Who knew that if you cooked one pound of dry black beans, you’d make enough beans to last a family of four for WEEKS?!
My package didn’t say that. When I made these beans during the first week of the pantry challenge, I firmly expected them to be eaten within a week.
Here we are three weeks later and I still have them in my fridge.
Hold me.
Logically, I figured that a 16oz bag of beans would end up making slightly more than a 15oz can of beans. Common sense, right?
Um, no. One 16oz bag of beans makes WAY MORE than one 15oz can of beans. Like, three, if not four times as much.
There should be a petition for manufacturers to provide this disclaimer on all packages of beans because this little tid bit of important information is apparently not that common. Or at least it didn’t make its way out to the West coast. Or the other three members of this family are leaving it up to me to finish the beans.
Frankly, I’m beaned out.
The next time a bag of black beans makes it into my grocery cart (IF a bag of black beans makes it into my cart), there will be a LONG list of recipes for me to choose from for those beans. Or I’m only making a half bag at a time. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll just never buy black beans again.
Which may make it hard to achieve the goal of “eat more beans” this year…
Have beans? Want beans? Need to rid your pantry of beans? Here are a few ideas to get your menu started.
Appetizer
- Pantry Challenge Version: substitute homemade salsa for picante sauce, use 2 cups prepared black beans instead of canned, canned corn instead of fresh, cheddar cheese instead of monterey jack
Main Meals
Bean and Cheese Burritos (or tacos)
- Pantry Challenge Version: in a leftover tortilla (or taco shell), layer prepared tex-mex black bean dip (above), guacamole (optional), homemade salsa (optional), cheddar cheese and fresh cilantro.
Beans and Rice
- Pantry Challenge Version: use plain cooked beans, or tex-mex black bean dip recipe above. Combine with any leftover rice available.
Dessert
Triple Chocolate Black Bean Brownies
- Pantry Challenge Version: increased black beans to 1 cup**, omitted walnuts and sea salt topping
**Note: The pictures above are the triple chocolate black bean brownies, minus the black beans. I was skeptical about Mr. Crumbs’ willingness to eat brownies with beans in them, so Evil Mrs. Crumbs devised a plan to send him to the store for ice cream and sneak the beans in by pureeing and adding them in before he got back. However, Good Mrs. Crumbs took over and was honest with her husband about the intended plan for the brownies. Mr. Crumbs respectfully requested that the brownies be made without the beans, so they were. If Evil Mrs. Crumbs was able to get away with her plan, she would have increased the beans to 1 cup instead of the 1/4 cup in the original recipe.
How do you eat black beans?
Thanks for clearing up the dry beans vs canned beans confusion for me. I’ve always gotten canned but wondered why everyone said dry beans were cheaper. The bag and the can cost about the same but of course if the bag makes 4x as much it’s definitely cheaper.
Have you tried a black bean soup? You can puree some beans, put it in some broth and veggies and you’ll have an easy and yummy way of finishing off your beans.
I haven’t tried black bean soup, but I stumbled across a recipe that sounded pretty good. I haven’t made this, but I wonder if black beans would be good in chili?
When I make black beans I cook the entire bag then freeze what I don’t use. This way I don’t feel like I have to eat them all in 1 week and they are ready for when I do need them. Just as easy as opening a can of beans but way cheaper.
I considered this, but our freezer is smaller than average so I was afraid to take up valuable real estate. I may consider doing this though next time, but still making only a portion of the bag instead of the whole thing!
I’ve made black bean cake before but those brownies look so much better! Gonna try that this week!
Black bean cake?! If it’s as tasty as this brownie recipe, I’m coming over for dessert!
Just wanted to add that I recently read that a bag of beans would make the equivalent of 10 cans of 15 oz beans. So yes would be cheaper and way more than our family would eat in a month’s time. So freezing them seems a good option. Will have to try this soon.
Wow! That makes so much sense as to how I ended up with so many beans! And that really puts the cost into perspective too. I’ve seen one can for $1, then one pound bag for $1 – but if the bag makes 10 cans, that’s only 10 cents per can. A much, much better option!
Okay Mrs. Evil Crumbs really should have one that battle…haha! I have made brownies, cakes, cupcakes and tons of baked goods with black beans and waited until they were gobbled up to confess my dirty little secret. And guess what…NO ONE cared. In fact they were astonished that beans were in them and that they were the cause of the super moist fluffy texture. And when I served a giant chocolate black bean cake for my nephew’s birthday everyone wanted the recipe and actually went out and bought beans just to make it! Trust me…black beans are sooooo good in chocolate baked items you will never use oil again (well unless you want fudgey brownies instead of cake-like brownies and then you can always do half beans and half oil). Oh and white beans go great in quick breads, waffles, pancakes, anything baked that doesn’t need to crisp/be crunchy. I also make bread with bean white bean puree…works great. So buy those beans and store them and use them in everything….muwahahaha…evil laugh!
If there was a way I could shield my husband’s eyes from all of your suggestions… you make me want to infuse everything with beans! White beans in quick breads sounds good, especially since we eat a recipe (or two) each week. Thank you so much for all the suggestion!