Honey I'm Home

Emily really stepped up the game.  I came home to a rice and bean casserole baking in the oven and a sweet bean pie cooling in the window.  With homemade crust!  It was gooood too (extra o's intentional Jason).  Grandma gave it a "wow", "amazing" and "really good."  Of course she has a slightly positive bias.  I'd put it up against any pecan pie I've had.  I also had two helpings of the casserole.  Dinner always tastes extra good when it's waiting for you when you get home.

Rice Pudding

I like me a good bread pudding, but rice pudding has some similar good qualities too.  This recipe had you throw in a tablespoon of molasses at the end.  I thought it added a little mature flavor kick to it, but it was subtle enough that I might just have been tasting the vanilla.  And Emily just thought it merely served to color the pudding into an unpleasant color.  C said it looked like cat food.  Even with whipped cream on it I couldn't get the kids to eat more that a few bites.  What is wrong with them?  Well I thought it was good.

Meal 5 - Repeat

Oh, no.  Five meals in and we have a repeat.  Made the pork 'n beans.  First thought was fear.  The experiment only so new and already the creativity is gone.  But as it turned out I steamed up some chard, made a cucumber salad from the CSA box and had an easily meal.  And having been alive for 35 years, at three meals a day, that was my 38,325th meal.  Does it really have to be that special?

And if anyone was wondering, no the kids didn't touch it... mandarin oranges and a quesadilla for E and mandarin oranges and a tuna fish sandwich for C.

Spanish Rice

Tonight I decided to leave the beans alone and spice up the rice.  I sauteed onion in oil, the added the rice to toast and the garlic to flavor.  Then added water, a little bit of salsa and two peppers, and simmered.  Again, not bad.  One more clove of garlic and a little more salsa next time.

The Complete Protein

I ate my leftover pork and beans for breakfast while researching "rice and beans." According to Wikipedia, the two foods together have all the eight essential amino acids: phenylalanine, valine, threonine, tryptophan (isn't that the turkey thing?), isoleucine, methionine, leucine, and lysine.  Also essential to many people is Listorine and Visine, but for some reason they left those off the list.

Bachelor Night

Home alone tonight.  What else can a bachelor do but make pork and beans?  Of course, instead of rubbery hotdog pork I used an Aidells' Chicken and Apple Sausage and garnished it with parsley... I'm not an animal for goodness sake.

It was good too.  How could you go wrong with such a classic?

Accomplishments:

• Kept it down to two servings
• $0.50/365 calorie serving (85% of the cost was sausage, only 23% of the calories)
• Investigated salt portions and measures

50 mile bike ride tomorrow from Pescadero to the SF Zoo.  Will the meal hold up?

The Experiment Begins

So Dave Ramsey, financial guru of get out of debt fame, encourages us to cut our budget by eating "rice and beans, beans and rice."  I'm up for the challenge I say as I stroll through the isles of Costco.  Despite the fact that many a one pound bag 'o beans has sat in the pie safe without so much as a sideways glance, I jumped in with both feet and bought a 25 pound bag of rice and a complimentary 25 pound bag of beans.

$21.98.  No tax.  Just to give you some idea of the size of this adventure, the bean bag has 324 1/4 cup servings and the rice has 250.  They total about 80,000 calories together which is enough to feed a typical adult for 40 days.  That would cost $0.55 per day or $0.18 per meal.  Of course I plan on adding a few ingredients.  Can I keep it fresh?  Can I make it through?  Can I get my family to eat it?


First Meal  - Refried Beans and Plain Rice

Soaked a cup and a half of beans overnight.  Simmered them the next day for four hours (forgot they were on the stove).  Sauteed up some onion and garlic in canola oil.  Added the beans, some salt and dried chilies, and smashed them.  Result?  Edible.  Could be improved?  Definitely.  Lasted for too many meals too.  Let's try one cup of beans.  Unappetizing picture to the right.

Meal Two - Beans with Lamb and Plain Rice
Basically I had Emily boil the beans with a bone-in lamb chop and salt.  Will have to make some adjustments before trying that again.  I'd describe it as lamb flavored beans mixed with Crisco.

Stay tuned.  Recipes, quips, life reflections, Ramseyisms and more to follow (or a bunch of sporadic posts that all start, "sorry it's been so long since I've posted...").