Monbento Original #55 (Double Tier)

 

I'm in love with berries right now. All the berries, all the time. Finally, after a long time of not eating berries, it is berry season; I want them with every meal. For this lunch, I had a basic strawberry-spinach-pecan salad with a homemade poppy seed dressing, rice, and some Mexican-style black beans (recipe from Veggies Don't Bite).

These beans were unintentional as full-on meal prep; I had planned to eat them the day I cooked them. But my beans were old and I misjudged the soaking liquid (such that the beans had absorbed all of the liquid overnight), so instead of about 90 minutes I had to cook them for six hours. But I was determined, and they got cooked, and they were delicious.

I usually feel discouraged when I try to cook dried beans, though, other than lentils (and sometimes even with lentils). I don't know whether it's that I tend to get older beans somehow (or I tend to forget about the beans I've bought) or I'm just bad at cooking beans, but it never seems to really go according to plan. Mostly, I use canned beans. But I had these black beans and I needed to use them, and I'll let myself feel accomplished because I managed it.