Next up on our list is Legumes! Legumes can be very intimidating to a lot of people so this is a great one to help people realize they aren’t so bad. Here are some ideas to help people use, and understand legumes a little better:

12 Bean Soup

Purchase a 1 lb bag of 12 bean soup mix from the grocery store. Tie a ribbon around it and include the Day 7 Tags. If you want to be really ambitious you can include this 12 Bean Soup Recipe on a cute recipe card too. It’s delicious!

Sprouting Kit

Ever tried sprouting? Well if you know someone who wants to get into the real good stuff, give them this sprouting kit. Sprouting is a great way to use some of your food storage, and it’s super healthy and nutritious! Add your Day 7 Tags and it’s the perfect food storage gift.

Pressure Cooker

Here’s another one of those – if you’re feeling REALLY generous gifts. This pressure cooker is a DREAM come true for cooking dry beans. No pre-soaking, waiting hours, and worrying about your beans turning out ever again! Don’t forget your Day 7 Tags.

Back to the 12 Days List

What are split peas?
Split peas are the dried peeled and split seeds of Pisum sativum. Even though the peas are round when harvested and dried, they are mechanically split after they are peeled. This helps decrease the cooking time.

What are the varieties of split peas?
There are two varities of split peas, yellow and green. Yellow split peas have a milder flavor and are good to use in dishes where you want to hide the richer, green pea flavor.

What is the shelf life of split peas?
If stored in the regular plastic bags that most legumes come from the grocery store in, the shelf life is only about 1 year. But if properly stored in an airtight sealed container with oxygen absorbers, the shelf-life can extend to ten years or more.

How do you cook split peas?
Split peas do not need to be pre-soaked like other dry legumes. You simply throw them into the soup or stew you are making and they will cook in a reasonable amount of time. The 12 bean soup Jodi posted earlier this week is a great one to throw some split peas into! Split peas may also be ground into pea flour to use as the basis for some pea soup recipes.

12 Bean Soup Recipe:

Ingredients:
2 c. 12-bean soup mix*
1 ham bone (optional)
4 T. bulls eye BBQ sauce
1 chopped onion
1 T. sugar
1 small clove garlic
3 stalks celery, diced (can use dehydrated)
¼ tsp. lemon pepper
2 carrots, diced (can use dehydrated)
2 T. ketchup
28 oz. can whole tomatoes
¼ tsp. salt and ginger
1 pinch red pepper flakes

*You can buy this as a mix or make your own with a variety of the legumes in your food storage

Directions:
Wash 2 cups of bean mix. Soak in a large pot overnight. Drain. Add 8 cups water, ham bone, 1 tsp. salt, and ¼ tsp. ginger. Bring to a boil and cook until beans are tender (about 1 hour). Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Simmer 2 ½ to 3 hours. Stir and add water as needed. For more zest, double all spices.

For other food storage recipes check out:

Our Food Storage Recipes Page
Our sister site EverydayFoodStorage.NET
I Can’t Believe It’s Food Storage book
Country Beans book

Common Types of Sprouts:

• Grains
  • Wheat
  • Rice
  • Oats
  • Corn
  • Barley
• Legumes
  • Peas
  • Lentils
  • Soy Beans, Garbanzo, Mung beans
  • Dried Beans (black, pinto, navy, kidney)
• Nuts + Seeds
  • Almonds
  • Sunflower Seeds, Sesame seeds, Alfalfa
  • Vegetable Seeds esp. pumpkin

Health Benefits of Sprouts:

• Sprouting a seed enhances its already high nutritional value (i.e. Oats when sprouted contain 600% more vitamin C)
• Sprouts are high in antioxidants that prevent DNA destruction and protect from the effects of aging
• Sprouts contain concentrated amounts of phytochemicals which help protect against diseases
• Alfalfa sprouts contain saponins which:
  • Lower bad cholesterol and fat but keep the good hdl fats
  • Stimulate immune system
  • Help prevent cardiovascular disease
• Sprouts are a nutritious, low-fat filler for meats or addition to soups, etc.

How to Grow Sprouts:

1. Prepare the seeds
   • Remove broken and discolored seeds
   • Wash seeds
   • Soak overnight (if necessary)
   • Drain
2. Place seeds in sprouting container and rinse thoroughly.
3. Drain off all excess water.
4. Place in a warm area where temperature will remain even.
5. Rinse 2-3 times per day.
6. Once they reach the desired length, place near sunlight until leaves become green.

For a full tutorial with pictures on how Jodi experimented with growing Lentil sprouts visit her post on How to Grow Sprouts.

