Mexican Beans

As part of the 31 Days of Living Well Spending Zero challenge I committed to cook with what I had on hand at the start of the month. Well guess what…. I had lots of beans! And… I’m a sucker for Mexican food. So when Day 5 came around and the challenge was to replicate a menu item from a favorite recipe I thought… I can do whole beans – like I love from the local Mexican restaurant.

I set to Pinterest, found a few recipes here and here that were close to what I had on hand and then threw together my own version. I wanted to use dried beans, I knew I preferred to use the slow cooker, and that I wanted them flavorful but not too spicy. Here’s what I did.

 
Ingredients
1 lb. of dried pinto beans
4 cups of chicken broth (I used 4 cups of water and 2 Tb. of chicken bullion paste)
1 Tb cumin
1 Tb chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 small-medium onion diced
1/2 jalapeno  I used pablano and diced it since they tend to be milder and this is what I had on hand.
4 cloves garlic diced/pressed
1 Tb. Worcestershire sauce
 
Here they are soaking.
Dried beans are super economical and can be delicious,
but do require time to reabsorb moisture.

Instructions
1. Rinse pinto beans thoroughly several times and pull out any rocks or gross beans.

2. Soak for 8 hours (you could do overnight but I did from 1pm-9pm so I could put them in the crockpot after the kids went to bed and let them cook overnight)
3. Rinse thoroughly.
4. Boil in a large pot on low for 1 hour.
5. Drain (do not rinse)
6. Put all ingredients in crockpot then add beans.
7. Stir and let cook on “low” for 8-10hours
 
Absolutely DELICIOUS!
I served on a whole wheat tortilla with cheese and a bit of salsa. The perfect bean and cheese burrito!
 
 
 
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