Delicious, Nutritious & Frugalicious!

Happy Sunday Morning to All!  Hope you are enjoying this beautiful, sunny, HOT day (at least for us)!  I have spent the last month visiting so many of you on your blogs trying to get the best ideas for Live Better For Less.  I definitely enjoy the blogs with the most photos!  That's what stood out most to me......beautiful photos!  As much as I like the content of the posts, there was something about being able to visualize your experiences, also.  So, I definitely will be including as many photos as possible among my posts.


I shall start with last night's dinner!  I was reading a blog that had a recipe for pinto beans.  I love beans....any type!  So, much so, that I decided to make a 16-bean soup.  We had leftover ham, and all other ingredients, so I was ready to go.  Preparation is not too bad.  It only involved chopping up the ham & some fresh garlic.  I used frozen chopped bell peppers and onions as it saved time and money (frozen produce seems to be better priced than fresh produce at the moment).  I guess the hardest part to this is waiting for the soup to cook long enough for all the flavors to settle in just right.  It took approximately 4 hours of simmering.  I have to say, though, it was well worth the wait!  So yummy!  And, it was inexpensive and nutritious, too.  


Here's all the ingredients (really not much to it):

Check out these beans!  They have just been washed and drained.  So pretty and appetizing!

I boiled and soaked the beans for an hour, poured out the old water and added fresh water to begin the simmering process.  Then it was time to toss the chopped up ham and diced garlic into the frying pan.  I always like to fry the ham before adding it to a recipe.  It seems to add so much more flavor.  Of course, with the fresh garlic mixed in, the flavor & aroma were so tantalizing.  Ah, four hours to go.....

After the pot of beans started simmering, I added the ham, garlic, and frozen peppers and onions to the pot.  Also added seasonings to taste.

Then, the waiting process.......

AT LAST, the finished product.  Yum for the tum!  If you look closely, you can even see the steam rising!  I added cornbread to the meal, and it was complete!  It was so good, I had some for breakfast this morning.  The nice thing about homemade soup, there are always leftovers for later!!