Your kids need more beans!  They are such a perfect food.

After a conversation with some friends last night who declared “My kids would never eat beans!”  I got to thinking…. Is it the kids, or is it the parents  (You know who you are!) bad attitude towards beans that leaves them uninterested.  Maybe a little of both.

My kids were such picky eaters before I started this blog.  However, I wasn’t exposing them to a variety of foods like I do now.  Now, when there are no other options, and since children don’t like to starve… they eat!

So, onto my bean dish.

I want to start using my $50 Costco blender more.

I posted this recipe for Black Bean Burgers moons ago.   But this time, I put in my blender

• 1 can of black beans
• oats (because I was out of bread crumbs)
• salsa and an egg!

I know it looks gross, but, it is what it is.

Then I added the cooked rice separately because I wanted it a little chunky.

Then I poured about 1/3 to 1/4 cup on my cast iron skillet.

And then of course put the patty between some delicious whole wheat buns (with a bunch of ketchup).

Then TJ added more ketchup to the TOP of his bun. Such a strange kids sometimes.

We topped it off with some homemade french fries, and the kids Gobbled it up.  Most kids won’t notice you used black beans instead of beef.  You will notice, but its still delicious.

More beans our in my blog future!!! They are cheap, low fat, good for you, high in protein, high in THREE kinds of fiber, and did I mention CHEAP!!  Way cheaper than ground beef.

Other awesome bean posts!

Beans 101

The best thing about the raw food movement, is the simpleness of food prep! If you can use a knife or a blender, you can do raw food.

I went to a raw foods class at my local health food store last week, and they made for us some Jicama fries.  I thought they were pretty tasty.  I was excited for my kids to try them, but I guess they weren’t as excited as I was.  They were actually pretty stubborn.

“I want my fries cooked!”

“They aren’t french fries! They are different.  Its from a Jicama, not a potato”.

“I only like fries from potatoes”. 

You know the drill.  So maybe call them something other than fries, so they are judged on their own goodness, and not by comparison to the familiar.

But once again, I like to share anyway, for all you RAW-some parents out there who have kids a little more compliant than mine.

The raw food teachers used a fry slicer to cut their jicama up, but mine just must not be sharp enough. It was so much easier to just use a knife.

After Jicama was sliced we added to a bowl and mixed with

• olive oil
• salt
• garlic powder

 and wa-la!  No cooking, just coated with seasonings and done.  We ate our fries with some black bean burgers.  The friends I went to the class with thought they were great.  You can decide!  Let me know if you OR your kids like them.

Don’t forget to enter to win the Amazing Grass Kidz Line of smoothie mix-ins.

Black Bean Burgers.  Although I didn’t tell the kids. Cereal boy said, “what kind of meat did you use for these burgers mom??”  He still ate it.  The husband, who of course knew it was black beans said “I can hardly tell it’s not actually beef.”  Although, sometimes he just says things to be nice.

The greatest thing about using black beans rather than ground beef is the cost of it!  And of course the fiber, the vitamins, the minerals, the convenience of not thawing meat, the whole mad-cow disease thing.  Plus I realized I didn’t have any ground beef (and I’m trying not to shop again till Friday).  Looks like tomorow’s chili is going meatless too by default. 

The way I did my black beans:  I put about 4 cups of dried black beans in my crock pot.  We still have 25 lbs of dried black beans.  Covered it with water, and turned it on low before we went to church.   By mid-afternoon, my beans were perfectly tender.  I drained the water and rinsed the beans.  The flip flopper mashed some up and used it as a tortilla chip dip for an afternoon snack. 

I took two cups of the beans for my burgers.  The rest I put in the fridge and I’ll probably add it to our chili tomorow.  Here is our BB Burger recipe.   Pretty good experiment I’d say.  Feel free to leave me a link to other veggie burgers. I’m sure there are a million ways to do this.