Dried Beans..

I have been a bean “snob” forever!  If you’re not already soaking and cooking your own beans, this should be a 2014 resolution. Yes, opening a can, pouring out its contents, and rinsing them in cold water is monkey-could-do-it easy, but so is soaking beans overnight (you know, that thing you can do while you simultaneously sleep) and then simmering them in a pot of warm, salty water for a while. Here is why you should go the extra less-than-a-mile:

Cost: Dried beans are way cheaper, even when you compare apples to oranges. 

Health: You control what goes into your own cooked beans. Have you ever looked at the sodium levels on canned beans? Ouch! Ever read the ingredients on a bag of dried beans? They are: Beans.

Flavor:  The flavor and texture of home-cooked beans is light years beyond anything that has been sitting in a tin for who knows how long!  Also, you can get a variety of textures from dried beans, whereas with canned beans, what you get is what you get! 

Variety:  It’s pretty difficult to find a can of Christmas lima beans at the grocery store, isn’t it?  The beauty of buying dried beans is the enormous selection you’ll find!

Until Monday - Keep thinking veggies and protein!