A Family Favorite - Slow Cooker Refried Beans (100 Days of Real Food)

A question I receive from almost every Challenger in my group, "What do you feed your children?".  We've had some misses along our journey, and each girl goes through stages where she can be a little picky.  However, the Easy Slow Cooker Refried Beans recipe from 100daysofrealfood.com is ALWAYS a hit!!  The girls love the beans in a wheat tortilla with a little cheddar cheese and sour cream, and many times they eat the beans without a tortilla (they are that good!!!).  We eat the beans topped with a little greek yogurt and cheddar cheese and serve with a side salad.  Top your salad with jalapeno and banana peppers and a tsp of salsa, and you are set!  This Saturday the hubby wanted a little protein with dinner as well, so he baked a whole chicken and we added chicken to the meal.

A couple of notes, the recipe makes a LOT of beans.  We typically freeze half of the recipe for future meals.  Also, we do sometimes omit the jalapeno.  We love the beans a little on the spicy side, but the girls usually prefer if we half the jalapeno or omit completely.  They are still delish without!  You can also throw the beans in a blender versus mashing by hand.  Makes for a great consistency!  And finally, we also make the recipe with black beans, which are a hit as well.

21 day fix Challengers - The above equals 3/4 red, 1 yellow, 1 blue, 1 1/2 green.

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/08/29/recipe-easy-slow-cooker-refried-beans/

INGREDIENTS

• 1 onion, peeled and halved
• 2 cups dry pinto beans, rinsed
• ½ fresh jalapeno or other hot pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ¾ teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• One big pinch of cumin
• 6 cups water

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker.
2. Cook on high for 8 hours or overnight while you are sleeping.
3. Remove the bigger onion chunks and drain the excess liquid. If desired, save the excess liquid to add back to the final product to get the optimal consistency (i.e. not too dry).
4. Mash remaining beans with a potato masher and voila! You have homemade refried beans.