Thriftism

Canned Beans Vs. Bagged (Dry) Beans Canned beans are convenient. They are already cooked and waiting to be used. However, they also are quite a bit more expensive and having soaring levels of sodium. You can cut down on the sodium by rinsing the canned beans, but why go through this effort when you can buy cheaper beans that have no added sodium. Dry beans are between $1-$2/pound at a typical grocery store, and can be as low as $0.55 when buying in bulk at a store like Sam's Club. While the grocery store cost might seem more expensive than the $0.70/can you can spend for ready to eat beans, but the quantities are hugely different. 1 can of beans gives you less than two cups of beans. One pound of dried beans gives you about 6 cups cooked. That means by buying dried beans you could be saving a minimum of $0.50/bag compared to buying cans. Depending on the type of bean, lentil, etc. you are buying this amount can increase quite a bit. It may not seem like much...

This post is a continuation of the previous post Hobby Grain Milling in which some of the ideal characteristics of a good grain mill were described. Our topic for today is the actual milling/grinding process. The first step is to aquire your feedstock or whole grains, these can be essentially any seed grain but a few of my favorites are red wheat, rice, black beans, and corn. I recommend purchasing at least 10 lbs of grain before doing any milling to minimize clean up efforts and produce a good quantity of flour. Chickpea (Garbonzo Bean) Flour Begin by loading the hopper on your mill and set the clearance on the grinder head. The clearance or gap between the grinding disks essentially controls the final quality of the flour as well as the efficiency of the mill. Your initial clearance will vary by grain type but I recommend an initial setting of approximately half the diameter of the selected grain.  This ...

Hello All, I received a hobby grain mill for my birthday recently and got to test it out this last weekend. This post will hopefully be one of many as I experiment with grinding my own grain flour. With any luck you will be able to pick up a few pointers and benefiting from this healthy option.         Grain Mill with Rice THE MILL:Obviously the most important piece of equipment in this operation, and subsequently will have the most influence on the quality of your grain flour. A grain mill can range in price from tens to hundreds of dollars, be hand/human powered or even equipped with an electric motor. My grain mill is one of the cheaper models made and can be found on Ebay for around $25 - $30. Unless you already have experience with grinding your own grain flour or wish to use the flour on a commercial level, I would strongly recommend you purchase the cheapest cast iron hand powered mill available. A fe...