Sprouting Resources:

The Complete Sprouting Cookbook – This book is from the 70’s but it has everything you could want to know and more. Jodi’s mom had it hidden in a cupboard and we just raved over it when we found it.
Sprouts: The Miracle Food – More recent book on sprouting.
Sprout Master Sprouter – The kit that Julie uses to grow her sprouts.

Have you had successes or failures with sprouting? Share your experiences in the comments below!

Although this information maybe seem a little “boring” we found it on the USU Extension and thought it would be a good reference to share for any of you who may also be a little “afraid” of beans.

Soaking Beans:

1. Quick Soak Method: hot soaking helps dissolve some of the gas-causing substances. Cover beans with twice as much water as beans, bring to a boil, boil 2 minutes, remove from heat and allow to soak at least 1 hour or up to 4 hours. Discard soaking liquid.
2. Traditional Overnight Soak: Cover with twice as much water as beans and soak 8-18 hours in cool place, discard soaking water.
3. Do not salt soaking liquid. It will toughen the bean.
4. It is not necessary to soak split peas and lentils.

Cooking Legumes:

1. Beans will double to triple in size during soaking and cooking. In other words, 1 cup dry beans will produce 2-3 cups of cooked beans.
2. The slower the beans are cooked the easier they are to digest. Slow cooker cooking on low for 6-10 hours is perfect.
3. If adding water to cooking beans is necessary, bring water to a boil before adding. Adding cold water to boiling beans will toughen beans and slow down cooking process.

Softening Old Beans:

The older the bean the tougher it is and less digestible. Following are a few tips to soften old beans.
1. Cook and freeze. The freezing moisture in the bean helps to rupture the cell wall and create a more palatable product.
2. Pressure cook. Follow manufacturer’s directions for using pressure cooker. Increase cooking time as needed to produce a desired texture.
3. Pressure-can beans. This method makes a readily usable product as well as softens beans. Follow USDA canning instructions below for pressuring.

Increasing Consumption of Beans:

You should eat beans about 2-3 times a week. (2½ to 3 cups per week)
1. Plan menus.
2. Puree cooked beans and add to baked goods (bread, cake, cookies, etc.). Substitute pureed beans for shortening or margarine, straight across. (equal amounts)
3. Prepare convenience foods such as home canned dry beans or cook and freeze for later use.
4. Add whole mashed beans to meatloaves, soups, stews, casseroles (in small amounts to begin with, then increase as desired, and as allowed by family taste preference.)

We decided it would be good to revise each BabyStep as part of our Summer Crash Course. So jump in and get started … it’s not too late! This week we are covering BabyStep 6: Legumes (click here to view the full step)

• Updated the key points with additional information on other ways to use legumes
• Updated the online resources section
• Added this “Canned Bean to Dry Bean Conversion Chart” under Charts/Diagrams

Beans … The Magical Fruit
How to Grow Lentil Sprouts
Food Storage Made Easy Legume Recipes

Stay tuned for a more advanced post on this topic coming later this week

p.s. If you have any questions relating to legumes that you’d like us to address in the future, please leave them in the comments below.

Well tonight I hosted a little dinner party at my house and decided I would sneakily use tons of food storage in my dinner and dessert.  I definitely recommend it, it was fun having a little secret… hehe.

Anyways,  I made a great tortilla casserole recipe, (added black beans) and even made the tortillas from scratch using all fresh ground whole wheat! I even replaced the cream of chicken soup with BEAN FLOUR cream of chicken, my favorite!

For dessert I made my EMERGENCY, I don’t feel like baking, icing or dirtying a pan dessert with POWDERED MILK!  Everytime I have to bring a dessert to a dinner and don’t have the time or energy to pick up fresh ingredients,  I make a quick and easy pudding pie.  I always have at least one tub of cool whip in my freezer for this special dessert.

Ingredients

Powdered Milk
Water
Box of Chocolate Pudding
Graham cracker crust
Cool Whip

Prepare pudding according to package directions for pie. Pour into graham cracker crust, chill for an hour or so. Top with Cool Whip. Optional, add strawberries, crushed skor bar or any crushed cookie.

I love this dessert because it is SO easy to bring places. The graham cracker crust container has a lid with it (you don’t have to remember to get your pan when you are going home). You don’t have to dirty dishes except the pudding bowl, but you can lick that. It’s a dessert that uses POWDERED milk and no one knows it. You don’t have to turn your oven on in the hot summer, its great!

