recipes to make cheap, easy, delicious prepacked meals-beans

I am posting recipes for some bean seasoning mixes that I have found and adjusted. They make enough for an average person. They are meant to be quick and easy to prepare, usually by only adding boiling water and stirring, bringing them to a boil, cutting back the heat, and allowing them to simmer slowly--for however long it takes. These little meals can be cooked in a pint-sized canning jar in the oven, in a solar cooker, or over another source of heat. They should be handy for emergency situations, camping, etc.

(If you are interested in this sort of thing, I also have different rice recipes that are stored and prepared the same way. I have been posting recipes for making your own instant oatmeals, and mashed potatoes here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1061038/ )

You'll see that the recipes call for powdered milk, powdered buttermilk, powdered butter, powdered eggs, and powdered cheese. Although most of us don't have those things in our pantry, I think it's worth the investment. It's also worth investing in the herbs and extracts mentioned. (These recipes should allow you to store food in a cool place, even if it can't be refrigerated.)

You can either make up these jars of spice mixes and add them to dried beans and water when you decide to cook them or (better yet) prepare and store them as instant meals to which you only need to add boiling water.

The point of doing this is to have delicious foods that you can look forward to eating if disaster strikes. Don't underestimate the difference this can make, emotionally, for you and your family! It's not going to be pleasant, if you have to eat emergency food you have stored, to find yourself stuck with bland cornmeal mush, plain oatmeal, and tons of dried beans--especially if you're not used to preparing or eating such foods!


‘Four Star Refried Beans’ spice mix

¼ C salt
¼ C chili powder
1½ t cumin

(use 1 t. per ½ C dried beans and 1½-3 C water)


‘Savory Beans’ spice mix

1 chicken bouillon cube
1 T dry, minced onion
3/8-1/2 t salt
¼ t cumin powder
1/8 t chipotle powder
1/8 t black pepper
1/16 t garlic powder

(use 4½ t per ½ C dried beans and 1½-3 C water)


In order to store them as 'instant' meals:
Sort and 'wash' and dry your beans first. (After they're dry, if you want to run them through a food processor or blender to break them up a bit, they'll cook faster.) Then add the dried beans and spices together in small jars or baggies, label them with contents, date and directions, and store them in a cool place.

I would suggest you try each recipe, before packaging a whole bunch, in case you want to tweak the recipe a bit to suit your tastes.

I'll add more recipes as I test them.

This message was edited Jan 3, 2010 1:16 AM

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This message was edited Feb 24, 2010 2:03 AM