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You think with my mega food prep post last month (I know, it’s been a crazy month) I would have covered beans. Small error on my part, sorry.

I’ve been using dried and frozen and freeze dried vegetables for years – there was a metals allergy in my family so I never was much for canned veggies. And maybe it’s my inability to plan meals correctly, but the “standard sized can” of veggies isn’t quite enough for two meals, and too much for one.

But some friends have mentioned giving up on canned foods for various reasons. Expense, BPA-lining concerns, sodium content, and storage. But making your own beans means a lot of containers in the freezer in what you hope is the right amount, a lot of beans until you use them all up, or having to plan that far ahead each night.

One friend I lamented my bean-planning woes to didn’t get it. She could get home, throw food in a pot on the stove, and forget it until dinner time. By the time we used to get home, dinner would need to be ready within 45 min – which meant planning in the morning or the night before (not always possible). So I started applying my Once a Mood Cooking to beans. Here’s what I’ve worked out for me:

1. Cook beans, seasoning to taste (or a little blandly to season when used). A lot of beans! Pintos, garbanzos, white, or mixes. Set up the crock pot, let it crock all day.

2. Make dinner with some of the beans, reserving the rest.

3. Take the rest of the beans and put them on a cooky sheet that has a raised lip or in a casserole dish, one layer, spaced a little apart.

4. Throw the dish the freezer for 15 or 20 minutes until the beans are mostly frozen.

5. Scrape the beans into a bag or container, put in the freezer; repeat step 3 until all beans are done.

6. Optionally, take the bean juice left and freeze it in ice cube trays. Mix in with the bagged frozen beans, or in a separate container for use as flavoring and liquid.

Now you can pour out your beans into a quick meal as needed – lunch for one or dinner for eight, just like the storebought veggies!

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