Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => Health and Nutrition => Topic started by: Brother Woodrow on September 25, 2025, 08:43:52 PM
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Good Evening all,
I plan on starting a diet soon as a form of penance for my habitual and plentiful grave sins that have taken over my life the past year. By controlling my appetite for food I'm hoping to control my appetites for other pleasures and temptations. My way of doing this is by routinely eating beans for dinner, probably daily.
I may add meat here or there, but the intention is to get boring. However, beans are a pretty robust food source and I don't mind eating them all the time even if they are boring. Plus, they're very cheap and should help with budgeting as I spend too much on food anyway.
My problem is. I'm not good at cooking beans at all. Does anyone know of any must have spices that I can add to maybe make this ordeal not so awful. I'm afraid if I just start eating black beans out of a can everyday I will eventually stop this routine entirely. So if I can at least make the beans more enjoyable that would be a good way to maintain this new diet.
I love spicy foods. So if that helps with any recommendations then power to ya.
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I'd just season them to taste. As long as it tastes good enough to eat. Fasting, even only eating once per day is a good way to make bland foods taste good, so seasoning might not be needed. It'd use dried beans over slimy canned, but be sure to research how to properly prepare them since some contain high levels of toxins that are broken down by certain temperatures for minimum durations.
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If you mean green beans you'll just need a steamer or saute pan. Butter, lemon, salt, or any dressing will suffice.
If you are talking about dried beans, I'd recommend getting a quality pressure cooker, mashing the beans, and forming them into burger patties. Of course, dried (or canned) beans can be added to almost any soup. Minestrone is the classic example.
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Dried beans are the least expensive. They keep practically forever if kept dry. Only be sure to soak them thoroughly for 24 hours, 12+12, rinse thoroughly between soakings. Use a slow cooker to make delicious, filling soup. Water, milk or cream, butter, diced potatoes, onion or garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Mix in a little corn starch for body. Delicious and filling.
I know you’re fasting, but if not, minced clams, oysters, scallops, mussels, or fish may be added along with creamed corn to make a chowder.
Serve with toast or crackers.
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Pasta fagiole - red or white
Pasta chi chi - red or white
Pasta with lentils
Lentil soup
Bean soup with corn bread
Hummus
White bean dip
Falafel
Chickpeas or cannelini beans with spinach, olive oil and garlic, with bread and pecorino Romano
Mexican bean dip
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Eat your beans with a grain to get the complete protein.
Beans and rice
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We use black beans plain as a substitute for meat in a taco salad. With salsa and ranch, it’s delicious.
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A classic, Cuban Black Beans: Black Beans (cooked from dry beans is better than canned) over white rice, topped with diced onion (white, yellow, red, but I'm fond of sweet) and drizzled with olive oil.
Go to your local library and check the cookbook section (yes, one can do an internet search also, I prefer the library) for vegetarian chili, which can be as spicy as you like. The vegetarian recipes may have more (or more of) diced celery and sweet corn to substitute for the texture provided by hamburger. One can make a large batch in a slow cooker and freeze part of it.
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And since you are doing penance, remember to practice forbearance and charity if you happen to find a package of beano in your Christmas stocking! ;)
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Lentils are often forgotten. This awesome recipe feels like you are cheating by eating waffles. They work best with a regular small waffle maker (not Belgian Waffles). I make this weekly and use it like bread, since I cannot have gluten. I like to have them with peanut butter and banana slices, or berry chia jam. You can put sweetener in this recipe, stevia, monk fruit, honey or maple syrup.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup red lentils
- Boiling water for soaking
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder (certified GF, as needed)
- Optional: 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 cups water (I use room temperature tap water)
Instructions
- Place the uncooked lentils in a heatproof bowl or container. Cover with boiling water (so that the water on top of the lentils is approximately 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch). Let stand for 30 minutes until the lentils are plumped up ( from absorbing a lot of of the water).
- Rinse and drain the lentils through a fine mesh sieve or colander. Gently shake the colander to remove excess water.
- Place the drained lentils, baking powder and optional salt in the container of of blender or high speed blender. Add 1.5 cups fresh water (not the soaking water).
- Blend on high speed until completely smooth, stopping once or twice to scrape down the sides of the container. Let stand for 5 minutes. The batter will look somewhat thin immediately after blending. It will thicken as it stands.
- While the lentil batter stands to thicken slightly, preheat your waffle maker/ waffle iron according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If the waffle maker has a temperature knob, set it between medium heat and medium-high heat.
- Unless you are on a strictly oil-free diet, I strongly recommend spritzing the waffle iron plates with nonstick cooking spray before adding the batter. This includes nonstick waffle makers. It makes it so much easier to release the waffles.
