Monday: Recipe Day with Refried Black Beans

Vegan Goodness:

Today we ate:

Breakfast: Green smoothies for mom and LP, followed by some cereal to snack on while we waited for coffee cake to come out of the oven. LP and I shared one big piece of coffee cake later and we both enjoyed our special treat (or “teet” as LP calls it)
LP snacked on some more cereal at the park with dad while mom was at a doctor’s appointment.
Lunch: Sandwiches from Darwins (a special splurge) for mom and dad, while LP ate lots of bread and veggies from our sandwiches. After we got home LP also had some chickpea salad and crackers.
For snacks dad made a lovely little appetizer plate of crackers, tofu herb spread and cucumbers. LP also ate several bowls of applesauce.
Dinner: Biryani with green beans, potato, carrots and edamame, along with some bhatura (fried bread). Both were recipes I had wanted to try for a while, and both need a bit of tweaking, but made for a yummy dinner!

Money Matters:
Today we spent the following:

$2o.00 at Darwin’s for two sandwiches and a huge loaf of day-old bread Rosemary Garlic Bread for $4.00 (the same bread would normally cost about $14.00 at Whole Foods)
$69.56 at Trader Joe’s where stocked up on some basics (tofu, orange juice, bananas, etc.) but also on some convenience foods (frozen enchiladas). We spent more than we would normally on a trip, but we were really stocking up for two weeks since I am going to be induced for baby #2 on Wednesday morning.

Monday Munchies: Recipe of the Week

As I mentioned yesterday, the G-man makes some fantastic refried beans. While we often have a can of refried black beans on hand for quick lunches, we thought it would be good to make a large batch of our own and have it ready to go in the fridge for quick meals when baby is here. This is one of the foods we would like to totally stop buying in can form, so we will see how well our recipe stores. But, either way, it is an cheap, delicious and healthy way to enjoy refried beans with any taco or burrito night at home (one of our favorites in our dinner rotation!)

Refried Black Beans – with Beer!

Servings: 4
Time: 30mins
Difficulty: easy
Print

Ingredients:
3 cups of cooked black beans
1 bottle of beer
1 TB of olive oil
1 TB ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 cup yellow onion, minced

Directions:
1) Pour beans in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Pour in the beer and mash the beans a bit with a potato masher. You want some texture – your goal is to mash up about half the beans (or whatever consistency you prefer). Let this pot cook while you prepare the seasoning.

2) In a separate saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is warm, add the cumin and chili and cook for about 30 seconds.

3) Add the onion to the spices, stir to coat, and cook until tender (about 5 minutes)

4) Add the onion and spice mixture to the beans and stir to combine. Stir and mash the beans for a couple minutes, and then just let them sit and cook. A crust will form after another few minutes. Stir the crust into the beans, and then let them cook so another crust forms. Do this a few times – or as much time as you need to prep other parts of your meal. Then, serve ‘em up!