Beans Beans, They’re Good For Your Heart. . .

We are officially heading into barbecue season! Yeah! Why is it that things just taste so much better when they are cooked outside? Chicken, steak, burgers, hotdogs ~ they all take on so much more flavor and character when grilled.

Then again, maybe the fact that DH does the grilling and I don’t have to cook it has something to do with my enjoyment.

One of my favorite quick, easy and fairly healthy side dishes for barbeques is 3 bean salad. It’s just kidney beans, green beans, wax beans and a little onion tossed together with bottled (or homemade) Italian dressing. If you can let it sit in the fridge for a few hours or even overnight it gives the flavors time to meld. I have been known to frequently make “1 Bean Salad” ie kidney beans with Italian dressing and onion. Believe it or not that is one of Princesses favorite foods. Sometime this summer I will try making something like the salad in the picture~mmmm don’t all those different beans togther look delicious?

In order to have the ingredients on hand for this all summer I make sure to stock up on cans of green and wax beans, and of course the kidney beans.

Last night I went into my stock of dried beans and took out 3 packages of dried “small red beans” (not exactly the same a kidney beans, but close enough) I soaked them overnight in the crockpot liner, then drained them this morning and put them back in with fresh water and a 1/4 tsp of baking soda (to help combat gassiness) and will cook them on low all day.

Tonight I will throw them into a few roasting pans to increase surface area and let them cool for a while. Then I will package the beans in zipper freezer baggies in 1 and 2 cup portions (labled of course with permenant marker), lay them flat, and freeze stacked up on a cookie sheet. Once frozen solid they stack very nicely on the side of the freezer and will be ready for my bean salad, or any other bean recipe I come across for quite a while.