Do you ever get overwhelmed planning, preparing and cleaning up meal after meal?? Well I did too until I discovered MEGA COOKING! What is mega cooking? Instead of making one lasagna or one pot of soup, make 2, 3 or even more! I regularly make a huge 20 quart stock pot of our favorite soups and freeze the extra in 1 quart portions. That way, not only is tonight's dinner taken care of, but I usually get 8+ more dinners stashed away in the freezer.
One of our favorite meals is refried beans, tortillas, and all the toppings that go with. Refried beans are spendy if you buy them in the can at the store so I found a way to make them in bulk for a fraction of the cost.
I usually end up with 11-12 quarts of refried beans using this simple recipe.
Refried Beans
16 cups dry pinto beans
2 1/2 gallons water
2 cups butter
salt
I dump the pinto beans and water in our 23 quart pressure canner add the lid, the weight and set it on the stove. I turn the burner on to high and wait for it to come to 15 pounds pressure. Then I turn it down. You will want the pressure gauge to stay at 15 pounds pressure so adjust the heat as needed to keep the gauge steady. Set the timer for 30 minutes. When the 30 minutes is up, turn off the burner and let the canner cool NATURALLY. This will take about 45 minutes.
When your canner dial is at 0 and the vent pipe has gone down it is safe to open the lid. At this point I have my Hamilton Beach 10 cup capacity food processor ready along with the butter and salt. Using a ladle, ladle the hot beans into your food processor along with about 1/4 cup butter and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Put the lid on and blend until smooth. Dump the hot refried beans into a large stockpot or mixing bowl. Continue until you've finished all the beans in the canner. I freeze the refried beans in 1 quart containers.
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