A recipe for Greek Lima Beans, a simple and healthy dish that reminds me of summer holidays on beautiful Greek Islands.

A few years ago when wanting to add more fiber and protein to my diet, I came across the humble bean. Packed with nutrients, they adds tons of nutrition to a meal, and are quite satisfying when well seasoned or paired with complimentary foods. When my daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, we learned that complex carbohydrates in beans help stabilize blood sugar because they take longer to digest. Now we eat beans at least 3-5 times a week!
-Cool Beans contest

An easy, healthy, 100% guilt-free burger!

My loving Abuela always used to stock this particular humble can of beans in her deep pantry. The warm colors and bold typography always evokes a strong sense of nostalgia whenever it catches my hungry eyes in a store.

Originally from Hong Kong, it becomes a favourite in our home. Adzuri bean is a super bean that is known to have sour and sweet taste. Sourness in adzuki beans help with digestion and restrain abnormal discharges of fluids from the body, such as diarrhea or heavy sweating. On the other hand. Sweetness tend to slow down acute reactions and detoxify the body. They also have a tonic effect because they replenish Qi and Blood.

This vision of sweet, soft green loveliness comes from reading one of my absolute favourite all time American cookbooks: The Taste of Country Cooking, by the prolific Edna Green. What strikes me again and again when I leaf through the evocative gustatory scenes and recipes described in this book is the incredible ability of Ms. Green to not only provide the reader a recipe, but a vivid depiction of the seasons of life and food and community in Freetown, Virginia (founded after the Civil War by freed slaves, including her grandfather). If you haven’t read or tried the recipes from this incredible cookbook in the Virginia region of the American south, I strongly encourage you to get your hands on this as soon as possible. It is full of the most beautiful prose and recipes. A masterpiece. I understand the importance of beans (including the baby Lima!) to the history of food and diaspora in American, and Canadian history. We owe a lot to these wonderfully filling protein bundles, from filling our tummies whether in refried, smothered, baked, buttered, raw, creamed, in brownies, in cakes, in muffins.....and in other ways as the weight in our prebaked pie crusted to the subject of many elementary science or counting activities.....the list goes on.....! This recipe is just one part of the amazing Christmas Dinner section of my copy of The Taste of Country Cooking on page 217. Try it today! My god, Lima beans are taken to a whole new, rich and heavenly place. Delicious.

Convincing a toddler to try new foods can be tough, especially beans! Kids are naturally quite suspicious of foods based on color, texture and smell.

To get the right amount of nutrition into my kids diet, I’ve learned to be a bit sneaky about it. And luckily when it comes to beans, they blend into any meal and no one will be the wiser. That’s why my favorite family bean recipe is chocolate black bean cookies. My kids gobble them up without realizing (or caring) about all the nutritious goodness in them!

Our favorite black bean cookie recipe is by “A couple of cooks”. It uses canned black beans, which makes it totally easy for a busy mom!

There’s nothing more satisfying then when your kids eat something “good” for them. Yay, for beans!!

Beans Around the World

On stay-at-home Saturdays I enjoy making a pot of pinto beans to use for quick-meals over the coming week; tacos, burritos, soups and bean-grain bowls. I find it magical that from one pot of beans such a variety of good meals can come! This illustration shows the way to my reliable pot of gold.

So many varieties of leaves, vines, bushes, and flowers develop into these wonderful and colorful beans.