Homemade Refried Beans

Making homemade refried beans couldn't be easier, not to mention way better for you.  Did you know 1 can of bean has anywhere from 400mg to 530mg of sodium?  Maybe even more?  And did  you know, when you make your own beans, that the equivalent of 1 can has about 3mg of sodium?  Yes that's right, 3mg vs 530mg.  I guess that's why canned beans cost so much more.  Normally you can find a can of beans for about $1 at the grocery store, yet it will only cost you about 20 cents to make your own, and that's not buying your beans in bulk. This is why I Soak and Cook Dry Beans.

Buy some Pinto Beans (in bulk or in a prepackaged bag).  If I'm not going to freeze any, I will use 3 cups of dried beans.  If you are wanting to make more and freeze them, I would suggest at least 6 cups of dried beans.

1. Measure 3 cups of dried beans, check for any rocks, etc.  Rinse and put into pot.  Cover with a couple inches of water and let soak, overnight preferably.
2. After the beans have soaked over night, drain water, rinse and add enough fresh water to pot to cover by beans a few inches.
3.  Bring to a boil and cook on medium-low to medium (depending on your stove).  They will cook faster if you cover the pot, but watch out for it to boil over.  You may need a lower heat.
4.  Cook until beans are soft.
5. From here you can mash the beans with a potato masher, but I prefer to put them in my Food Processor in small batches and process with a small amount of liquid from the pot.
6. Once beans are the consistency you desire, add salt to taste and 2-3 tsp of cumin.
7. Stir and you're done!  These freeze well, so from here you can enjoy or freeze and enjoy later.

I like to pair mine with Homemade Salsa.  Also much better for you than that processed garbage.

Taking Lunch To Work Part 2

When you work it can be even more difficult to make yourself a healthy lunch.  You don't have your kitchen right there with you, you have to plan ahead and make/prep whatever it is going to be.  Sometimes there just isn't enough time before to work to plan what you're going to have for lunch, make it and take it with you.  So you think, I'll just make it the night before.  Yeah, because after a long busy day, after you've already made dinner, you really just want to make ANOTHER meal.  So what can you do?  How do you still eat fresh food at work?  With only a little planning, twice a week, maybe even once a week you can have a fresh salad every day!  Here's how:

For the first jar, I made a lemon dressing with the juice of half a lemon, 1 tsp Olive Oil, 1/2 Garlic Clove, a dash of salt and pepper.  Then 1/2 cup Garbanzo Beans, Red Bell Pepper, Red Onion, Fresh Basil and Spinach.

For the second jar, I made a lime dressing with the juice of half a lime, 1 tsp Olive Oil, 1/2 Garlic Clove, a dash of salt and pepper.  Then 1/2 cup Black Beans, a few Grape Tomatoes, Fresh Corn, Red Onion, Cilantro and Spinach.  

You can make these Sunday even and make enough to last you all week!  Or split it up and make some on Sunday and some on Wednesday.  You can add meat, pasta, any other veggies you want!  Get creative.  And enjoy a fresh lunch everyday :)

Taking Lunch To Work Part 1

My husband is in the military and right there on post within minutes from him are vending machines, little shopettes and fast food restaurants.  He's out the door by 5am and has PT almost everyday.  Some days there are 12 mile road marches and 8 mile runs.  I probably don't even know the half of it.  So, I've got to be creative in order to keep him well fed and send enough good, healthy food with him that he isn't tempted to spend money on junk.

Every day my husband takes 2 Bananas, Yogurt, a Protein bar (not shown here), 2 Hard Boiled Eggs, Veggies and Homemade Ranch Dip (minus the green onion because after sitting all night it's more like onion dip), some sort of goody (homemade cookies, vegetable chips, grapes, cantaloupe, etc) and then either a Tuna, Chicken or Deli Meat Sandwich or leftovers if we happen to have any.  It may not look like a lot of food but it really is!  It keeps him fed well and keeps our budget in line, especially when you consider a meal from a fast food restaurant will cost you $5-$10.

Southwestern Quinoa Salad

This was my delicious lunch today!  I found this recipe for Southwestern Quinoa Salad and adjusted it based on what I had on hand.  It turned out fantastic!  

Avocado Mango Salad

I have a lot of produce getting too ripe in my house this week!  So as I was looking around deciding what to have for lunch, I spotted my Avocados and Mango, perfectly ripe...  Mmm Avocado Mango Salad!  Perfect.

Ingredients:

• 1 Avocado, cubbed
• 1 Mango, cubbed
• Red Onion (to taste)
• Juice of 1 Lime
• Sprinkle with Balsamic Vinegar (1-2 tsp)
• Pepper to taste, optional

Salad is my Go To for lunch

There's nothing quite like a fresh salad for lunch.  It's something you can make ahead of time and take to work with you or out to the park for a picnic lunch.  I love salads (even though my husband says they look like I shook a tree on them).  It's a great way to get your greens, eat only Whole Foods and they are so good.  You can pretty  much put anything on a salad.

Yesterday I had Red Leaf Lettuce, Black Beans, Fresh Corn, Tomatoes, Green Onion, Red Onion, Cilantro and Balsamic Vinegar.  (Please stay away from salad dressing.  If you make your salad right, you don't need it)

Today I made my salad with Red Leaf Lettuce, Chicken, Red and Green Onions, Cilantro and Lime Juice.

You can tell what I have in the kitchen based off what is on my salad.  And salads are packed full of good stuff for you but have a low calorie count.  You just can't go wrong.  And because they are so versatile, it doesn't get to have a salad every day!

