Trying something new…

As much as I enjoy trying new things and experimenting with the old… I do tend to be a bit rigid in my thinking at times.  I like to think that I am generally right in how I do things.  Maybe I’m just getting older, but as much as I want to be correct in my knowledge, I often find that the world has moved on… and what I once knew to be true may not be so much so anymore….

Take medicine… we used to do some crazy things to people because we thought that it was the best for them, but we are finding new ways that are saving lives and shortening recovery because someone thought of doing something differently….

If you had told me 5 years ago that I would be a homeschooling, grain grinding, bread making, sprout growing mama… I would have laughed, but I do some weird things so I probably would have believed it…

So to get to the point…  I’ve never been on the whole soaking/sprouting grain/flour kick before… quite frankly I thought it didn’t really make alot of sense… If we look at how people did things in the past I don’t know that it is necessarily valid or not… there is science to prove that soaking is beneficial, but my grandparents never did it so is it really something worth doing?

I’ve been researching sprouting a bit more lately, and found that there may be more validity to it than what I necessarily thought.  I’m not a detailed enough person to write a whole essay on the benefits, but I did find a site on a great blog about sprouting beans before use  http://potterswheelschool.blogspot.com/2008/03/beans-101.html

Now I’ve sprouted grains and seeds and even some beans like lentils or mung beans to each in salads and sandwiches…. and I have soaked beans prior to cooking… BUT SPROUTING BEANS BEFORE COOKING… RIDICULOUS!

This was pretty much a dare to me to now have to try it….  would it be weird or taste strange with little sprouts on them??? 

Since I was doing a pound of beans I couldn’t use my regular sprouter… What I did was soak the beans overnight in filtered water in a bowl… mine are also black beans…

The next morning I strained them and spread them out in a 9×13 glass pan… I made sure they were a bit moist, but not in standing water.

I rinsed them every 4-6 hours..just like with regular sprouts… and loosely covered them with some plastic wrap leaving the ends open for air to circulate…

I did this for 2 days and then they magically sprouted!  I let them go for the rest of that day and then rinsed them one last time and put them into the crockpot to cook for chalupas…

Well, let me just say that these were surprisingly good… even better than I expected.

They were very tender and tasty…

The only issue I have with this is that is does take planning, but then homecooking generally does.  I think I have found a new, healthful way to make beans that I never thought that I would ever consider….