Homemaking on the Homestead

  Beans are a great way to stretch the grocery budget. Black beans have been a favorite in my family for many years. In this post I'm sharing a few black bean recipes from The Family Homestead (my previous website). You can add meat to any of these recipes or serve them meatless. ***************************** Black Bean Burritos 6 cups cooked black beans 2 cups salsa 1 cup shredded carrots 8 oz. cream cheese 6 to 8 whole wheat tortillas 6 cups cheese This recipe makes a large 11x15 casserole. If this is too much for your family I would recommend that you make 2 of them in a 9x9 casserole dish and freeze one, unbaked. In the morning I get my black beans cooking. It takes approx. 3 cups dry beans to have 6 cups cooked beans (you may have a few left over that can be frozen and added to soup in the future). I cook my 3 cups beans in about 12 cups water and 1 T. salt for 2 ½ to 3 hours. After these have cooked you can then assemble your meal or refrigerate them and do it ...

For over 35 years beans have been a staple in my home. I have found them to be a wonderful frugal resource to stretch the grocery budget and in years past feed my large family good quality, nutritious meals at the same time. Beans are a very high quality, nutritious, budget friendly food for your family. They are a good source of soluble fiber, the kind that helps lower cholesterol. Beans in general, are good sources of folate, potassium, iron, manganese, copper and zinc. They are also low in fat. Beans are not a complete protein by themselves and need to be coupled with brown rice, whole wheat, cornmeal (as in cornbread or tortillas or tortillas chips, etc), cheese, or meat to get the most benefit from them. One of the main drawbacks that people complain about is that beans cause gas. If you are not use to beans in your diet, your body has more trouble digesting them. So the good news is that the more you eat beans, the easier it will be for your body to digest ...

Things are getting a little scary out there with articles on possible food shortages.  Having some healthy delicious meals you can make with beans and minimal amounts of meat is very frugal and helps stretch resources. This was how I fed my large family for many years.  I'll be sharing some of these meals over the next few blog posts.  Black Bean Chicken Chili was a big hit with my family.  This meal can easily be made meatless as well or with less meat then the recipe calls for.  This recipe makes a lot of chili. It freezes very well if it is more than you need. The recipe can also be cut in half.  I've posted step by step pictures on how to make this meal below the recipe.  ************** Black Bean Chicken Chili 3 cups dry black beans 12 cups water 1 T salt 1 large onion, chopped 1 ½ lbs boneless chicken (can be thighs or breast), cut into bite size pieces 1 T minced garlic Olive oil 1 cup frozen corn 1 can Rot...

  A couple months ago I closed down my original web site, The Family Homestead. It was a financial decision and the traffic to the site was small. However, since closing it down I've had requests for recipes as well as having many people tell me that they miss the old site. Since I have a copy of the site on my computer I have access to all the recipes and articles.  I have decided that periodically I will post some of those recipes and articles. I'm going to start by doing it on request. So if you have been looking for something on the old site, please let me know so I can repost it here.   I will be calling this series, The Family Homestead Archives..  Crystal :) ************************* Grocery Budget Helps: What to Do With 25 Pounds of Beans? Crystal Miller I love being frugal and keeping close tabs on my grocery budget and eating beans is one way I keep things in check. I was inspired to write about how ...

I'm still mentally adjusting to feeding just the two of us. I look at the groceries in the cart and think, is this it? :) But slowly I'm figuring it all out and learning to cook and shop for two people. Quite a change from years of feeding a lot of kids and big teenage appetites. Our First stop this week was Winco. I stocked up on our weekly supply of fruits and veggies as well as a few other items... The strawberries were looking good so I picked up a pound of those as well as our weekly supply of apples, oranges and bananas. Onions, tomatoes, cucumber, mushrooms, cabbage and zucchini also were needed. I decided to stay away from romaine lettuce again this week. We're probably past the e. coli scare but decided to play it safe. I bought a bag of mixed butter lettuce and red lettuce and the sweet kale salad looked appealing. I've bought it before, from Costco, only in a much bigger bag. The small bag was perfect for us. I had pl...