Money Saving Monday: My Crockpot!

Last week I was posting crockpot recipes for a friend to see(and to share with anyone else). 

That leads me right into WHY I use my crockpot.  Most of the time I use it to save my sanity!  Tuesdays & Thursdays are CRAZY busy for me.  I am running kids to Bible study, piano & fitting my errands in between!  So if I can leave the house with supper taken care of then I am one step closer to surviving those days.  Let’s face it.  Life is hard but it can be easier if we use a few tools.  I like being able to just walk in the door at 5 or after and know I am about 10 minutes from having dinner on the table.

BUT my crockpot saves me $ also!  Here is one way

We love beans and we make them often.  It is not unusual for us to have beans 3 or 4 days out of 7.  They are cheap too.  Lately I have been making them from scratch & not buying the cans.  That makes it REALLY cheap.

A can of beans—about 2 cups is around $.60(aldi’s)

A small bag of beans—makes roughly 6-7 cups costs $1.10(walmart)

Hmmm do the math. 

Beans seem hard to do but they aren’t.  Hardest thing is remembering to do it ahead of time so that they are ready when you need them.

Grab a bag of beans, we use a lot of black beans in our Mexican dishes.  Rinse them and pick out any stones or yucky looking beans.  Dump them in the crockpot & cover with water so that the beans are under the water by 2-3 inches.  The beans WILL soak up this water over night so make sure there is plenty covering them.  The next morning add more water & turn on the crockpot to low.   By late afternoon or supper time you will have nice soft beans ready to bag & put in the freezer.  Next time you need beans you can pop them in some hot water or the microwave & you are ready to get cookin’

3 Bean Soup—so easy the kids can make it!

1 can or 2 cups cooked black beans

1 can or 2 cups cooked white beans

2 cans or 4 cups kidney beans(I like Aldi’s canned chili bean because they already have a sauce with the beans)

1 quart diced tomatoes

1 quart water

Optional:  1-2 cups cooked hamburger

Heat & serve with tortilla chips, sour cream, avacado chunks,  shredded cheese