Bean Stockpile

My mom gave me a bin of really old beans sometime last year.  I had labeled them "OLD - Use first" back in June 2011 when she bought a bunch of new bulk beans.  I think it was when I visited her in March 2012 when I saw the bin, untouched still in her pantry.  Anyway, she explicitly told me that the Tupperware bin was HERS and I had to return it.  So every time I saw it in my pantry I remembered that she needed it back.  I had been using the beans up and finally, in December, I decided to return it to her.

There were a good amount of beans left so I cooked them up and put them in the freezer.  Here's a photo of about 20 cooked cups of beans.  I put these in my freezer and I can pull them out and use them when a recipe calls for a can of red beans or kidney beans.  Dry beans are ridiculously cheap compared to canned.  If you want to eat organically, dry beans are an affordable staple because a pound costs maybe $3 and makes about 12 cooked cups.

Here's the empty bin.   When I joyfully returned it to Mom she said, "Oh, I forgot you had that.  I guess I don't really need it, but thanks."  Doh!  I could totally use it with all my bulk food purchases, but this way I'm limited in how much I can accumulate; always a good thing.

Katie