How to Freeze Beans and avoid BPA

Canned products are usually lined with BPA-a product known to cause cancer, birth defects, miscarriages, obesity, and insulin resistance, which can lead to Type II diabetes. I have decided to quit buying anything that comes in a can. This means no more canned beans.

Instead, I have fun with dried beans. I set aside a few hours in a day and call it my “Bean-Fest”. I put on Salsa music, grab a spicy apron and get to work.

Every burner and large pot that I have on hand is utilized, cooking legumes of every shape and size.

I follow the basic instructions in my cookbook on how to cook beans, but I cut out the salt and cut down the cooking time by 33%. Meaning, if it tells me to cook the beans for 1 1/2 hours-I only cook them for an hour, or just until they can be forcefully squished with a fork. You want the beans to be a little tough.

After draining the beans, I divide them in half, leaving half in the pot and the other half in the lid, allowing them to cool down. I also stir the beans from time to time to release the captured heat.

You could transfer them to another dish to cool faster, but since I don’t want to wash another dish-I opt for the above method.

Once the beans are cool, I measure out 2 or 3 cup increments into ziplock bags, depending upon how I use the beans and toss them in the freezer.

I measure 3 cups for my garbanzos in order to be ready to make my Hummus Among Us Recipe.

I measure out 2 cups for my red and black beans for salads or to accompany rice meals.

In order to use the beans, I allow them to thaw in the refrigerator for a good day before they are needed.

Voila! Ready-at-the-helm beans without an infestation of BPA. Kind of a win-win for very little work.

Linking up here, along with other parties:



Between Naps on the Front Porch

You Matter. Your Vote Matters. America Matters.

I am more than proud to be an American. I believe this is the greatest country to grow up in, to raise my children in and to believe in. Of course, it’s run by humans that are at times deeply flawed and selfish.

But, America is still amazing. And with July 4th right around the corner, I get a bit patriotic.

That’s not to say that my heart doesn’t long for my ancestral home from time to time.

My maiden name was “Matlach” (pronounced mat-lock) and then I married a “Greiman” (pronounced gry-man). My great-grandparents took a boat over to escape the impending WW1. There is still a Greimann farm (yep, the original spelling had two “n’s”) in Germany. I was born in Landstuhl, Germany and resided there for three years. My roomie and I treated ourselves to a European vacation upon graduation. Heck, I even speak German. We love beer, Wienerschnitzel and Lederhosen.

Could we get any more Kraut than that?

With our profound love for Germany, Biceps and I took a month long vacation to see as much of Europe as we could. As beautiful as many of the places were that we visited, I couldn’t shake the feeling that humanity had seen evil and had turned its head.

Hitler had come from nothing and became the German savior. He promised economic stability, had given hope to a people poor and disillusioned and had promised to rid the earth of the “Jewish problem”.

Under his regime millions of Jews, disabled and mentally unstable persons, Catholics, Soviets, Polish and more were murdered. The German people had given up and trusted Adolf implicitly.

This monument in Berlin was to remind the world of the grottos the Jews and the other “undesirables” were forced to live in for years. The monument was suffocating, confining and repetitive.

I remembered hearing about Check Point Charlie and all of those that died trying to cross through these gates, deliver Bibles, or just try to get information to their loved ones on the other side.

I remembered watching the Berlin wall being destroyed by fed up Germans in 1989 and I remembered hearing Reagan’s infamous words “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”.

As beautiful as Germany is, as wonderful as my German heritage is, I am still thankful to be an American. We aren’t perfect, but we demand democracy. If we will only do our part and let our tiny little voices that live in Tulsa, Ok or Dayton, Oh or Murfreesboro, Tn or anywhere else be heard-we will continue on with our democratic system.

As soon as we decide our vote doesn’t matter, we have given up our rights and have been seduced to think we don’t matter–that the government will do what it wants.

America is wonderful-screwed up, messed up, and sometimes downright awful-but it’s ours. Don’t give it away to anyone else. Don’t turn your head and expect someone else to do something about it. Because you may not like what it is they do in your name.

You matter.

Dear Readers-I need your input

Dearest Readers:

I am a little hesitant to ask this question. But I need to know the reality of the situation. Biceps and I are wanting to “owe no man anything”; thus the frugal lifestyle, the re-invention of home products, the biking to and fro, and the hope of making extra income on the side.

We want to be debt free and we live below our means. However, the pay cut we took for Biceps to become a firefighter is making the goal of owing no man anything difficult.

So, I have a question that I’m almost scared to ask you–because then it requires me to take a leap of faith.

I know I have posted these recipes on my site and shown you how to make all of these things. But, I also know many of you don’t have the time or energy to make this on your own-however, you still like the idea of organic products without unnecessary chemicals and additives.

So, if I offered to sell things like my Homemade Organic Lip Balm…

…my Homemade Laundry Detergent…

…my Organic Face Wash…

…my Organic Facial Moisturizer…

…and my Organic Eye Make-up Remover…

…is there a market out there for them? If I came up with much cuter packaging and the right price points to be competitive with what’s on the market today, do you think this is something worth pursuing?

My heart’s on my sleeve here, readers. But, please-tell me what you think.

It’s Monday. Let’s have a laugh.

I work from home as a writer, so days of the week don’t really mean much to me anymore. But I do fondly remember the days of high heels, cubicles, four cups of coffee and an incessantly ringing phone. So, for those of you out there who might dread Mondays, here’s a reprieve.

I wanted to share a few photos that will make you laugh-or hopefully at least smile.

Oxymoron.

Bigfoot.

Yep. Wal-mart never lets me down.

And finally, “Why?”.