Kids Cook Monday: Beans in My Belly

 Explore the Importance of Eating Beans (5 min)

• Beans are great vegetables because they provide many vitamins , minerals, protein, iron, and fiber

to help your body to grow strong and stay healthy.

• Beans help our bodies become stronger so that we can all play sports!

• Can anyone name a bean? (Chickpeas, kidney beans, lima beans, pinto beans, black beans, black

eyed

peas, lentils.)

• Can anyone think of a way of adding beans to their foods? (Wi th rice, in salad, in their pasta, mix

them with their vegetables or eat them separately because the y are so tasty!)

.Exploring the Recipe

• We have read a lot of dif ferent recipes. Now we need to explore the recipe in a dif ferent way. By

looking at the major ingredients and spices you can learn if the recipe appeals to you or not. That’s

one way to decide on your own if you want to make the dish or not.

• These recipes use a lot of dif ferent beans. What beans are in them?

• What other beans do you like? What would you substitute? What would you keep the same?

• The recipes also use spices. Spices add a lot of flavor to a recipe. Chefs usually have their favorite

spices. If they like hot food they use different spices than if they enjoy sweet, sour, or savory flavors.

• We are using three different spices, cumin, chili powder, and basil. Pass around small sample to

smell.

• What does the spice smell like? Have you smelled something li ke that before?

• Spices are strong flavors. Let’ s look at the recipe and compare the amount of spices to other

ingredients.

• Example: 11/2 cups carrots vs. 2 1/2 teaspoons cumin.

• Now that you looked carefully at the recipe, we can make the dishes and then you decide what you

like about them and what you would change or keep the same if you made it again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three Bean Chili

Makes 15 small or 8 large servings

Ingredients:

• 1 green pepper

• 1 onion

• 2 garlic cloves

• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil

• 1 (151/2 ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

• 1 (15 1/2 ounce) can black eyed peas, rinsed and drained

• 1 (15 1/2 ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

• 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes

• 2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce

• 1/2 tablespoon chili powder

• 1 teaspoon brown sugar

• 1 teaspoon dried basil

• 1 cup water

Directions:

1. Green pepper: Wash and chop.

2. Onion: Wash, peel, and chop.

3. Garlic: Peel and cut into very tiny pieces.

4. In a large, heavy pot, heat the olive oil.

5. Add the green pepper, onion and garlic to the pot. Cook, continuously stirring, until the pepper,

onion, and garlic are soft.

6. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot.

7. Cover and cook on medium-high until mixture just begins to bubble, about 10 minutes.

Stir occasionally.