Hello, I’ve come to rob you. (Or, how to take advantage of a grocery store’s loyalty program)

This is a pretty simple one and it’s mostly for beginners. I’ve been cooking for about ten years now and the more I do it, the more I’ve realized that food is one of the only remaining areas where you can save money just by being clever. <br><br>I have multiple loyalty cards for different grocery stores. I know some of you will say “groceries are not a fucking game,” but I don’t think it’s the case. Like chess, food is a game, and you can certainly lose multiple games of food each week by not playing correctly. <br><br>I’d say fifty percent of the food I eat is rice. Twenty percent is beans, and the other thirty is whatever. I don’t have a lot of space for food, so I usually try to keep a week of rice and a week of beans at my disposal, as well as a week of whatever. Rice and beans are a staple of food in the cuisines of just about every culture. I knew someone who hated to eat rice and beans, but they’d eat chili. I asked them if they ever wondered why chili contained rice and beans. You get the idea. They’re cheap. They’re good for you. They’re versatile. <br><br>I don’t really eat bread. I don’t really eat pasta. I don’t really eat meat. I only eat fish. I live on a shoestring budget in the city and I don’t want to give my money to big bread. <br><br>I buy rice and beans in five pound bags. The five pound bag is your friend. A five pound bag of rice costs $4. A five pound bag of beans costs $5. I buy both of these every week from the grocery store. Sometimes I’ll go a week without rice and instead buy potatoes. Potatoes are $1 a pound. I buy five pounds of potatoes. I peel and chop them and then blanch them to get the starch out, and then I freeze them in airtight bags for whenever. If you want to make any variety of hash browns or home fries, you can pull them straight from the freezer bag and fry them and they’ll taste a whole lot better than those stupid frozen hash browns you buy from the grocery store. Just be sure to blanch them first, or they’ll be all starchy. <br><br>Anyway, back to rice and beans. There are a number of ways to prepare them without a rice cooker. Most of the ways require the use of a pressure cooker. I’ve been using a pressure cooker for ten years and I’ve never blown anything up with it. Most of these methods require the beans to be soaked overnight first. I don’t do that. If you don’t soak your beans, you’ll have to let the pressure release naturally after the cooking is over. That means you’ll have to let the pressure come down on its own, which takes maybe half an hour. <br><br>Sometimes I’ll make “tacos” using beans. To do this, I put two cups of coffee in the bottom of my pressure cooker, add two cups of beans, and cook it for twenty minutes. After letting the pressure come down on its own, I drain the liquid out of the pot and add a little oil and then a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies. I’ll cook that for ten minutes and then put some salt and pepper in there and serve it up in a bowl. Sometimes I’ll “fry” tortillas in the oven until they’re crunchy and use them to scoop up the bean mixture. Sometimes I’ll add shredded cheese on top of the bean mixture. Sometimes I’ll add sour cream. Sometimes I’d just rather have a cheeseburger. <br><br>The rice is a little more complicated. Just kidding, it’s exactly the same as the beans. The only real difference is that you have to let the pressure release quickly after cooking, or else the rice will be mushy. I wrote a recipe once for “Mexican rice.” It was a totally bullshit recipe that I made up and it goes like this. <br><br>“Place two cups of water in the bottom of your pressure cooker. Add two cups of rice and a tablespoon of olive oil. Cook for ten minutes, then stir in a tablespoon of tomato paste and a teaspoon of cumin. Cook for another three minutes.” <br><br>I’ve been making that Mexican rice for the past ten years, and every time I make it I think to myself “wow, I wonder what that recipe would be like if I added in some real tomatoes.” Sometimes I’ll use it as the base for a fried rice dish if I have leftover vegetables kicking around. You can use pretty much any rice for fried rice, except for jasmine. I’ve tried a few different varieties of rice for fried rice and I always come back to the regular stuff. <br><br>Sometimes I’ll just cook rice and beans together in the same pot. Sometimes I’ll flavor the pot with a little curry powder and add a can of coconut milk. Sometimes I’ll fry an egg and crack it on top of the rice. Sometimes I’ll slice up a banana and put it on top of the rice and then sprinkle some cinnamon on top of that, and eat the egg with the banana. <br><br>Once, I booked a gig playing music in a different city, and I carpool’d with a couple of other dudes to get there. One of them had brought food and was eating while we drove. He was boiling something in the front seat, and I asked him what it was. I was skeptical at first, but rice and beans are good fucking road food. <br><br>Rice and beans are probably the most “bang for your buck” that you can get. It’s healthy, it’s good for you, you can flavor it with just about anything, and it’s dirt cheap. I recommended it to anyone. It’s also great if you’re a musician, because you can bring a pressure cooker into a studio or rehearsal space and you’ve got coffee, rice, and beans. <br><br>I know I said this is for beginners, but at the risk of sounding like a douche, rice and beans are a godsend. <br><br>So that’s it, that’s my rice and bean recipe. If you liked this post, you’ll also like my post about pressure frying chicken, or visit my Patreon page at patreon.com/dylanmatteson. Follow me on Twitter at @anexpr. <br><br>If you have a recipe you’d like to submit, please e-mail me at [email protected]. <br><br>Until next time, good eating.