Beat the Carb Craving: Beans for Lunch

I get hungry for lunch.  In fact, I start getting hungry at about 10 AM, although I try to hold out until 11:30 or noon to eat lunch.  I also get hungry again in the afternoon before dinner.  I decided I should try to eat more protein, since it really helps me not to be hungry so fast after a meal.  I've tried various protein drinks, and I always find it's not very satisfying to drink my lunch.  I don't like sweet things as much as I like savory things, so the sweet protein drinks weren't very appealing, either.  I love beans, and beans are a good source of protein, so I decided to try to eat more beans for lunch. 

Many people report that beans make them gassy, but people who eat beans fairly regularly aren't affected as their digestive system's flora and fauna have adapted to break down the types of fiber in the beans.  This has truly been the case for me- I wouldn't feel good enjoying beans if I was going to be offending people.

It's true that beans don't offer a full set of amino acids to make up a complete protein.  By combining your beans with a bit of grain (corn, wheat, rice) or nuts, you'll get the full set of amino acids.  Beans have a low glycemic index score, most scoring 20-40 (under 55 is considered low), so they won't trigger a spike and then rapid drop in blood sugar after you eat them.  They're high in fiber, so they're good for digestive and cardiovascular health, as well.

Additional advantages:

• An excellent environmental choice- a very efficient use of land to grow
• Flexible- can be eaten hot, cold in salads, in soups, and with many different flavors
• Can freeze well
• Inexpensive

Some folks think that cooking beans is difficult, or that you have to stand by a pot for hours.  I have a reliable crockpot method I often use that is super easy.  Here is my method, along with a few recipes to get you started.

1. Buy dried beans.  There are often additional choices in the ethnic section of the grocery store, or go to a Mexican or Indian grocery store for great choices.  I love all kinds- black, red, pinto, navy, chickpeas, great northern, etc.  I like to keep a variety on hand- they can easily keep for months.
2. Rinse the beans and look for little stones.  I always wondered why this step was always listed in the standard directions until I found a little stone just the other day.  You don't want to break a tooth.
3. Soak the beans for about 6-8 hours in your slow cooker (power off), then dump the soaking water, cover the beans with fresh water by at least 2 inches and turn the slow cooker on to high for about 3 hours.  Start testing the beans after 3 hours or so.  You want the beans to be soft but not mushy.  Many times I find the beans are good after 3 hours, some times they need a bit longer.  I put the beans to soak in the morning before work, then I turn the heat on when I get home in the evening.  The beans are done before bedtime.  This cooking method comes from "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook" by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann.  This cookbook has an excellent section on beans.
4. You can cook the beans with herbs (rosemary, bay leaves), onion, peppers, ham bone, or other ingredients, or you can cook them plain and add other ingredients after they are cooked.
5. Once the beans are cooked, if you want to cool them, put them in the fridge with their liquor (cooking liquid).  You can drain the liquid later, or if you're using them for soup, some or all of the liquor can be added to the soup.
6. I divide finished beans into glass food containers, then freeze them.  In the morning, I'll pull one out of the freezer for lunch.  The quickest lunch packing ever!  They're easy to heat in a microwave at work.

I've tried a number of variations, and I've decided you can't really go wrong.

Black beans with an added sofrito of onion, garlic and pepper

A combination of white and read beans soaking

Tuscan white beans with rosemary and olive oil

Red beans, New Orleans style

White beans simmered in tomatoes with kale

One of my favorite kind of canned beans is Ranch Style.  These are made in Texas, and hard to find in Minnesota.  Boy are they good.

I decided to try to make my own ranch style beans, and I hunted around on the internet for a recipe.  They turned out fabulously!  Here is the original recipe, plus my modifications:

Ranch style beans

Ingredients:
16 oz. of dried pinto beans
6 ancho chiles, stems and seeds removed (I used 2-3 Tbsp chili powder)
6 cloves of garlic, minced (I used 3)
1 onion, diced
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes (or 2 medium-sized tomatoes, peeled)
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 cup of water
6 cups of beef broth
Salt and black pepper to taste

Method:
Soak the beans covered in water—either overnight or the quick soak method in which you place the beans in a pot, cover with water, bring to a boil, cover and remove from heat and let sit for one hour.

