, I see. So... beans for dinner then?"

I'm quite proud of my beautiful stack of ziplocked bags of beans, neatly stacked on the top shelf of the freezer. I'll be prouder still if I remember to use them. Until then, this is Dena, reporting from Bean Central, signing out.