Today was a bean day at our house. On a friend's blog she tells how to make your own "canned" beans. I must admit it really is quite a bit of savings. I bought two pounds of Kidney beans and 4 pounds of Pinto beans at the grocery store for less than $1.00/lb. Out of that I ended up with 12 quarts of canned beans ready to use in any recipe at a moments notice. Normally I would buy cans of beans at the store for about $.70 each but with this I spent about $4.00 and ended up with 12 quarts. I think it was definitely worth it. Sometimes when I make up a big batch of beans I freeze them but I always ended up forgetting to set them out to thaw for dinner. This way all I have to do is pop open a jar and make a meal with it.
Here is how you do it if you are interested...
Soak a big ole pot of beans overnight. I did a huge bowl and a stock pot. Drain and rinse the beans the next morning. Fill your quart jars 3/4 full, add a teaspoon of salt and fill with water. Put your lids and rings on and pressure can according to your canner directions at 10lbs for 60 minutes. Voile...canned beans.
My pictures above are backwards...the first one is the finished product and the bottom one is some of the jars awaiting their turn in the pressure canner.
Next I am going to make homemade refried beans. If you have any tips on that, feel free to leave a comment.
1 comment:
Some day when I get a pressure canner I'll need to try this. Refried beans? If you want "healthy" then heat some canola oil (enough to fill bottom of frying pan) till very hot, pour drained beans in and fry for a couple of minutes. Make sure you don't burn them, turn down heat if necessary. Then add your broth from the jar. You may need to add more water if it's too dry. Mash them with potato masher. I like to add a clove of mashed garlic to my refried beans. For an authentic and more unhealthy option use lard. They'll taste like restaurant beans. Yum! :)
~Melanie V
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