Refried Beans

This is an awesome recipe. While it's a frugal recipe in itself, the frugality also comes from the amount. Making a HUGE pot of beans and then freezing it in portions not only means you only use the stove once, but packing the freezer fuller means there's less circulating air- which requires less energy to keep everything frozen.

Ingredients:
1 bag pinto beans, sorted and rinsed until water is clear (Check for stones! You'll bust a tooth!)
1/2-1lb. bacon, cooked and crumbled, with the grease saved (optional, but the fat helps you feel full and isn't a bad thing)
The following spices are all to taste, and completely optional
- pepper
-salt
-garlic
-cumin
-crushed red pepper
-paprika
-Tabasco/Red Hot pepper sauce

1- Put clean beans into a large bowl or pot, cover with water and soak for 24 hours. (Add about 1/4 cup baking soda if you'd like to, ahem, avoid noisy after effects of eating beans.)
2- Drain beans, put into pot and cover with water, plus about 2" of water.
3- Boil beans at a slow boil for about 2 hours, or until easily mushed between your fingers.
4- Drain beans, but reserve the liquid!
5- Mash the beans, add the bacon and grease, mash to whatever consistency you like, adding cooking liquid as needed.
6- Add spices to taste.
7- Portion into freezer bags.

I like to keep the cooking liquid to use as a base for bean soup, or to add to other types of soup. The last soup I made, I actually added the cooking liquid as well as a bag of the refried beans to add some protein. Yum!

This entire recipe cost me about $6- including spices and bacon. I was able to get 8 bags of refried beans out of that.