Overnight Black Beans

I woke up this morning to a delicious aroma wafting ever so delicately into my bedroom. Wiping the sleep from my eyes, I thought about what this smell could possibly be…. after about five minutes of sniffing and drooling, I finally realized…

“Oh yeah! Overnight Black Beans!” 

Last night, I pulled out the slow cooker and set it up so I’d have lunch ready at 6 am. Special thanks to Aunt Terry for our sweet crock-pot. So fancy!

Love this thing!

You see, I am all about food prep/easy cooking these days. I’ve been ridiculously busy and I don’t see any signs of my schedule opening up…in fact, it’s only going to get busier in the next few months. So, in order to keep myself (and Farmer Ben) sane, I’ve been scouring some of my favorite food blogs, and discovering new ones, to find easy-to-put-together meals…and when that fails, I pester the hubs.

Luckily, we keep a supply of good staples in our house and that makes the whole food prep thing a lot easier. I can take no blame for this, Farmer Ben is totally responsible for keeping the kitchen well stocked and for that I am so thankful. He’s the best…and not a total space cadet like his wife.

Anyway, I was going to do a chicken crock-pot meal…but I over-estimated our chicken supply (see space cadet note, above). Black beans were next on the list.

Let me tell you, these beans were the such a good idea!  So easy and soooooo gooooooooood.

Perfection

The beans came out perfectly, just a little bit of crunch but not too hard and not too soft.

What you’ll need: 

• ~2 cups dried black beans
• **3 cups chicken or vegetable stock (water will also work)
• About half an onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 Serrano peppers (I was going to chop but after squirting pepper juice all over myself, I threw them in whole).
• 1 tbsp. taco seasoning (cumin, pepper, paprika, salt, pepper, etc.)
• About 1/3 cup of Farmer Ben’s JD Barbecue Sauce (you could also use a hot salsa, chili sauce or a savory/spicy barbecue sauce–avoid the sweet stuff!) 

What to do: 

Rinse and drain beans. Pick out any stones/non-bean items.

Throw all the ingredients into crock-pot and give it a quick stir.

Turn crock-pot on low and forget about it for 8 hours (I started mine before I went to bed).

Serve over rice, with a fried egg or with tacos/nachos. Perfection.

**Note: Depending on how dry/wet you like your beans, adjust the liquid. These would have been just as good with 2 cups of chicken stock for a drier bean, I had some extra liquid but the beans were still firm and so not mushy. If you’re using 3 cups of beans (or a 16 oz package), use 3-4 cups of liquid. 

Enjoy!

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