Beans are a budget friendly and healthy way to eat whole foods. Whether you prefer to cook dry beans or use canned beans, you will find 240 recipes to feed your family. There are recipes for soups, casseroles, main dishes, salads and side dishes.

Included are recipes for lentils, pinto beans, black beans, Great Northern beans, kidney beans, black eye peas and lima beans. Beans make a wonderful warm or chilled salad. They make a great alternative to meat proteins in salads and main dishes.

Cooked beans are easy to freeze and great for quick and easy meals. I cook beans all the time in the crockpot. We eat them for dinner and I freeze the remainder of the beans. When I want to make a recipe that calls for cooked beans, the beans are already in the freezer.

Most of the soup recipes and many main dish recipes can be made ahead and frozen for future meals. Freezer meals make it so easy when you need a meal in a hurry.