Sequestration Meal #563

 

This was a semi-successful meal: Homemade vegan macaroni and cheese, some slow cooker baked beans (recipe from Taste of Home), sauteed yellow squash and zucchini, and orange-glazed carrots.

The macaroni was delicious; I used my favorite cashew cheese recipe (from Veganosity), and that never fails me. I also used a protein-boosted pasta, so it could have served as a main dish without the beans, and when it comes to the leftovers, it might!

I'm still in add-more-veggies mode (all veggies, all the time), so I had both the squash and the carrots. Both turned out beautifully and I think I could have easily been very happy with jut the macaroni and more veggies.

The beans were just...not good. I cooked them for the allotted 9 hours and they were still not soft, which makes me wonder if my water was hard or something. I stirred them at that point and they seemed to cook better after that for whatever reason, but by the time they'd cooked for 12 hours they were both not soft enough and beginning to taste burnt. I turned off my slow cooker and went to bed, letting them cook with residual heat. In the morning, I divided them up in containers and froze half, but I think that may be a cruel gift to future me, so I may end up thawing them and tossing them if I can't fix them. For this serving, I simmered them down with some water, barbecue sauce, and soy sauce and they did improve, but were still not great. I want to be able to save money using dried beans, but in the end, if a can of beans can be doctored up easily, is this worth all the effort? Especially if I am tempted to throw them out anyway?

The problem could be that I bought "robust" molasses, which is a much stronger flavor, because I was one of those fools who wants to try new stuff all the time. But that wouldn't explain why the beans didn't soften, of course. And I do think it was a burnt flavor, not a glaringly strong molasses flavor.

Burning questions of our times, maybe, but I think that I'd prefer doing shortcut beans in the future. Maybe I have hard water; maybe I should try distilled water and check that. Or add baking soda? Or just accept that dried beans are not a thing for me?