This wonderful recipe is a guest post from Rebekah at The Golden Gleam.
As a Mama to four small children, I need to keep our dinners simple. Meal prep needs to be quick, and my kids (and husband) are super picky eaters. Keeping it easy makes the whole family happy. My kids thrive off routine, so we have dinner ritual. We have an entire evening routine that makes this “witching hour” more peaceful. As I prepare dinner, the kids watch one kids’ program from Netflix or play outside with their Papa, if he has the day off work.
This menu for dinner is sliced apples, refried black beans, and corn muffins. I wish everything could be homemade. But in this season of life, using a mix of fresh and packaged food makes dinnertime more manageable. Most of my family members don’t like meat, so we eat a lot of vegetarian food. Refried black beans please even our pickiest eaters and has more iron than refried pinto beans.
Refried Black Beans Recipe
Ingredients 3 cans of black beans 1/4 cup of olive oil 1 T cumin 3-5 finely diced garlic clovesSteps
- Dice garlic cloves.
- Heat oil in saucepan on medium heat.
- Add garlic and saute for less than one minute.
- Drain liquid from two cans of beans. Leave liquid in one can of beans.
- Add beans and cumin to pot.
- Simmer for about 10-15 mins on low.
- Remove pot from heat and let cool about five minutes.
- Use a potato masher or blender to mash the beans. My kids don’t like a lot of mixed textures so I use a blender.
I use a boxed mix for cornbread, and peel and slice the apples.
Once everyone is seated for dinner, we light our dinner candle. We say our dinner blessing posted on our chalkboard door next to the dinner table. Many nights, we eat dinner without Papa since he works late, but I eat with the kids every night. We chat and each share what we have liked about our days. Once I have finished my meal, I put away the food and clean the counters giving my kids more time to finish their meal. At the end of dinner, I read a story to the kids. They enjoy this dinner story time, and it gives them a signal that that it is almost time to finish eating their dinner.
Thank you for letting us share our refried black bean recipe with you. What rituals do you share at your meals that make your family happy?
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Rebekah is a proud Mama to her four little miracles. Come play, laugh, and learn with her at The Golden Gleam where she shares her passion for unstructured play and creating a happy home for her family.
I love the nightly dinner candle idea 🙂 We do a candle periodically but not often. It would be really nice to make it an every night thing. Our dinner ritual is to have each person share “highs” and “lows” of the day. The kids really look forward to it!!
My kids are so used to it now, they will remind me if I forget to light the candle. A few times, I have had to take away the candle privilege because a couple of my children were not being safe with it. But it just took taking away the candle once or twice and now they monitor each other to make sure they are safe with the candle.
So funny that as a Mexican I have never thought of making refried beans as a main meal item. I love it thought it’s packed with protein! Thx
We always hold hands when we give thanks for the food. My kids have gotten really attached to the symbol of conection
Now, I remember doing this in my family growing up. I just might add this to our dinner prayer ritual too.