Quick Meals - Black Beans and Hominy

 

What do you do when you need a fast meal but you don’t eat “prefabricated food” much (if at all)?  Most of us in Western culture have been trained by experience and advertising to think that in order to get a really fast home cooked meal we have to buy something that we simply pop in the oven, wait and eat.  If your family, like ours, are trying to get away from this type of meal, you may wonder how you can make a good, quick meal without eating out or using a lot of frozen dinners and meals in a can.  I’d like to share some simple recipes and methods with you that I’ve found useful.  These mostly have evolved out the fact that I have had health issues in the recent past that tended to make me abnormally weak and tired and also dietary needs that made it impossible for me to rely on those frozen meals that make home cooking abnormally easy.

I do use canned foods, but not much of the sort that comes with seasonings and goos and gunks in it – supposedly to make it taste “just like homemade” (which it never does).  We also use plain frozen vegetables.  (Our “indiscretions” in the line of pre-made meals mostly runs towards one particular kind of frozen pizza to which I still add things to make it more nourishing).

Most or many of these recipes may be so simple that I don’t have any measurements for them.  You will have to take the challenge of learning to cook by the seat of your pants.  And, after all, this is the first step to learning to make quick and easy home cooked meals.  You need to learn to take a few ingredients and just fly with it. :-)  Once you’ve done a bit it will start to come naturally and you will start to invent your own, if you don’t already.

Today’s recipe is super simple, but my husband and I both find it very tasty and filling.
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Black Beans and Hominy

One can black beans and
One can hominy in the same size.  (I like golden hominy the best.)
Garlic powder
Onion powder  -- both to taste
Bacon or ham bits (optional – but it does improve the taste)

Heat all together in a medium to large sauce pan (depending on the size cans you use).  Serve with sour cream or grated cheese on top if desired.

For a spicier taste add red pepper flakes when cooking.

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That’s it!  How easy is that?  I suggest serving it with a simple side salad, but even that is not particularly necessary.  :-)

(And, yes, that is a paper bowl. :-)  I’d gotten away from paper quite a bit at one point.  Then last year we had a sever drought here in Texas.  I realized that I might as well go back to using some paper plates/bowls and all paper napkins at that time because it actually saved on water use.  The paper “dishes” also save me extra work when it’s necessary that I save my energy or strength for something more important.  You may not agree, but this is what is best for us now.) :-)