Here in Minnesota the Public Heath has a great program called WIC – short for women, infants and children. They provide vouchers for free food staples like milk, cheese, eggs, ect. for families that fall below a certain income. Our family gets WIC…and are proud of it. We Canadians love our social programs!
Anyway, I currently have a stockpile of dried beans, peas and lentils, that have come from WIC over the past couple of years, that I’m not quite sure what to do with. Lately, I’ve actually been using them to entertain Noah…
This is supposed to be a happy face, drawn by me on the paper with glue, decorated with beans by Noah. He started out carefully placing one bean at a time on the “drawing,” but then ended up throwing the beans on by the handful instead. I guess he’s more into abstract art! 
So, I was wondering if any of my readers might have some better uses for my dried legumes. Like, I mean, in the form of recipes…kid friendly recipes. Anyone?
That’s awesome to be able to use that program!
Kid friendly is tricky sometimes and different kids can be soooo different in their acceptance of new foods, eh?
Soups are always good for using up dried beans (and there’s split pea soup, which I think I remember you making). You can also make bean dips. Lentils can be good for soups. Depending on what kind of lentils you have, we have a spicy Egyptian recipe called kusherie and make a lentil pate that’s really tasty.
The Magical Loaf Studio (http://www.veganlunchbox.com/loaf_studio.html) also generates a recipe for you based on what you have available from each of the main groups of ingredients, so you might want to give it a try. We’ve enjoyed those recipes and I found it useful for using up a surfeit of split green peas we had.
Good luck! You can email or leave a comment on our blog if you need more specifics.
P.S. But I do think you’ve found a pretty good use for the beans!
Hi Janet,
I have a great split pea curry soup recipe (not sure if it’s kid friendly since i haven’t ventured down that road yet). Also do you have any pea beans or pinto beans? If so I’ve got a great baked bean recipe that uses mostly maple syrup instead of molasses. Both of these recipes are crockpot firendly which I certainly appreciate in my busy life! Anyways, if you’re interested in either of these let me know. Until then continue on with the fun crafts
Janet, I have a super yummy recipe using red lentils to make a pasta sauce. It’s so simple and so yummy! I can email it to you if you give me your email address, if you’re interested of course!
Thanks all, for the suggestions. I’ll definitly check that link out, Mel. That looks really cool. Erin, I’d love to have the curry soup recipe. It’s a long shot with my kids, but Dave loves all things curry. And Mandi, that pasta sauce recipe sounds like something my kids would actually eat! I’d love to have it! I’ll e-mail you with my address.
My sister-in-law cooks up the beans and makes her own refried beans to go with taco dishes – kind of time consuming though.
I’d say switch to more p.b. You can store that for a long time…or make cookies! Good luck!
Black and Pinto beans are great for Brazilian beans… I am sure that your kids will enjoy that with rice… I can tell you how to make them – or give you a sample to try !
I also like curried lentils with potatoes …. very good for you !
… and we are proud WIC holders too!
you can add black beans, corn and avacado to salsa. Yummy!!!!