Pour or ladle the waffle batter into the prepared waffle maker, being careful not to overfill. Close the lid of the waffle maker and cook. - Cook the waffles according to the manufacturer's instructions.
When the waffle maker indicator signals that the waffles are done, gently tug on the lid (just a little bit) to see if there is any resistance. If there is, DO NOT FORCE OPEN THE LID. Continue cooking for another few minutes or so until the lid opens easily and the waffle is a light golden brown in color. - Repeat with the remaining waffle batter. Serve the waffles straight away, or cool on a cooling rack for future eating.
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Beans, beans, the musical fruit,
The more you eat, the more you toot,
The more you toot, the better you feel,
Eat your beans with every meal!😂
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Beans, beans, the musical fruit,
The more you eat, the more you toot,
The more you toot, the better you feel,
Eat your beans with every meal!😂
My mother used to say this all the time. We had beans 1-3 x a week growing up (often with rice, tortillas or chips). :laugh1: :laugh2:
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Lentils are often forgotten. This awesome recipe feels like you are cheating by eating waffles. They work best with a regular small waffle maker (not Belgian Waffles). I make this weekly and use it like bread, since I cannot have gluten. I like to have them with peanut butter and banana slices, or berry chia jam. You can put sweetener in this recipe, stevia, monk fruit, honey or maple syrup.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup red lentils
- Boiling water for soaking
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder (certified GF, as needed)
- Optional: 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 cups water (I use room temperature tap water)
Instructions
- Place the uncooked lentils in a heatproof bowl or container. Cover with boiling water (so that the water on top of the lentils is approximately 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch). Let stand for 30 minutes until the lentils are plumped up ( from absorbing a lot of of the water).
- Rinse and drain the lentils through a fine mesh sieve or colander. Gently shake the colander to remove excess water.
- Place the drained lentils, baking powder and optional salt in the container of of blender or high speed blender. Add 1.5 cups fresh water (not the soaking water).
- Blend on high speed until completely smooth, stopping once or twice to scrape down the sides of the container. Let stand for 5 minutes. The batter will look somewhat thin immediately after blending. It will thicken as it stands.
- While the lentil batter stands to thicken slightly, preheat your waffle maker/ waffle iron according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If the waffle maker has a temperature knob, set it between medium heat and medium-high heat.
- Unless you are on a strictly oil-free diet, I strongly recommend spritzing the waffle iron plates with nonstick cooking spray before adding the batter. This includes nonstick waffle makers. It makes it so much easier to release the waffles.
Pour or ladle the waffle batter into the prepared waffle maker, being careful not to overfill. Close the lid of the waffle maker and cook. - Cook the waffles according to the manufacturer's instructions.
When the waffle maker indicator signals that the waffles are done, gently tug on the lid (just a little bit) to see if there is any resistance. If there is, DO NOT FORCE OPEN THE LID. Continue cooking for another few minutes or so until the lid opens easily and the waffle is a light golden brown in color. - Repeat with the remaining waffle batter. Serve the waffles straight away, or cool on a cooling rack for future eating.
Wow! That is so interesting! Thanks for sharing!
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Growing up we ate straight black beans which my mother soaked over night, froze and then cooked for several hours to get the gases out. She also added meat tenderizer or papaya to help make them not so hard and a little salt and parlsey.
I had a hard time beans in general growing up. We would add salsa and cheese to them to make them edible.
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When I started cooking more as a teenager I started adding more spices to beans and experimenting to make them taste better/settle more easily on my stomach.
Certain spices make beans taste much better and taste sort of like "refried bea s" you might get from Taco Bell. 😅
cuмin Powder
Paprika Powder
Chili Powder
Minced Onions (or onion flakes)
Minced Garlic (or powered)
(And obviously salt and pepper)
I rarely make beans without adding these.
You can also add butter and sour cream, cream cheese or shredded pepperjack cheese at the end of cooking and after mashing to enhance the flavor and texture.
A little hotsauce added to individual servings can give it a bit of a kick.
Making a fresh Pico de Gallo to go with it is amazing....Also making homemade tortillas.
Hope your fasting/abstinence training goes well!
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Thank you for all the responses here. I'll definitely be going back to this thread in the coming weeks to use these ideas / recipes.
I'll probably do both canned beans and dried beans. Probably black, red, pinto, and lentils. A few years back I worked as a postman and was a boxer and pretty much lived off a diet of chicken and lentil soup and got ridiculously healthy.
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Use vinegar to cut down on the gassiness.
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These look delicious, although I haven’t personally made them myself yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8CYOeb2mQ4