Healthy Food Blog

No Tears!

✿ Chill onions before chopping - 30 minutes in the refrigerator or 10 minutes in the freezer.

✿ Use a very sharp knife.

✿ Start cutting at the stem end.

❁ Dried and canned beans are great food to keep on hand. You may want to stock up when they are on sale.

❁ Dried beans are usually cheaper than canned beans but take longer to cook. Canned beans are fully cooked and ready to use cold or heated.

❁ Although each type of bean is slightly different, you can swap one type for another in most recipes. Use what you have or buy what is cheapest or on sale.

❁ You can replace 1 pound of meat with 2 cups of cooked beans in many recipes.

■ Store dry beans in an airtight container in a cool, dark, dry place. Label with the date they were purchased and try to use within 1 year for best quality.

When kids help make healthy food, they are more likely to try it. Show kids how to:

❁ find and remove small rocks or other seeds and plant parts from dried beans.

❁ use a colander to rinse dry or canned beans under cool running water.

❁ wash or chop vegetables.