Thinking Outside the Can: Black Bean & Peanut Butter Cookies
Turning mystery staples into breakfast bakes with two unexpected helpers 😹 (with pictures)!
Hey everybirdy,
My family is a bit different than most. We have 7 adults living in one household. We are responsible for taking care of the house, and we all contribute in our own way.
Recently, a new friend said to me, "Robyn. I love how creative your thought process is." At first, I didn't know what to say. I obviously thanked her, but I was so stunned. For years in school, I tried to hide my way of thinking because I knew it wasn't considered "cool." This got me thinking: how did I come to this way of thinking? And once again, the answer is simple: by watching Mom and Pop. Maybe it's because I am the oldest daughter, maybe it's because food has always been integrated into me, or maybe it's something else entirely.
Just enter your zipcode here:
The reason my friend said this was that we were both looking at the same fridge. We both saw the same ingredients, but I was able to create a salad and some roasted veggies on the side. She told me she doesn't think like that and told me that I should be lucky.
Is it just luck, or is it something deeply part of me? Since I was about 6 or 7, I would go with Mom and Pop to the grocery store. I was always happy because that meant I got a chocolate chip cookie. Mom did most of the cooking, but Pop helped with the meal planning. It was never just a one-person job. Mom and Pop would look at what we had in the pantry first and plan from there. They would put together a set of meals that we would have at any point in time over the next month. Because we did the shopping monthly.
That has changed over the years, the meal planning in a way. It's more pantry-based than I have ever known. Before, there were more store-bought items than pantry items. And that is fine. Change is fine. Is it a challenge? Yes and no. Yes, in the way that we can't always get meat from the store. But no, because it helps us clean out the pantry.
I could go into a big list of things to do or how to meal plan, but the reality of using food bank ingredients is that you can't truly meal plan. You can have ideas of what you want, but then those ideas vanish into thin air. When you get a food bank order in, you have to use those perishables before they go bad. So it's hard to really meal plan in our house right now. But that's not always a bad thing. It makes you think outside the box.
Someone else might see a can of black beans and think only of chili, burritos, nachos, etc. But I see that same can of beans, and I see those recipes plus some more unconventional or unusual recipes, from black bean desserts to hummus, etc.
The only thing I can say about meal planning with food bank ingredients is: Google is your friend. If you don't have access to the internet at home, that's fine. Go to your local library and get a library card. Most are free. You can access the internet from one of the computers in their computer station, or you can check out a few cookbooks. You are going to be looking for recipes using the ingredients you have an abundance of.
I'll give you an example. During the start of my "Just Keep Baking" series, I was given a box full of Granny Smith apples. I was determined to use them all, so I searched the top countries that use apples. I found that the United States wasn't even number one! I found recipes from all over the world because I wanted to see how other countries used apples. I found some interesting ones that I would make again, and others that were just fun to make.
Meal plans are great for people who have the choice of what they are going to buy. People like my family have to be creative in their thought process so that we don't have the same recipes every single day of the week. And I know that we are in a unique situation. I realize that some people are living by themselves and don't want to make big proportions, and they will not get the same amount of food as my family from a food bank.
(I am not shaming anyone who uses meal plans or anything like that. Please don't think that is what I am trying to say. Because it is far from it. It was a great thing to have when I was younger. But now that everyone is older its a bit harder. )
So, if you're ever in a situation where you need to go to the food bank, don't just think of the normal uses for certain items. It's okay to think outside the box (or can!), like with this recipe for black bean peanut butter chip cookies. It's basically Toll House cookies with a healthy twist.
Ingredients:
1 can (15oz) of black beans
1 ¾ cups peanut butter chips
1 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup brown sugar (or ¾ cup sugar + 2 tsps molasses)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
½ cup flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla
I doubled it and changed a bit of the recipe to match what I had in the pantry. It doesn't always work out, but I think these cookies were really good.
