This isn't a political post, so put your hackles down, ladies and gents! This is a post about beans and the bean-snobs who refuse them.
Most of you know how I was raised; one generation removed from the coal mines of eastern Kentucky. The granddaughter of Depression and WWII Ration survivors, we ate very simply growing up. We ate a lot of beans in many a form and with the exception of the black-eyed variety, I've never met a bean I don't like. My children, however, are bean-snobs, and I think they got it honestly from their father, another bean-snob. I've been working on Jeff for nearly 15 years and I think he's finally starting to see the light! My children are a little more difficult to persuade.
I've been experimenting with beans, trying to get my children to eat them, for the better part of 2 years, with limited success. We have a lot of dried beans in our food storage, and should we ever need to rely solely on them, I want to know what they WILL eat and what they WON'T eat. So we tried baked beans. They ate them a time or two, but the texture got the best of Isaac. Refried beans went over a little better, but honestly, they're kind of gross looking so I don't like to serve them very often. Tonight I cooked a pot of pinto beans with onions, garlic and dehydrated peppers to serve over rice. I was immediately met with resistance. Isaac hollered for pasta, Mara cried for sausage. I conceded and threw a couple pieces of leftover sausage in the pot with the beans, mainly for flavor. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, they tried it. And they liked it. And it only took a little bit of bribery.
"You want another slice of sausage? Got to eat another bite of beans and rice!"
"More applesauce? Sure, just eat this bite of beans and rice."
"More milk to wash down your beans and rice?"
They ended up eating very good meals. Mara ate her entire portion of beans and rice. Isaac ate all the rice, most of the beans. Jeff put on his big boy pants and ate a hearty meal too. Everyone left will full tummies and suddenly, beans didn't seem so much like torture. I'm not sure what my family has against the humble bean, but tonight we had a breakthrough! It's reassuring for me to know that I've found a recipe that everyone can agree on. And honestly, if all it took to get them to eat beans was a little torture and a touch of bribery, I'd call beans with peppers and onions over rice a wild success!
7 comments:
Woo Hoo! Don't you just love it when they take a step with you toward something great like BEANS! I love beans!
I picked some dried beans up at a farm stand out in the middle of nowhere in Maine one time and knew immediately I had to grow some of my own for drying. When I ordered my seeds this year, I included about 3 or 4 varieties of beans for drying. They look SO PRETTY in the seed catalog, but will look even better in my canning jars, vacuum sealed for storage until we eat them!
Well congrats to you and your succesful operation "Just Eat". Our young troopers tried that with my bride but not me. I always seemed to get them to eat what they deemed as unacceptable for nourishment and that always bothered me to a point then my past as a young trooper called out to me, "young man, there are starving children in (fill in the blank)so clean your plate and I mean now or if you don't eat ???? you'll never grow up and be strong.
So since we all know our mothers and grandmothers only said what was good for us I felt better about making them clean those plates.
However my bride was the one that gave and still gives me my biggest challenge, soon as she smells the aroma of food cooking where ever in the house she is it is now time to eat never mind the fact that I may have just started cooking, hey wait a minute she claimed the kids were impatence due to me now I know the truth.
Wow after all these years been feeling guilty for nothing (lol),
gonna try that saturday for dinner thanks for giving me my meal plan for Saturday.
Oh by the way bread was GREAT
I had my wife make Mexican beans. I love them enormously.
Michael
I am a Georgian and my wife is a mix from Mississippi and Texas. We eat beans nine different ways to Sunday, and store vast quantities of them. They are tasty, nutritious, easy to store, and lend themselves to all kinds of preparation. I think the beans you cooked would have been good eating. It's wise of you to try to break your family in on a new protein source.
My housemate is Mexican, so we have boiled pinto beans + whatever else we want often. The fun thing in making a BIG pot is this: they will stay fresh so long as you bring it to a boil once a day, and when they get kinda gooshy and full of liquid (after 3-4 days at least) then you can use the potato masher and make them into refried beans. I know you didn't care for it, but have you tried having the kids help mash? It's hard to ruin it, and you can then use it in all sorts of dishes -- tacos, enchiladas, and probably all sorts of crazy combos that I don't have the imagination to come up with.
You could also try saying "we're having this color bean tonight -- pick whatever you want to go with it, and we'll have it". Just as an idea to help them get used to it.
Bean soup?
What a cute post! We eat beans fine over here, but I cheat by putting in bits of meat. Refried beans is served with tacos & fixings. I'm hoping that if we don't have the meat one day, that the meatless bean dish will be accepted. Maybe I should try it without sometimes to be sure.
I like the trick of using their more favorite foods as a reward for eating a bite of beans!
Too funny. Beans are one of my favorite foods. Really, one of the only ways I don't like them is the sweet baked beans!
I'd guess we have a bean-centric meal at least once a week, maybe more. They almost always have a sausage or ham included. Garlic, onions, salt and pepper are in virtually every recipe. We'll then "design" them to match the meal. For instance, add cumin and oregano for a Mexican touch.
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