Beans and Rice are Nice!

I've been trying to figure out ways to cut costs on food AND get out of the meal rut at home. I get tired of making the same things over and over again. When we were all in Florida a few weeks back, Bob and I got a chance to eat out at a Cuban restaurant and had black bean soup over rice. Now, I remember my mom making that at home when I was a kid. I actually did a lot of the cooking once my mom went back to work full time (My mom gave me the choice of cooking or washing the dishes). So black bean soup and rice was really easy for me to put together. Heat up two cans of soup, serve over white rice, and top with some chopped sweet onion. Voila!

So last week I opened up a couple cans of Goya black bean soup for the family, served over some white basmati rice. I put a plateful in front of the baby. I then turned around to get Amy a drink and turned back around and all the beans were gone from Samantha's plate! Same thing happened for another plateful and a half. She just inhaled it! Now I know Samantha loves rice but she loved the beans even more! So I considered this a success. My older daughter of course ate the rice. And a few leaves of baby spinach (dipped in ketchup, of course). I think the next time I make this, I may just have to make my own black bean soup. The Goya soup had over 1000 mg of salt per serving (a wee bit too much, in my opinion). Otherwise this was a good source of fiber and protein and was low fat (and easy and cheap!). One of my crock pot books has a great recipe for Cuban Black Bean Soup. It freezes really well.