Black beans are a staple in our house.  Black beans are not only a great source of fiber and protein, but they also supply kids with much needed iron and folate! Children ages 4-8 should be getting 200mcg of folate per day, and 1 cup of black beans provides 256mcg!  Folate is a nutrient so essential, that it's been supplemented in our cereals and juices found in grocery stores.  But black beans is a natural source of this protective B Vitamin, so eat up!

So, how do we get beans into our diet?  Two simple ways:

First, we cook a lot of beans and store them in the freezer.

With hundreds of pounds of dry black beans in our food storage, there is never a reason to get canned beans.  They are cheaper to buy dry, we usually can get dried beans for $.68/lb.  Plus, they are so easy to prepare.  All we do is

• Dump about 4 cups of dried beans into the slow cooker.
• Cover with water, till the water reaches 2-3 inches above the beans.
• Turn on low and cook for about 5-6 hours. (if you need a video of me doing this, check it out on this old post)

Then, we portion the beans into freezer safe bags and freeze!

Tip: Freeze them flat on a cookie sheet, so they are stackable after they are frozen.

Last- Remove one bag and let sit on the counter until we are ready to use it.

On the counter, I take it out about 4 hours before I intend to use the beans.

We have a billion uses for black beans, but our favorite easy, healthy, and delicious dinner only takes about 5 minutes to put together, Black Beans and Rice! For this, we simply dump all ingredients into a rice cooker, and then set it to cook.  No chopping, one dish, simple dinner- Which is perfect for Wednesday nights like yesterday, because we all had to be at the church for activities pretty early.

So, we dumped:

• 1 bag of our black beans (which had 11/2 cup of beans)
• 1 1/2 cup of rice
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 can diced tomatoes

All into a rice cooker.  Then we turned it on the rice cooker and walked away!  We all love this meal!

Top it with a little cheese and avocado and serve with home baked corn chips!

You could also, pack the rice into your bowl or ramekin, then turn it upside down for a mound like this:

BONUS:

Guess what else we like to do with our beans?  Blend it up and use it to spread pizza!!