Things That Make My Life Easier: Fast Food
Ordering food or eating out wasn’t that expensive when I lived by myself and only ate once per day. Now that I’m married and there are several meals to be eaten it isn’t quite so cost effective. Still, I’m no chef, not even close, so fast food makes my life so much easier.
Case-in-point, I decided to make some chili because I figured it would be quick and easy. So I had all the ingredients in the pot and then I dropped in the beans. Right after I did that I realized that I needed to cook the beans first. So I quickly tried to scoop them out of the pot. You can see the results of that below. (Notice the pizza box?)
Next I put beans in a pot to boil. About an hour later the beans were still hard and they looked nasty. I decided to read the package and low-and-behold…you have to soak the beans the night before.
Meanwhile, it’s 8pm, I have no dinner made, and my husband will be home soon.
This is why fast food is one thing that makes my (non-cooking) life easier.
My mom’s chili never required to cook the beans. She never soaked them overnight either, just rinsed them and threw them in…
Maybe you need a more “quick and easy” chili instead of a “i have lots of free time fancy” chili
Those are the kind of beans I need to find.
Yeah you need the soft beans in a can. A lot of Mexican cooking uses the hard beans (I mean FRESH beans, sorry!)but yeah, you are supposed to soak them.
Try a slow cooker for your chili – that way you can basically fix it in the a.m. and forget it for most of the day. You’ll still have a home-cooked meal but it won’t be quite as labor intensive.
Leastwise that’s what I’ve come to rely on. And the beans are canned – soaking not required. (Woohoo!)
You need to use fresh or canned beans.
Also, make extra, the next day you can shred some cheese, lettuce and dice some tomato for VERY QUICK tacos or burritos.
I suggest soft shells.