So what side dish is a necessity with chili? Cornbread of course! I have always purchased boxes of Jiffy cornbread mixes in the past. But when I got my WonderMill Grain Mill I decided to take a crack at grinding up some popcorn to make fresh ground cornmeal for homemade cornbread. Oh boy, I will NEVER go back to boxed cornbread again. Now that I have you salivating over my family dinner tonight … I have to go ahead and share the recipes with you

Marilyn’s Real Chili Bean Recipe:

Ingredients:

Directions: Soak beans overnight. Drain and cover with fresh water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours. Drain and add to crock-pot. Sauté the chopped onion and garlic in oil until limp. Stir in all seasonings. Add tomatoes and sauce and simmer for 20 minutes. Brown beef in small fry pan. Drain and add to crock-pot. Add chili sauce and 5 cups of hot water to crock-pot. Simmer in crock-pot at least 7 hours.

Better Than Jiffy Cornbread Recipe:

Grind: ½ cup of popcorn kernels to make ¾ cup cornmeal
Combine: ¾ c. cornmeal, 1 ¼ c. flour (I used whole wheat), ¼ c. sugar, 2 tsp. baking powder, ½ tsp. salt
Add: 1 c. milk, ¼ c. veg. oil, 1 large egg, beaten; stir until dry ingredients are moist
Bake: At 400 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean

The book is Country Beans by Rita Bingham. Julie’s most favorite way to use beans is by using white bean flour to make condensed soups. They taste so good that even JODI can’t tell the difference and has starting making it this way as well. If you’re not a believer yet, read about some of the amazing health benefits of beans taken straight from Rita’s book:

Low Calorie Food:
When added to boiling water, bean flours thicken in only 1 minute. By replacing bean flour in cream and soup recipes you lower the calories dramatically because you take out the butter.

Great Protein:
Beans are an excellent source of protein, forming a complete protein when combined with rice, corn, and many other foods. Getting protein this way can help you avoid some of the fatty meat proteins.

High in Fiber:
One cup of beans provide the same amount of fiber as 3 standard doses of Metamucil. Not only do they give you the fiber, they are much more pleasant to eat and can be prepared with endless variety of tastes.

Low in Fat:
Nearly all beans contain only 2-3% fat! You can even add oils to some recipes without going above even the 10% fat level recommended by Doctors.

Lower Cholesterol:
Did you know that beans can help lower your cholesterol level? Not only do they contain NO cholesterol, “they actually help the body get rid of what are considered bad cholesterol.

THESE ARE ONLY JUST A FEW. The book has way more facts, information on how to cook, and tons and tons of recipes. If you are afraid of beans, want to use your beans more, or want a new diet food, you must buy it.

Here’s a little video on making the bean condensed soup. AND if you’re still not a believer…A can of this kind is like 60 calories compared to 210 from a can…

Cream of Chicken Condensed Soup Recipe:

• Grind: 4 T of any white bean (lima, navy, etc.) to make 5 T bean flour
• Combine: 5 T bean flour, 1 ¾ c. water , 4 t chicken bouillon into a saucepan
• Cook: On stovetop at medium temperature until thick and delicious (whisk frequently).The soup should cook in 3 minutes! (this may be longer if your grinder makes a very coarse flour).

Use this with cooked veggies and or meat for a complete meal.  You can also add this to recipes calling for cream of chicken soup cans (I have found this replaces a can plus the water or milk in recipes).

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb lean ground beef
1/2 c. crushed Ritz crackers
3/4 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1 oz. pkg. dry onion soup mix
1/2 qt. of lentil sprouts, pureed
2 eggs, beaten (or 2 T. powdered eggs 1/4 C. Water)
1/4 c. ketchup
2 T. Worcestershire sauce

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the ground beef, crushed Ritz, cheddar cheese, and onion soup mix in a large bowl and mix until well combined. Puree the lentil sprouts (I put them in my food processor with the eggs to try to get them extra smooth). Whisk the pureed sprouts, eggs, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce in a separate bowl until smooth. Add to the meat mixture and mix until evenly combined. Put in a 9×9 pan, cover with foil, and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. When top/edges look nice and crispy check the middle to make sure it’s cooked all the way.

My husband couldn’t even taste a difference in this recipe. He was surprised and impressed with it. My kids ate it just fine and I can guarantee you they would not eat plain sprouts. I really enjoyed it and I didn’t like the plain sprouts either (as I mentioned in my confession at the bottom of the sprouting post) So overall I’d have to say this recipe was a SUCCESS!