I thought I needed to double it, so for the first batch I used:
2 Cans of black beans
3 ½ cups of peanut butter chips
1 cup of vegetable Oil (because I didn't think I had enough margarine)
3 cups Granulated sugar
4 tsps molasses (yes, I know this is where I messed up!)
1 ½ cups flour
2 tsps baking soda
2 tsps salt
2 tsps vanilla
I preheated my oven to 350°F (not sure why I didn't do the typical 375°F for chocolate chip cookies). I baked these cookies for 12 minutes. I added the oil, sugar, molasses, and vanilla to my stand mixer and mixed them all together. Then, I added the dry ingredients. I knew that they were going to be different, but I didn't expect them to be lace cookies.
So, before I added any more to a baking sheet, I added ½ to 1 cup more of flour and about 1 ½ cups of oatmeal to the remaining batter, and baked them all the same.
It helped that I had two important helpers with me in the kitchen today. (No, they did not get to try any of their hard work!) Finni was right there from grinding up the beans to putting them in the oven. It was so sweet and just the right way to start my day. Lexi was going to protect everyone from the loud, evil food processor.
When I make these again, I will make them differently. I think the best way would be to reduce the sugar and add a bit more flour. Because, as it stands, there was way more sugar than flour. I could do these cookies over and share only the perfected cookie recipe, but the baking isn't the main star of the show. If I made perfect substitutions every single time, nothing would ever go wrong! So, I am sharing my progress and how I'm going to change it for next time.
The first batch I did came out more like a lace cookie. They were really good, but not what I wanted. I thought for the second batch I could add a cup of flour and a cup of oatmeal because this was going to make breakfast. Yeah, I know, cookies for breakfast. Yes, because there is oatmeal in it! The second batch was better. I let them cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, and they turned out lovely, just like the rest of the cookies.
If you eat these cookies for breakfast, I would recommend decreasing the sugar and making them the night before. They tasted good warm, but I have a feeling that they taste better at room temperature. On the positive side, if you do eat them slightly underbaked, there is no egg in the batter. The flour has cooked enough, so you can most likely eat it without getting sick. Also, have a glass of tea, coffee, or milk with these cookies; Pop says it was exactly what they needed. They were good, but sweet; not overly sweet, but sweet nonetheless.
I probably would use butter or margarine instead of oil next time. There is just something about oil that sucks up all the sugar, unlike margarine or butter, which adds air and fluffiness to the batter.
So, I'm not perfect. I am not the perfect baker, and I am 100% OK with that fact. I don't think I ever want to be the perfect baker, because that means I'm done learning. I love experimenting with ingredients in unusual ways, and again, I have my parents to thank for that and the way I think about food.
I understand that not everybody has this ability to think outside the box, and that's okay. I can help in a way on my Ko-fi page. I have a "pay-what-you-want" commission called "The Pantry Scavenger." You can send me an ingredient in your pantry that you don't really understand what to do with. It can be something you get from a food bank box or something a neighbor gave to you. Whatever the reason, you can send me a message telling me about the ingredient, or you can send me a picture. I will give you a few things that you could do with your ingredients.
I want everyone not to be so afraid of using food bank ingredients. I want people to be comfortable saying, "I use the food bank." I don't want anyone to feel ashamed of the food that they give themselves and their families because of the way it was acquired. At the end of the day, if you give someone a plate of cookies, they aren't going to interrogate you, demanding to know where the ingredients came from. They will most likely smile and say thank you, because the fact that you brought them over and are sharing your baked foods shows the other person that you were thinking about them when making these cookies.
I hope you love these cookies! Just a little behind-the-scenes note: this whole post was created on my phone. I’m saving up for a laptop to help me keep building and sharing more unique recipes in the future. Thank you for being here and supporting my creative work!
I want to thank everyone for reading this article. For taking the time out of your schedule to read this. I hope you learned something.
I love you all.
I hope your day is safe and happy. Happy baking!