Quinoa Kale Salad with Tuna, Red Onion and Red Peppers

This was a bit of an experiment.  I thought it was good, my husband said it tasted too "vegetable-y" (He's a carnivore to the bone). 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Kale
• 1/2 cup Quinoa (I used Red)
• 1 cup Water
• 1 can Tuna (or fresh tuna, or chicken or even a bean would be good)
• Red Onion
• Red Bell Pepper

Dressing:

• 1 TB Olive Oil
• Juice of 1 Lemon
• Salt/Pepper to taste
• 1/2 - 1 tsp Dijon Mustard

Directions:

• Steam Kale until soft
• Fry dry Quinoa until it starts to "pop", rinse, put back in pot, add 1 Cup Water and cook until done

Spinach Salad with Fresh Corn, Eggs and Sunflower Seeds

Spinach Salad with Fresh Corn, Eggs and Sunflower Seeds

Ingredients:

• Spinach
• Hard Boiled Egg
• 1/2 Corn on the cob (cut off)
• Red Bell Pepper
• 1 - 2 TB Sunflower Seeds (raw)
• Balsamic Vinegar (use as dressing)

Garbanzo Bean Salad

For lunch today we had salads.  Mine is in front, his is in back.  He had tuna and honey mustard dressing, I had Garbanzo Beans and a sprinkle of homemade Italian Dressing. 

My Calories: About 150

His Calories: About 260 

Homemade Refried Beans

The process for making homemade refried beans is similar to the process of making black beans, just with the added step of "refrying" them.

First, soak your beans over night with enough water for them to expand.

Rinse and put in crock pot (you can cook these on the stove in a regular pot too).  Add enough water to cover by 2-3 inches.  Cook on High 4 hours, or Low 8 hours.

Drain, reserving some of the water.  Move beans to pot, add in some of the bean water and desired seasonings (I used salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin,  paprika and minced garlic cloves).  Cook, stirring often, until beans reduce.  Add more bean water (or milk for creamier beans) if needed.  Once reduced and getting mushy, you can mash them with a potato masher or use a blender.  I added more of the bean water to make them creamier (It's like of like adding milk to mashed potatoes).

From here, you can enjoy and/or freeze.  :)

Quinoa, Mango and Black Bean Salad

Last night I threw the last 2 chicken breasts into the crock pot, intending one for my husband to take to work and the other for me to have for lunch.  However, I forgot to leave a note letting my husband know that was the plan and he took both.  Well shoot, there goes my plan for lunch.

I had a little bit of Mango left that I knew needed to be used.  What is a great lunch dish with Mango...  Ah ha, Mango Quinoa Salad.  Perfect, I jump online and Swag Searched for some ideas (I didn't win any Swagbucks, but I've already won 21 today so that's ok).  I came across this recipe.  Quinoa, Mango and Black Bean Salad.  Perfect!  I made a few small adjustments based on what I had on hand and halved it because it's just for me.  Here's what I did.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup Red Quinoa
• 1/2 cup Water
• 1/8 cup Fresh Orange Juice
• 1 TB White Wine Vinegar
• 1 tsp Olive Oil
• 1-2 tsp Fresh Grated Ginger
• Pinch of Salt
• Pinch of Cayenne Pepper
• 1/4 - 1/3 cup Mango Cubes
• 1/2 Red Bell Pepper
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup Black Beans

I followed the directions from the original recipe.  Wow, SO amazing!  This is a great dish to make ahead of time and take to work with you too.  This was a little over 300 calories and oh so good!

Day 1, Meal 1 & 2

I have never liked breakfast.  I used to actually not eat breakfast.  I don't really like breakfast foods, sure pancakes and waffles are great but it's just bread so it fills you up with sugar and carbs.  Eggs, honestly I could do without.  Though they are very good for you.  Bacon, I do love me some bacon.  But it is oh, so bad for you.  Cereals never worked because I don't like any kind of milk and hot cereals are boring.  I could go on, I just don't like breakfast.  So this is going to be the hardest meal for me.  It is indeed, the most important meal of the day, especially when trying to lose weight.  It is important to eat within 2 hours of getting up to get your metabolism going.  If you go too long without eating, your body will start hoarding what it gets as it goes into semi-starvation mode.  And that is not what you want when you are trying to lose weight.  So lately I have either been eating fruit, drink juice, eating Belvita crackers or Zone bars.  But now that I'm on my whole foods diet, I am going to try my best to have an actual breakfast everyday.  So, bear with me while I get the hang of this "breakfast" thing.

I will be eating 3-5 small meals a day, so I am not going to call them Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner but simply what number meal it is for me that day.  Eating 5 smaller meals a day is better for you and better for losing weight.

Day 1, Meal 1

Ok, it's not very pretty but it tasted good :)

• Onions
• Mushrooms
• Spinach
• Garlic
• 2 Eggs
• Balsamic Vinegar

That was 178 Calories.

Then as my second meal I had

• Banana
• Apple
• 1/4 cup Organic Raisins

That was 289 calories.  I always forget how many calories fruit has :)

Total Calories so far: 467

Spinach Black Bean Salad

 So for lunch today, I made a Spinach Black Bean Salad.  Just look at this beautiful thing...

Ingredients:

• Spinach
• 1/4 cup Black Beans (soaked and cooked myself)
• 1/2 ear Fresh Corn
• 1/2 Roma Tomoato
• 1 Green Onion
• 1 TB Balsamic Vinegar

Calories?  A meager 115.  Cost?  Around $0.50, maybe less.  Now, wouldn't you rather have this salad over this:

See full story on this 14 year old hamburger here

 (Image Credit: Courtesy: David Whipple)