Bare Pantry Beans and Rice Recipe

Bare Pantry Beans and Rice

A simple, nutritious dish that adapts to whatever beans you have in your pantry, whether canned or dried.

Ingredients:

🍚 2 cups cooked white rice
🫘 2 cans (15.5 oz each) Kidney Beans or Dark Kidney Beans, undrained (Use the liquid from the cans—or see the dried bean alternative below)
🧈 1 tablespoon butter, olive oil, or vegetable oil
🌟 A few dashes of soy sauce (optional for added umami!)

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Seasonings:

🧄 3 teaspoons garlic powder
🧅 2 teaspoons onion powder
🌶️ 1-2 teaspoons paprika (adjust for preference)
⚫ 1 teaspoon black pepper
🔥 Hot Sauce (e.g., Tabasco, optional, to taste)

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Optional Add-Ins:

🍖 Meat Options:

• 🐷 Ham hock (for a smoky flavor)
• 🥓 Diced ham
• 🌭 Sausage slices (e.g., smoked or Andouille sausage)

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Bonus Customization:

🍴 Sauces or Seasonings You Have on Hand:

• Fast food sauce packets (e.g., Arby’s Horsey Sauce, BBQ Sauce, Taco Bell Mild Sauce)
• Grilled hamburger seasonings or spice blends
• Ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce (small amounts for flavor boosts)
• Any leftover marinades, dips, or condiments

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Alternative Beans for Flexibility:

Ranked by healthier sodium levels and what you’re likely to have on hand:
🥇 Dark Kidney Beans (10 mg sodium)
🥈 Pinto Beans (varies: 110–140 mg)
🥉 Black Beans (low-sodium options available)
🏅 Garbanzo Beans (varies by brand, great for a nutty twist)
🎖️ Red Beans (higher in sodium, approx. 350 mg per serving)

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Instructions:

1. Cook the rice: 🍚
   Prepare 2 cups of rice as directed. Stir in 1 tablespoon of butter or oil and optional soy sauce for extra richness.

2. Prepare the beans: 🫘

   • If using canned beans: Combine both cans of kidney beans, including the liquid, in a microwave-safe dish. Add garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, black pepper, and a few dashes of Tabasco or other hot sauce. If adding meat, stir the cooked or reheated meat into the beans now. Heat in 3-minute intervals, stirring between each interval to evenly distribute heat and prevent overflowing. Total microwave time: 10-12 minutes.
   • If using dried beans: Soak 1 cup of dried beans (Kidney, Pinto, or Black Beans) overnight in water. Drain, rinse, and cook in fresh water until tender (about 1-2 hours stovetop or 25-30 minutes pressure cooker). Replace the canned liquid with 1 cup of diced tomatoes in tomato juice or low-sodium vegetable broth. Add seasonings as above and proceed with heating steps.

3. Let the beans and meat rest: ⏳
   After heating, cover the dish and let the beans and meat sit for 20-30 minutes. This resting period allows the flavors to meld deeply into both the beans and the meat.

4. Combine and serve: 🍛
   Use a slotted spoon to transfer the beans and meat into the rice, adding the liquid gradually until you reach your desired consistency. Mix gently, cover, and let rest for a few minutes to blend flavors before serving.

5. Refrigerate for Best Results (Optional): 🛌
   Like a casserole, this dish benefits from resting overnight in the fridge. The flavors deepen, and the rice undergoes starch retrogradation, reducing its glycemic index and making it a healthier, well-rounded meal.

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Keep It Simple: 🍴

The basics—rice, beans, and seasonings—are all you need for this dish. If you have extras, you can add meat (like ham or sausage) or experiment with other pantry staples, such as grill seasoning or fast-food sauces. But even in its simplest form, this Bare Pantry Recipe is delicious, filling, and incredibly easy to make.

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Enduring Until Night: Carrying the Light - A Poem

Enduring Until Night: Carrying the Light

We rage against the dying of the light,

Sheltering against the darkness of the night.

We turn on the lights, more and more each day,

Yet each light, all of them, is finite.

The energy they need — and the energy we give —

Cannot, and should not, forever endure.

It cannot forever endure.

It should not forever endure.

For twilight comes to every day,

Slowly draining into dusk,

And leads us, gently, to its end.

We who remain go on to another day,

Another life, enduring once again —

Until it is time for our forever night.

Copyright April 2, 2025, M. W. Van Dyke
All Rights Reserved

Respite for Caregivers: Should Family Members Expect Compensation?

     Someone posted in a caregiver support group that their loved one (LO) fell and has to have physical rehab. The person's sister, who has not given her a break in 3 years, was told she is going to have to. The sister will do it, but only if she is paid. The poster was asking how much she should pay her sister.

 

My quickly written but longwinded reply to that question is this:

    Would you go down to a hardware supply store or day-work place to find someone who does manual labor to be a caregiver? Would you consider hiring a person standing on the street with a sign that reads, "Need work! Will do anything except sex work." to come to your home and be a caregiver. You wouldn't be a very smart (or good) person if you did that.

    If you are going to pay someone, pay a professional, or a trained and/or experienced caregiver. If all you need is someone to elder-sit, then hire someone who is an experienced elder-sitter.

    Is your sister a professional caregiver? Is she a trained family caregiver? Does she have experience from being a caregiver? Has she been one in the last 3 years? If not, then why would you pay her rather than pay a professional? You'd basically be hiring an unskilled and untrained person to come do a job that requires specific skills and a specific mindset. That is no different than hiring someone off the street.

    YOU are a trained and skilled family caregiver. I know that because your LO is still alive and still living at home. Your sister is not, by virtue of blood, a skilled family caregiver. I think we family caregivers are blind to the fact that we have become skilled and trained and knowledgeable in our roles. We are not so easily replaced. Someone cannot just walk into our roles "off the street" and do what we do and do it successfully and appropriately.

    Family Caregivers do not get paid vacations. If you are being paid to be a family caregiver, then use that pay (salary) to pay someone who is appropriate to replace you for a while. Use the money to hire someone who will do the job property. If you are being paid, you cannot pay someone you hired off the street less money than you are getting to do the job you are being paid to do. That would be fraud.

    What do you need your sister to do? Simply give you a little help, a few hours break, take your LO to rehab and back, and watch her for a few hours? There is a big difference between a sitter, a companion, and a caregiver. Then you have to take into consideration overnight caregivers.

    Hiring a non-medical aide from Senior Helpers (for example) will cost around $45 an hour. To hire someone privately, that would be something like $15-$17 an hour (depends on your location). That is for someone who is credentialed and are licensed, not some unskilled person hired "off the street".

    Your sister wants to be paid. Is this because she knows you are being paid as a caregiver? Or does she not care one way or the other. She just wants to be paid for her time. That is fine, and her right. But that is not someone who is going to be able to replace you and do all that you do. She won't do it properly, diligently, professionally.

Helping out, taking over a few of your duties for a while, that is vastly different than replacing you as the caregiver.