Bean and Rice month

I sincerely hope this goes better than my facebook “fast” which broke the day we decided to adopt Jordan. We will be eating beans and rice for the month of April, starting when we get home from our vacation on April 4th.

We got the idea from a friend at church who are participating in the official challenge. The idea is to eat like our brothers and sisters in Africa and to send money that is saved to an orphanage in Africa. In our case, I think the money will go to James and Jordan’s orphanage.

Want to participate? Want to participate after you hear how we did? Follow along with the blog – I’ll update you every now and then. For now, here are the rules we’ve made ourselves:

Beans and rice allowed
Vegetables, fruits, oils and spices allowed
Tortillas and tortilla chips allowed
Yogurt allowed
If we cheat, it will be in adding cheese

Do you have favorite bean and rice recipes? Please share!

Here’s our meal plan:
Bean and rice tacos
Macho Mexican Rice
Rice and Beans with a Bam
Gallo Pinto
Mexican Rice and Beans
Spicy Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup
Turmeric Rice
Cajun Skillet Beans
Honolulu Skillet Beans
Koshary
Majedra
Middle Eastern Rice with Black Beans and Chickpeas
Black Bean and Rice Enchiladas
Herbed Lentils and Rice

Recipes that call for “illegal” ingredients will be modified.

For a little variety, I’ve purchased a number of different kinds of beans and different kinds of rice. Winco is perfect for this. I spent only about $25 on beans and rice that should get us through the month. I’ve spent another $25 on things like chicken broth, tortilla chips, salsa, etc. I plan on spending another $30 or so on vegetables and fruit. I’ll let you know how much the produce actually costs me since I’m not very aware of what percentage of my budget usually goes to produce. This month will definitely be high on onions and garlic. I hope our house isn’t too smelly…..

One website suggested to make white rice more healthy, to add some quinoa and millet in with it. White rice has a 30 year shelf life if properly stored, so it’s nice to know how to use it. Millet is cheap. Quinoa is not cheap. I’ll let you know how it tastes. If I remember.