Sunday, March 7, 2010

Food Storage: Refried Beans

The church's Family Home Storage Center sells a number of foods that are good for long-term storage, but can also be used in every day meals. I would like to post about several of these with information about how to use them. This post is about Refried Beans.


What are they?

These are dehydrated refried beans. (They are small chips--see photo above). They are preserved with a small amount of salt, but have no other artificial ingredients. When reconstituted with water they are very similar to store-bought refried beans.

How long will they store?
At least five years.

What do they cost?
A #10 can costs $3.75, a pouch costs $3.55 and a 25 pound bag costs $25.95. These are much more economical to purchase than store-bought refried beans.

Are they nutritious?
Yes! Refried beans are very nutritious. They are preserved with salt, but don't have any other additives.

Are they easy to use?
Yes! They can be reconstituted in just a few minutes, by adding hot or boiling water. The consistency can be thick or thin, depending on how much water is added.

Do they taste good?
Yes! They taste good when reconstituted with regular water. The flavor can also be modified by using chicken broth to reconstitute them, or by adding other flavors such as onions or garlic or taco seasoning.

How can they be used in every day cooking?
Here are some examples of easy recipes that use refried beans. (Also note that many of the other ingredients in these recipes are easy to store at home (either on a shelf or in a freezer) and many of these ingredients can be economically purchased in bulk quantities or on sale.


Seven-Layer Dip
(Pictured in above photo).
Layer refried beans, cheese, sour cream, olives, avocados, green onions and tomatoes or salsa.
Serve with chips.
(Serve with fruit to make a nutritious, complete meal).

Quesadillas
Spread refried beans on a tortilla. Cover with another tortilla. Cook both sides on a griddle. Serve with salsa.
Optional: Add cheese or shredded chicken or other ingredients with the refried beans.

Burritos/Enchiladas
Use refried beans with rice and cheese to make a basic filling for burritos. Refried beans can be used as a substitute for meat in enchiladas, or it can be mixed with beef in enchiladas.

Tacos or Taco Salad
Refried beans can be used with meat in tacos or taco salad. It can also be used as a meat substitute. When reconstituting the refried beans, add taco seasoning to the mix.

Taco Salad
Crumble chips in a bowl. Then add: refried beans flavored with taco seasoning, cheese, lettuce or spinach leaves, tomatoes or salsa, olives, green onions, salad dressing or mustard or ketchup.

Gardening

Gardening season is here!

The LDS church has published some basic information about getting started in gardening. It can be found at this website: www.providentliving.org

Look on the left side of the web page for a link to "Gardening"

Once there, you will find links for information about these topics:

Planning a garden
Gardening in containers
Recipes using garden produce
Links to gardening websites

Also, you can find information about a television series called "Home Grown." It is about gardening and is produced by BYU broadcasting.

If you are interested in planting a garden this year, that website is a good place for information to get started. Also, look in the archives of this blog for last year's posts on gardening.

Family Home Storage

The LDS church has posted some new information about Family Home Storage on their provident living website. This website is found at www.providentliving.org

Once you are at the website, look on the left side for a link to "Family Home Storage"

The middle section of the page contains links for information about:

Three-Month Supply
Drinking Water
Longer-Term Supply

The right side of the page contains links for:

Family Home Storage pamphlet
Family Finances pamphlet
Home Storage Center order form
Quotes and Talks from Church leaders
Family Home Storage Lesson Materials
Frequently Asked Questions

The Frequently Asked Questions link takes you to information about:

Where do I start?
What is the difference between three-month and longer-term supply items?
What containers are suitable?
What about 72-hour kits?

These resources provide quite a bit of useful information for getting started in home food storage.