Beans

This is easy, delicious and has lots of protein.

Ingredients:
2 cups dried beans (or so; I mean, if you have 1.5-2.5 in your jar, that will be fine)
1 onion, or more if you have extra or small ones etc, and depending on your mood
few cloves garlic
spices

Go back into time to the night before. Rinse the beans and then soak them. Put a lot more water than beans because the beans will absorb a lot. Next morning, rinse the beans, add water, this time not so much, maybe only an inch above the beans. Turn on the stove. Chop the onion and garlic and add. Pick out your spices and add. You can let the beans boil, or if you are like me and are running off to your exercise class, just turn the stove to the place where you know they will simmer at (medium-low on my stove), put the lid on, and run out the door. I have a roommate who can make sure the house doesn't burn down. This only takes 10 minutes. Then when you come home after your long morning of exercise/work/goofing off, the beans are ready. If you don't have a house-mate and don't want to leave the burner on, a crockpot on high will work but will take longer. But that's okay, have them for dinner.

Now, for the spices. This is fun to experiment with. For white beans, I've been using "Fines Herbs," "Herbs du Province," and Bouquet Garni. These are just mixtures and are not necessary, I just happen to have them and was looking for something to put them in. Herbs de provence has savory, thyme, rosemary, basil, tarragon, lavendar flowers. Bouquet Garni has savory, rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, dill, marjoram, sage, and tarragon. Most people have thyme and basil and that would work fine. Oregano would probably be good too. I'd total maybe 3 tsp of spices. But that is a personal choice. For pinto beans I've been using cumin and I think oregano. In the summer I add herbs from the garden at the table.

I've found adding a can of tomatoes to both pinto and white beans is also good. We can our garden tomatoes and have them all year round.

Adding all the ingredients at the beginning adds flavor to the beans and it's so easy!