Drain the soaked beans.

In a cast-iron skillet heated up to medium high, cook the anchos on each side for a couple of minutes (or until they start to bubble and pop), turn off the heat and fill the skillet with warm water. Let them sit until soft and rehydrated, which should happen after half an hour or so.

In the pot you’ll be cooking your beans, heat up a teaspoon of canola oil and cook the onions for ten minutes on medium. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Throw the cooked onions and garlic in a blender and add the tomatoes, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, paprika, cumin, oregano, water and hydrated ancho chiles. Puree until smooth.

Add the pinto beans and beef broth to the pot and stir in the chile puree. On high, bring the pot to a boil and then cover; turn the heat down to low and simmer for two and a half hours, stirring occasionally. At this point, I check my beans for tenderness as depending on the freshness of the beans I find that the cooking time can be as short as two and a half hours and as long as four hours. When you're satisfied that the beans are done, salt and pepper to taste.

Feeds four to six.

Notes: If you can’t find dried ancho chiles, you can substitute either ancho chile powder or regular chili powder. I’d use 1/4 of a cup. These are not fiery beans, but if you want a bit more heat I'd throw in a bit of Cayenne. And I always add a pinch of baking soda to my soaking beans to help with digestion issues. You may do the same.

My modifications:
Soak beans 6-8 hours. Cook in crockpot on high until tender about 3 hours. Eliminate beef broth from recipe. Saute onion and garlic, then put in blender with rest of sauce ingredients (can halve water to 1/2 C for a thicker sauce). Add sauce to drained hot beans and cook in crock on low for 2-3 hours.

Yummy ranch beans, with a little rice

Jennifer Aniston Salad

1 cup uncooked quinoa , cooked as directed

1 cup cucumber, chopped

½ cup parsley, chopped

½ cup mint, chopped

⅓ cup red onion, chopped

½ cup roasted and salted pistachios, chopped

1 15 ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or sub a variety of different beans)

2 lemons, juiced (about 5-6 Tablespoons)

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

sea salt, to taste

ground pepper, to taste

½ cup crumbled feta cheese

2021 Camping Retrospective

 April 23-25, Beaver Creek Valley State Park

It was cold this weekend, getting down into the 30s overnight, and not getting very warm during the day. Fortunately, we had access to electricity to power the electric blanket for the kids and an electric mattress pad for us. We celebrated Andy's birthday with a flask of Wisonsin Old Fashioneds (with brandy, of course), his favorite chicken stew with parsnips and chocolate pie. Braised pork chops the next night were good, too. We got to break in the new dedicated camping cast iron skillet.

May 28-31 (Memorial Day), Temperance River State Park

We'd booked this site a year earlier, in the depths of pandemic despair, and when the state still allowed you to book campsites a year in advance (now it's 120 days). We picked a spot with a nice view of the lake, but no electricity, and there were no water fill stations, either, so everything at camp was with jugs we refilled. We stopped on the way up at the Rush City bakery, and for dinner at the Rustic. We repeated the sausage and peppers for one dinner, and tried a new enchilada skillet recipe (I browned the beef at home ahead of time.) The weather was cool all weekend, but with layers and wool blankets we were really comfortable. The new bath house is really nice, as well. We took some great hikes, including driving up to Judge Magney (Devil's Kettle) and hanging out in Grand Marais for a while. There was interesting people-watching of a multi-family group with high school boys who were obsessed with hitting golf balls in the open areas. We discovered that chocolate cake can still be good if the bottom is a little burned. I was able to climb a tree hanging over the river to free Andy's fish hook. The smell of the forest after a rain was like none other we'd experienced- it was glorious.

