My children are prone to complain if they see the same meal too many times in a row. To keep them from getting food boredom, I often take leftovers and turn them into something new. I do pinto beans on a Monday night, doubling the beans and setting the extra aside. I serve cornbread for dinner on Tuesday or Wednesday, and the following day for lunch I serve the reheated beans spooned over the cornbread. For me and the kids, we’ll eat three slices of cornbread and a third to a half a pound of dry beans for a lunch.
Final cost- 73 cents a serving using organic beans or 67 cents a serving for conventional. If you can use cornmeal that isn’t gluten-free, it will be a cheaper meal.
Cornbread
$4.66 for the whole pan, 58 cents a serving (8 servings)
2 cups cornmeal (1.98 if you buy Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free from the HFS)
¼ cup tapioca starch, potato starch, cornstarch, arrowroot or wheat flour if not GF (13 cents for tapioca from the Asian market)
1 Tbs rapadura, optional (6 cents)
½ Tbs baking powder (4 cents for Bob’s Red Mill from the HFS)
1 tsp xanthan gum if not using wheat flour (16 cents for BRM from the HFS)
1 tsp salt (5 cents)
½ tsp baking soda (less than a penny)
2 eggs (50 cents @ $3/dz)
1 cup unsweetened rice or almond milk (54 cents for Blue Diamond Almond Breeze)
½ cup coconut oil or sesame/olive/coconut oil combo, melted ($1.20)
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease an 8×8 baking pan and set aside. In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, milk and oil. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just moistened. Pour into baking pan and smooth the top. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean.
Pinto Beans
A pound of pinto beans costs me 68 cents for conventional or $1.20 for organic. There are 8-10 servings in a pound of beans. Season your beans, including salt, after cooking them. Cooking beans with an acid such as tomatoes or using salt will keep them from becoming tender.
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To sprout and cook beans, soak the beans in cold water overnight. Drain thoroughly, then spread out in the colander and set on the counter to dry. Rinse the beans 3-4 times a day for two to three days and drain thoroughly each time. Discard if mold or a sour smell develops. They have sprouted when little tails develop. To cook, place in a stockpot and cover by one-inch of water and bring to a gentle simmer and cook until tender. Alternately, they can be cooked in your pressure cooker or your crock-pot.
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To soak and cook beans, cover with water on the keep warm setting on your crock-pot overnight. Drain and rinse throughly, then re-cover with water by at least one inch and cook on low or high until tender.
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KerryAnn Foster runs Cooking Traditional Foods, the longest running Traditional Foods Menu Mailer on the internet. KerryAnn has ten years of traditional foods experience and is a former Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader. Read about KerryAnn’s journey to health through celiac disease, food allergies, obesity, adrenal fatigue and heavy metals.
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For those who don’t have to be gluten-free, here is a cornbread recipe:
Put cast-iron skillet in oven while preheating to 450.
Mix 2 cups GMO-free cornmeal or masa harina, 1/2 cup sprouted wheat flour, 1 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp unrefined sea salt in large mixing bowl.
Put 1/4 cup bacon drippings into preheating cast-iron skillet to melt.
In 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup, measure 2 cups buttermilk. Beat in a free range egg. Stir into dry ingredients.
Remove skillet from oven. Pour about half the melted drippings into batter, stir, then pour batter into skillet and bake for about 20 minutes, until browned on top and pulling away from the sides of the skillet.