Pinto Bean Vegetable Stock- Many Uses

:: Pinto Bean Vegetable Stock- Many Uses ::

I love to cook a bag of dried beans to supplement meals and I usually do that once a week.  Most of the time it is in the form of mixed bean soup.  You may want to take a look here for some frugal foods information and  about making your own bean mix and save good money in the process!

This week I decided to make pinto beans.  I plan to use them on top of a green salad this week and also make some refried beans. That being the goal, I didn’t need the liquid the beans cooked in.  So I cooked my beans along with cabbage, carrots, spinach, and lots of celery.

Pinto beans of course are fiber rich, but did you know their fiber can help reduce the risk of a heart attack as well as help keep blood sugar levels from rising too high after a meal?  Pinto beans are also high in protein, B1, B6, potassium, and iron!  Not bad for a little legume, huh?  Read the full nutritional analysis of pinto beans  at whfoods.com.

So, for the same amount of effort I ended up with 3 separate food items.  I filled my stock pot with my pinto beans I had soaked the night before,  the veggies I listed above, and water. I didn’t even season it. And my beans are cooked for the week, I also have 1 & 1/2 quarts of pinto bean and vegetable stock that is jam-packed with nutrition, and I took out all the cooked veggies and my chickens had a tasty treat today!

What I love about this idea is that it didn’t take any extra work. And everything that was in my stock pot cost so little. The kicker is that I will not be buying vegetable stock or soup starter off the shelf. This is real food, and it feels right.

Throw us some of your real food ideas and thoughts!  Leave us a comment and let us know your go-to items for feeding your family with nutritional, non-processed, healthy food  – we want to hear from you!