June 18-20, Sakatah Lake State Park

We had our 10-year old nephew Caleb with us for his first time camping. The weather was great on Saturday, but rainy Sunday- we ate breakfast early and packed up, leaving the campsite by 9 AM on Sunday. We had skillet-fried hamburgers, corn-on-the-cob cooked in foil, kale salad and steak fries for dinner Friday. I sliced the potatoes before we left and microwaved them 4 min, then tossed in some oil. We used the pie iron to make nutella banana pies- they were good. Watch these closely as the first one had a burned side- aim for no more than about 4 min per side in near the coals. On Saturday, we made fried chicken, sourdough biscuits, ranch beans and coleslaw, followed by s'mores. We went hiking, fishing, and kayaking. Caleb was obsessed with Andy's Swiss army knife, and did a bunch of whittling. We got him his own for his birthday. The post-camping cast iron cleaning went a little better with some Borax detergent added to the dish detergent. 

Whittling

Starting the fire

Captivated by the Swiss Army knife

Here's Betty!

On June 26, we finally got to pick up our new 2021 T@B 320 camper in Mankato, having ordered the previous October. Amazingly, we were offered a trade-in value for our T@G Angus for the same price we'd paid 2 years earlier (pandemic economy). "Betty" has an inside kitchen (with a tiny floorspace where the dog can sleep), a tiny bathroom with a cassette toilet, a furnace and hot water heater. We slept in it that first night on our driveway. 

July 16-18, Otter Lake, Chippewa County WI

Our first trip out in the new camper. A lovely treed campground with dock access to the lake right from our site. Meg and Ben (and Maisy) joined us. We had skillet-fried hamburgers and chickpea burgers, skillet-fried steak fries, coleslaw, ranch beans and skillet chocolate chip cookies (done in half a pie iron with parchment) for Friday night dinner. Saturday morning we had foil-wrapped monkey bread packets over the campfire, sausage and eggs. Grilled sandwiches for lunch, followed by a trip to the Leinenkugel's brewery lodge for a flight. Dinner was salad with roasted pears, goat cheese and grapefruit vinaigrette,  chicken fajitas, Meg made guacamole, and rhubarb crisp (from the garden) cooked in the dutch oven. Sunday morning I cooked banana bread pancakes. The weather was sublime- warm during the day but not too hot, clear, sunny and cooler at night. We slept with the windows open. 

Caught a crappie

Labor Day Weekend, Crow Wing State Park

We'd booked this well in advance so we could be at the nearby family cabin for the work party. The Mississippi river was low with the draught, but Andy was still able to get a kayak in. The camp spots were decent enough, but very sandy and we ended up tracking a lot of sand into the camper and car. We got there just as the campfire ban was lifted that day, but ended up doing basic skillet cooking in the camper and skipped the fires.

Oct 8-10, Brule River State Forest, Bois Brule Campground, WI

We booked this location because I was running the Whistle Stop Half Marathon in Ashland (about 45 miles away) on Oct 9. It's about 3.75 hours from the Twin Cities, and we got in on Friday night about 9:30 PM and set up in the dark. I woke up at 5 AM and left camp about 5:45 to get to the race.

Our spot was in a lovely grove of tall red pines, with walking access to the Brule River. There are vault toilets in the campground, but no sinks or showers. The camping spot itself was bare dirt in a depression, and it rained, making it pretty muddy. We cooked our favorite pork chops with mushrooms in cider vinegar for dinner on Saturday and left earlier on Sunday so we could stop for a lovely visit with Max and Rochelle on the way back home.

With friend Erin before the race

Coming into the finish chute

That cold cider never tasted so good

Cooking pork chops

On Oct 30, we washed the exterior one last time and brought it to the State Fair to winter in the Education building. See you next Spring, Betty!

Camp Dutch Oven and Campfire Cooking

Since we bought our camper this summer, we've been exploring more outdoor cooking, including in our 12" camp dutch oven (camp dutch ovens have three legs on the bottom to be placed over hot coals).

