It's the last day of the week before grocery shopping and I was working with whatever I have on hand. Often I feel like my life is an episode of chopped when it comes to meals. Especially when grocery day is nearing. Here are the mystery basket ingredients, lets see what we can do with them.

Todays available ingredients were... Dried black beans, some enchilada soup seasoning, an onion, some leftover ribs, and a half jar of jalapenos,  my son brought home, He eats those things plain, straight from the jar.. Ughhh.. I started there, but was not real sure where I was going with it, but in any case i had to get the beans started or they would never be done for supper time. Dried beans are fantastic and especially black beans they can be used in so many ways, even in desserts. Here is the basic cooking instructions for dried black beans. They are not a last minute fixer they take all day. After the black bean instructions We will move on and Ill tell you the recipe for the black bean chili i made tonight.

How to cook dried black beans

1 package black beans 

5 cups water

1 tbsp bacon grease

salt to taste

boil for 1 hour

add spices and simmer on medium heat for 5 hours

The above is just a basic recipe for cooking dried black beans.. From there you can go anywhere.. Literally anywhere.. Which is why I'm super excited that I have 25 lbs of dried black beans on the way to my door as we speak. #feedingthemasses

Here is where I took it.

Black bean Chili

1 package cooked black beans

1 package enchilada soup spices

2 cups shredded beef

1 yellow onion (more or less to taste)

1/2 jar jalapeno slices and juice

1 can tomato sauce

3 cans diced tomatoes

garlic powder (to taste)

onion powder (to taste)

salt (to taste)

chili powder (to taste)

add all ingredients and simmer 4 to 5 hours

serve with jiffy mix sweet cornbread the sweet in the cornbread goes well with the spiciness in the chili.

The extra onion powder, garlic powder, and chili powder are optional, the enchilada soup spices have all those things but my family likes more of those things so I add them.

This meal was delicious, filling, and super cheap, there is not much cheaper than dry beans and you can do so many things with them... 

Whats your favorite dry bean and what is your favorite way to cook them?

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