Day 13: Another Make-Ahead Convenience Food

As I stated in an earlier post about conveniencing ourselves, as busy moms (or busy women in general), we can’t be in the kitchen all day long. I love to cook, but I have other things to do! We need to look for ways to simplify our lives while not sacrificing cost and health.

Another idea I wanted to share with you this morning, before I’m off for the day taking care of an emergency of the crumbling plaster wall variety (posts and photos to follow at a later date), is to make dried beans ahead of time.

Why?

Because dried beans are healthy for you, but most of us don’t think so far in advance that we have our beans soaked and cooked before dinner.

Beans take a long time.

Canned beans are easier of course, but more expensive and not as healthy (Depending on how they were canned).

One way to prepare dried beans ahead of time is to put them into the crock pot, cover them with water by about 2 inches, and let them cook for about 2 hours on high or all day on low (depending on the settings in your crock pot/slow cooker, of course).

I usually make extra dried beans, then freeze them in smaller quantities in freezer baggies for later use. This also saves me lots of time with bean recipes.

Happy cooking,