Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Cool Beans and New Winner for my Giveaway

Beans....more than just the musical fruit, they are soooo good for us and I've come to worship them.  Okay, not really worship, but.....  I have reached the conclusion that I am much healthier and have significantly more energy available if I consume my beans daily.  I believe that it is the micro-nutrients supplied by beans that really makes the difference.  I am tempted to launch into an alphabet soup of the nutrients that are found in beans, but will leave that for other more organized bloggers.  Let's just put it like this:  they are good for us.

I am so fortunate to have a Whole Foods store within driving distance (about an hour away) and our store is currently in the midst of a major remodel.  Since I only go there maybe twice a month, it's been a bit of an adventure walking in and suddenly not knowing where things are.  This last visit I quickly noticed the new bulk section and the expansion of beans and other legumes to Whole Foods' already fairly impressive selection.  I couldn't help but try some new ones.  I did contain my legume enthusiasm though and made just four choices:





From left to right they are:  Christmas Lima Beans, Fava Beans, Appaloosa Beans and Black Garbanzos






  1. Here's a close up of the Christmas Limas and the Favas.

I'm always playing around with new ways to get beans into my diet, even resorting to tossing them in with my smoothies.  Recently, I made this dish....it's not quite a dip, and not quite a casserole....sort of a dip-sserole I guess.  What it is, is pretty darn good and I found non-vegans enjoyed it as well.


Cool Beans "Dip-sserole"



Layer in a dish in this order or as you prefer:

1 can vegetarian refried beans (or make your own--easy: blend cooked beans with veg broth adjusting amount of liquid for desired consistency)
Cooked short-grain brown rice (I used about a cup and a half for an 8 inch square dish)
Medium salsa (approx. 1 cup)
Cooked black beans (about 3/4 can)
Cooked corn  (approx one cup)
1 C of vegan sour cream (I made Lindsay Nixon's from Everyday Happy Herbivore)
Chopped tomatoes

You could easily adapt this recipe to make it more like the traditional 7 layer taco dip, by adding in a layer of chopped green onions and black olives, also you could add a layer of avocado blended with lemon juice.  I like the simple flavors my version had and it lended itself well as a dip and also was good spread in a wrap. (It's not bad with just a fork either!).


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New winner for my cookbook giveaway.  Valerie, I give up.  Can't find ya, girl, and these books are getting dusty, so I drew a new winner (I put your name in this time too, Todd).  New winner is:

Tom and Patti B.!  Congrats and please e-mail me with your shipping info so I can get these books sent off!  (sunnyhawklane@gmail.com)

Sue, eating cool beans, in Ohio



7 comments:

  1. Cool dip recipe! Looks delicious! And congrats on keeping your bean choices to only 4. I would have had to contain myself too. I have always wanted to try those christmas beans.

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    1. He-he....yes, I had to hold myself back....so many neat new choices there!
      Sue

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  2. Sue - I can hardly believe that my wife Patti and I won something. It is very exciting. Thank you so much for your blog and your time and your effort and your generosity. Sincerely - Tom Bruno Manorville, Long Island, NY.

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    1. Ahhh, sweet message, Tom. You and your wife are very welcome. I shipped the books to you yesterday and hope they are helpful to you on your journey. It gives me immense pleasure to think I can help someone. (It always sounds so cliche: 'if one person can be helped, blah, blah, blah', but it is really true!).
      Best to you,
      Sue

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  3. test comment....just doing a test here as some people have reported to me they have had difficulty posting comments.

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  4. Dear Sue - The books arrived today and Patti and I were very excited. They look to be very fine cookbooks. We threw away almost all of our old cookbooks [yech]. I have been showing the new ones to everyone I meet. People are more open to the whole-plant diet than I would have thought. They admire us for going vegan, they just can't give up their great pleasure of eating [everything]. Patti and I treasure our health and embrace our new diet [June 16, 2012]. Thank you again for blog and support. Sincerely - Tom and Patti Bruno Manorville, Long Island, NY.

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    1. Hi Tom and Patti,
      Thanks for letting me know they got there safely. How great that you are spreading the word and exposing people to this alternative. I think some people just don't consider it a possibility! We are living examples for them, even if we don't always realize it.

      Continued good health to you both,
      Sue

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