Our Camp Chef 12" Camp Dutch Oven

I've read a number of cookbooks and searched for recipes online- given the nature of the multiple variables with outdoor cooking, don't expect exact instructions. The trick is to get the right number of charcoal briquettes going below the pot and on the lid, to rotate the pot regularly (we use the claw of an old hammer to lift the lid and lift the bail handle of the pot). We use long tongs to move the briquettes around and place them on the lid.

St Croix State Park

Here are some recipes we've tried.

We made this Sausages and peppers cooked in beer recipe at St Croix State Park. It turned out well, and was pretty fool-proof, since we started with cooked brats that wouldn't kill us if they were a bit underdone.

We cooked broccoli on top of the hot coals on the dutch oven lid

Next, we cooked chicken in coconut milk while hanging with family at the Golden Chipmunk campground in Wascott, Wi. We had the dutch oven cooking over briquettes in the fire pit and built a wood fire to the side over which we seared brussels sprouts (in a cast iron skillet, of course) with our new tripod over the fire.

Enjoying a beer while rotating the pot every few minutes to avoid hotspots. A claw-hammer makes a great tool to lift the pot and lid

Brussels sprouts looking good, too

What fun is camping without coffee? French press in the morning and the mid-afternoon Italian espresso

William O'Brien State Park, we created our own chicken stew. We heated oil in the bottom of the pot over briquettes (it took a while to get the briquettes to heat up- it had been raining all day and the fire pit was soaking- plan extra time with this kind of cooking) and browned about 5 pieces of skin-on, bone-in chicken. Then we added some water and some chopped vegetables: parsnips, small new potatoes, onion, carrots, celery, as well as some rosemary and thyme. We let the whole thing cook down, stirring occasionally and rotating the pot. The veggies softened up in the chicken fat and everything caramelized a bit. The final results were AMAZING. We're definitely doing this again!

Trying to get the briquettes to heat up in a wet fire ring

Cooking next to a fire to help the briquettes along

I don't have any pictures of the final result as it was pitch dark when it was done, but that was part of the fun.

In June, 2020, we cooked right on the edge of Superior at Lamb's campground. I tried baking in the Dutch oven for the first time. I cooked sourdough biscuits (below), then used the hot coals to cook a from-scratch 9" chocolate cake. They both came out beautifully. The second night, we cooked pork chops with mushrooms in cider vinegar.

Half-batch of sourdough biscuits cooked in the Dutch oven

Pork and veggies in a cider sauce

Later in June 2020, we stayed at Fort Ridgely State Park. We cooked pork chops seasoned with ranch powder in oil over the fire grate, potatoes roasted in foil, and broccoli over the lid of the dutch oven over the fire. I made sourdough flatbread and cooked it over the fire grate- it was really good (recipe below). We cooked chicken marbella in the Dutch oven, but placed the pot in the fire coals rather than using briquettes. It was really good. We also cooked apple crisp in foil packets. And we always enjoy coleslaw while camping, and tried a new peanut coleslaw dressing. We tried making cherry crisp in the Dutch oven, and it was a fail, only because the canned cherry pie filling we used was so bad- we won't do that again.

Pork chops and broccoli over fire, potatoes in foil in fire

Starting chicken marbella, grilled sourdough flatbreads

Apple crisp foil packets

In July 2020, we did a 1-week camping trip. It took a good deal of meal planning and advanced preparation, but we ended up eating very well all week. In addition to many of the recipes we've enjoyed previously, I made a batch of shredded pork ahead of time that we froze then heated for dinner and served with ranch beans.
I made "woof'em" sticks out of two sizes of dowels, and we made woof'ems (or campfire eclairs) with chocolate pudding centers (we've since learned that butterscotch pudding is even better). We also tried roasting Easter Peeps marshmallows, but they didn't turn out as good as plain regular marshmallows. A roasted marshmallow dipped in Baileys is a nice treat, too.