A few weeks ago, I was talking to my mom (affectionately known as GrandmaLori around here) about sprouting as I can remember doing alfalfa sprouts with her when I was little. She just happened to have an old sprouting container that she inherited from her grandmother that she doesn’t ever use and she let me “borrow” it for my adventures.

This sprouting container is pretty neat but the holes are too big to do tiny seeds like alfalfa, so I decided to start with lentils which I have on hand from my long term food storage legumes supply.

Day 1

First I rinsed the lentils and picked out any gross looking pieces, discolored ones, or things that did NOT look like lentils (see picture). Then I soaked the lentils overnight as that is what my sprouting book recommended. There are a few types of items you would NOT need to soak so just make sure you follow the directions for whatever you are sprouting.

Day 2

In the morning, I poured my soaked lentils into the sprouting container and rinsed them off again. I set them on the counter beside my stove as it seemed to be one of the warmer spots in my kitchen but out of direct sunlight. I also set a paper towel over the container because it seemed weird to just leave them sitting out with no covering. That evening I rinsed the lentils again. Each time I rinsed I made sure to really let all the excess water drain out before setting it back in the little tray.

Day 3

When I took the paper towel off on day three I had a pleasant surprise. SPROUTS!!! I was so excited. All I did on day 3 was rinse and repeat the instructions from day 2.

Days 4-7

Each day from 4-7 I rinsed the lentils at morning and at night and took a photo of the progress if I remembered to. It’s really so easy, just takes about 30 seconds each time and they just grow on their own!

Day 8

After rinsing on the morning of day 8, I lifted off the paper towel and let the sprouts sit in the sunlight all day. They turned a very nice green and grew even longer!

Day 9

I think I let my sprouts get a little bit too long but I was really busy the last few days of my experiment and didn’t pay very close attention to them. So on the final day I pulled them all out of the sprouting container and put them into a large canning jar and stuck them in the fridge.

And now for my confession. I tasted the lentil sprouts and they tasted like fresh peas. I don’t really like fresh peas all that much so I’m afraid I don’t really want to eat these just plain. I’ll have to try making a yummy salad and sprinkling a few on top. Or I might try them in a meatloaf to use as filler. I have to say my first experiment was a success in that they GREW, but kind of a failure in that I didn’t really grow something that my family will use on a regular basis. Back to the drawing board

Since Julie didn’t “inherit” a sprouter she recently bought this Sprout Master Sprouter at Kitchen Kneads. She hasn’t tried it out yet but it looks like it would work about the same as mine.

• I want to cook more with DRY beans and quit being so afraid of the soaking concept
• I want to plan dinners ahead of time to use more of my long term foods
• I want to find a way to help people who hate excel do an effective 3 month food supply plan even though the current excel file ROCKS! But I know, I know you don’t all love excel

Well good news – I’m doing alright. You’ll have to wait on the 3 month supply surprise just a little longer though. I have also been doing a lot better at planning dinners ahead of time. I used some of Crystal’s TOP SECRET tips for that.

And now for the beans. I have been into this humus kick for a little while now and buying it at the grocery store. I realized it was kind of full of preservative’ish junk and it was getting pricey. So I decided this would be my first guinea pig for using DRY beans. Turns out all my fears and anxiety were unnecessary. It was easy and DELICIOUS.

I got this recipe from the Safely Gathered In Blog. For full instructions, go to their blog. They have a lot of good pictures and instructions!

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Recipe (Humus Recipe)

2 cups soaked chickpeas or 1 can beans, drained
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 Tbsp Tahini (sesame seed oil)
2 cloves garlic or garlic powder
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 jar of roasted red peppers, drained

Mince the garlic, put in food processor. Add the garbanzo beans, puree. Add the oil and juice, puree again. Drain and add roasted red peppers, add curry, blend.

If the beans are soft, then you’ll only have to process for a minute. When using soaked, but not cooked beans, process for five minutes or until smooth. Use as a spread or a dip.

MY FINDINGS:

I used olive oil instead of Tahini and liked it just fine. I also didn’t do the red peppers and curry powder, but I’m boring like that. Lemon Juice, Olive oil and Garlic are delicious enough all together for me.

You might want to try cooking the whole bag of beans, THEN splitting the beans into 4 or 5 ziploc baggies and freezing them for a quick treat on another day. 1 bag of beans got me 5 servings for around $2.50. Buying it pre-made from the store would have cost me over $20!

To make it an even yummier treat, I put hummus on reduced fat triscuit crackers and a piece of turkey pepperoni on top. I mean who doesn’t like pizza snacks! I am in love with making food storage healthy and cheap!