As it turns out...red beans are still cheap.

March 17, 2014

And today, I am feeling every decade.
Hardly anyone ever says, "Give us a ding-a-ling on the old ring-a-ling later." anymore. 

I grew up eating red beans, fried potatoes (fried in bacon grease or lard)YIKES!!!!, and homemade biscuits. Store bought bread was a treat saved for Sundays, as it was too expensive to eat everyday. We didn't eat a lot of meat, but every meal, well, except breakfast which was oatmeal, included red beans.  There is a lot of press on how beans are healthy, full of fiber, low calorie, and low fat these days.  However as a child we ate them because they were cheap.  My parents had 7 children and a rather small grocery budget.  We didn't know what leftovers were because nothing was ever left over at our house.  We had never seen a McDonalds--all the Mickey Dee's were in large cities in those days.  My dad would rather go home and eat cold biscuits and sweet milk than go out to eat in any restaurant.  Since Dad wore the pants in the family, ruled the roost, laid down the law, oh you get what I am saying, we ate at home every meal.  Oddly enough, despite the bacon grease that was liberally used to season our food, no one in our family suffered from childhood obesity, we were skinny little kids.  I am sure that a methane gas cloud hung over our house, but we lived out in the country so neighbors didn't need to call in the hazmat team to neutralize the risk. 

Red beans are still cheap.  Even better, they are delicious and as it turns out, really, really good for you.  I still eat them on occasion, but rarely ever eat fried potatoes any more.  Now, as adults, my family has discovered not just McDonalds, but Burger King, Taco Bell, Jack-N-the-Box, What-A-Burger, and on and on--the list of fast food chain restaurants gets longer everyday.  Now, we are obese--morbidly so according to the doctor.  Maybe Dad knew what he was talking about when he said, "The food they serve in those restaurants will kill you." He wasn't speaking of any particular restaurant, just lumping them all together in one large out to kill group.  Unfortunately, he never bought the idea that cigarettes were harmful to your health. In 1998, he passed away due to complications brought on by years of cigarette smoking.




When I say red beans, I really am talking about pinto beans.
Yum!

Lesson learned. 

Just because I don't acknowledge that something is harmful to me, doesn't mean that it won't kill me.

  Donna makes really awesome red beans, maybe I'll suggest that she cook us some beans for dinner tomorrow.  Without the fried potatoes and biscuits, can't go down that road, but the beans and some zucchini cornbread muffins, I could dig it.


If you want to know more about the goodness of beans, check out Battle of the Beans. 'Today' Food Editor, Phil Lempert, weighs in on the different varieties of beans and their health benefits.