Roasting woof'ems, WI Dells, July 2020

Campfire breakfast- sausage patties, biscuits roasted on the grate, egg scrambles in the pie iron. Door County, July 2020

Coffee break and fresh cherries (including a cherry pit spit-kick contest) - Madeline Island, July 2020

Finally, I anticipated that anything chocolate would melt in the hot car and campsite, so I didn't make chocolate chip cookies but rather asked my former colleague Dennis for his rice krispies treat recipe, as the ones he always brought to work potlucks were soft and chewy. This makes a BIG batch, but they stay soft for some time, and they're great for camping and travel.

In August of 2020, we went to Frontenac State Park. We pan fried chicken over the campfire for the first time, in the spirit of Stroud's in Kansas City, we dredged it in flour with salt and pepper, and fried about 15 min per side in peanut oil. It was a hit, including cold leftovers for lunch the next day.

Frying chicken in Grandma Margaret's Griswold

The burner guard we had "custom made" by a very handy T@G owner in WI who posted about the one he made for himself on an online T@G community site works great- no more flame-outs!

New burner guard protecting flame for blueberry pancakes

 We also made bratwurst stroganoff in the dutch oven, using really good-quality brats and using beer instead of wine.

At Cascade State Park over Labor Day 2020, we made sourdough pizza cooked over the campfire. I made a half-batch of sourdough pizza crust, packing the dry ingredients separately and mixing when we were ready to cook. I rolled the crust out on a cutting board with the side of a glass and parcooked it on both sizes in a hot cast iron skillet, then topped it with pizza sauce, cheese and pepperoni. We covered it with the dutch oven lid until the cheese was melted.

Andy also really enjoyed frying some freshly bought Superior white fish, because apparently he can't think of camping now without frying something.

Frying fish in the tiny cast iron griddle

In September we camped with Meg and Ben at Merrick State Park in WI. On Friday night I heated chili I'd made in the dutch oven and topped it with a half-recipe of cornbread until cooked through, along with roasted brussels sprouts and a salad made with pears we'd roasted over the fire, goat cheese and grapefruit vinaigrette. Dessert was apple hand pies, warmed slightly over the fire. On Saturday night, we had to do more fried chicken. I decided to try a small batch of fry bread, along with our delicious ranch beans, made before and heated at camp, and coleslaw.

Fry bread

Breakfasts include pumpkin pancakes and make-your-own goat cheese and red pepper omelets in the pie iron, as well as skillet fried potatoes. Covering the potatoes with a lid for a bit helped them soften and cook better.

Dennis' Rice Krispies Treats

One large box of Rice Krispies (24 oz)
2 Large bags (16 oz each) of mini marshmallows
1 stick butter
1 jar of marshmallow creme

Melt butter on low heat. Add marshmallows. Once they are almost melted add the marshmallow creme. Once all melted add Rice Krispies. Spread in large greased pan (can barely fit in 9X13).

Sourdough Biscuits

Yield:
8 biscuits

1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup margarine or 1/3 cup butter, cold
1 cup sourdough starter

Directions:

1 Sift together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
2 Cut in the margarine or butter.
3 Mix in sourdough starter.
4 Turn out dough onto lightly floured board.
5 Knead a few times, until all of the flour is mixed in.
6 Pat/roll dough to 3/4" and cut out biscuits; place them on an ungreased baking sheet.
7 Bake at 425°F for 12-15 minutes, until slightly brown

Sourdough Flatbread over the fire

(Reduced recipe- for 2 people)
1/4 c sourdough starter- can use unfed
3 Tbsp warm water
1/2 tsp yeast
3/4 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp olive oil
dried herb(s) of choice, such as rosemary

Mix all and knead in mixer with bread hook. Put into a food storage container or zipped baggie in the fridge/cooler, where it can last a few days before use. Roll or pat thin portions and cook over the fire on a grate, turning with tongs.