A Tale of Two Beans

Unlike the book referenced in the title, this post is a bit comedic. A few weekends ago my hubby and I cooked up some pinto beans using beans I had sprouted. I have heard that sprouted beans cause less gas, and I had been waiting to test this rumor. The beans were great, and shared with guests. No one knew they were sprouted, which I consider a victory. People eating healthy food, and they don't even know it. Stealth, I love it. Back to the experiment. Throughout the night, as I lay sleeping, gas was definitely present. However, it was odorless. Hmmm. This was unusual. :)
Fast forward to this weekend. I found a recipe for Bean with Bacon soup. Yummm. I couldn't wait to try it, as Campbell's Bean with Bacon was my favorite as a kid, and the reviews at www.allrecipes.com promised a Campbell's result. I was not let down. It was delicious, and again shared with friends. However, the beans used in this recipe were not sprouted, just soaked then cooked. Again, as I lay sleeping, there was the presence of gas. This time, however, it was not of the odorless variety! Let me tell you, that alone is enough to get me to only use sprouted beans from here on out! :)

Sprouting Success!

Finally, sprouting success! I have a ziplock bag in my freezer filled with my little sprouted wheat babies. Hooray! I also made an edible loaf of sourdough bread. It was a pleasant surprise as I pulled the loaf out of the oven and thought it was going to be another brick, but no! The only thing I can't figure out is why it won't rise to normal loaf size. I let it rise for 12 hours for goodness sake. This is disappointing. I made another loaf today, and increased my sourdough starter by 1/2 cup with no luck. I will be researching this soon. In the meantime, I will be enjoying little pieces of yummy sourdough bread.

Sprouting Tradegy II

UGH. I began sprouting my little babies yesterday morning. Soaked them all day and let them sit last night. They were sprouted by this morning! Frantically, I rinsed them and threw them in the dehydrator and turned them on. I was not about to go through another ruined batch! They should have been done by the time school was over.
Sigh...I came home to a dehydrator that was not on. PANIC! What could have happened? Was it broken? Did my mother-in-law turn it off unknowingly? Of course not. This was purely my fault. In my hurried frenzy, I failed to notice that it was only set for one hour. That's the default setting. I didn't set the timer, so I assumed it would just stay on. No luck. I had the dehydrator turned sideways, so I failed to notice. UGH. Mold city by this afternoon. I hate learning lessons this way. From now on, soak Friday morning, sit Friday night, Saturday morning, nice and relaxed-like dehydrating. Or maybe Tuesday to Wednesday. Anyway, how many lessons do I have to learn? I much prefer things to go like clockwork.
At least one part of my day is clockwork...shopping on Thursday afternoon while the kids are at church. Gotta run!

Black Bean Brownies

Well, at least I successfully sprouted, and cooked, black beans. And, I have a bag equal to one can in my freezer, so it wasn't a total loss. The beans sprouted quite easily. Here they are in the collendar on my counter. I started them Friday night and they were ready Sunday night, but I didn't cook them until Monday morning. Just threw them in my crock pot and cooked them on low until about 4pm.
I discovered that the beans sprout without you actually seeing the sprout. Rather, you can see the bulge of the sprout beneath the skin. The picture of the bean is a sprouted bean.

As for the brownies, DISGUSTING. The recipe called for flour, beans, cocoa, eggs, sugar and flour. I'm not even going to post it here. Bleck. It tasted like something my daughter experiments with while playing with her easy bake oven. I hate that I wasted my ingredients on it. I even added mini-chocolate chips and it was gross. I kept thinking it was too thick and shouldn't it have some oil and water or something? But, I trusted the recipe. Always go with your gut. The only thing I can say is that I couldn't taste the black beans. So, maybe it's worth a try at adapting. But I don't think I'll use my expensive ingredients when I do it.

So sad, no chocolate brownies.

Sprouting beans

As I was getting my beans ready to soak last night, I was wondering why it just didn't feel right. I am new to this whole routine and haven't soaked anything for a few weeks due to us being out of town and me trying to get into a routine of doing this. As I mentioned, I was TIRED, but determined. I had the beans in the jars and just stood there looking at them for a few seconds or so when I remembered that I soak grains this way, not beans! Beans are actually easier.
So, I poured my beans into a big bowl, covered them with filtered water and just left them. This morning I will transfer them to my colander and rinse them. This weekend I will just leave them in the colander, with a towel or plate under them, on my counter. I will rinse them right in the colander morning and evening and stir them around a bit. Leaving them in the colander lets them drain. It's that easy! On Monday morning they should be ready for me to throw into the crock pot, and Monday afternoon we can try out those brownies! :)
In the meantime, things are going well with the new roll recipe. The flour has been soaking and rising overnight and is ready for the final step and rising. I can't wait to have warm rolls with butter and maybe raw honey as well. I have high hopes even though I have not had much luck with the whole wheat thing. God has seemed to open up some time for me on the weekends to try this baking thing out, and I am not ready to give up yet. Someday I hope to be a testimony to those who are NOT bakers. Hopefully I will have a NON-BAKER to BAKER story to tell. That will be the day my husband stops buying bread at the store. Right now, that seems highly unlikely, but I continue on with my hopes high. :)

Friday/ sprouting beans

Well, it's Friday. After a week of a little boy with a cold and hives, now a girl coming down with it, I am tired! But, I am still motivated to sprout some beans. It's really not that hard. I bought some quart sized canning jars and I will fill four of them halfway with black beans, fill with water and cover with cheese cloth. They will soak tonight, drain tomorrow and rinse, then sit slanted upside down in the jar Saturday and Sunday. Rinse morning and night, and by Monday they should sprouted and ready to cook in the crock pot. They say doing this reduces the gas and ups the nutritional value. We'll see. :) I will use some in a new brownie recipe. They claim you can't taste the beans. REALLY? I am highly skeptical. We'll soon find out.

Also, I have a new recipe for whole wheat rolls I can't wait to try. You make the dough and leave it in the fridge to use for fresh rolls all week long. I've tasted the rolls, and they were FABULOUS. I am doubtful that I can make them like the ones I tried. I have yet to master whole wheat bread making! More to follow on that one...

Sprouting Tradegy!

I felt so deflated! For two days I had 4 beautiful quart sized jars of hard winter wheat berries sprouting on my counter. It was Friday evening, and company was coming over for dinner. My wheat was sprouting so I transferred everything to my dehydrator and set it at 115 degrees for 7 hours. This was all happening in my laundry room which is right off of the front door. During the dehydrating process, the smell is, well, different. I didn't want to stress my hubby with a strange odor greeting our guests, so I turned off the dehydrator and came back in the morning. BIG MISTAKE!!!!!
The next morning, I couldn't wait to get it going. I figured I should rinse everything again, so I removed the lid of the dehydrator and my shoulders just sank into my chest. WHITE PATCHES OF MOLD EVERYWHERE. Boo-hoo. Why do I always have to learn lessons the hard and money costing way? Learn from my mistake! Dehydrate everything immeadiately, even if you have to do it in your garage or private bathroom!