Making beans in a crock pot

I've been trying to save money the ways I can.  As a stay at home mom, one thing I can really control is how much money we spend on groceries.  Husband has a crazy fast metabolism so I have to make massive quantities of food for every meal for him.  I feel best giving him extra calories in the form of whole grains and beans because they are cheap and also healthy.

Beans are great but they aren't as cheap as they could be if you buy them in a can.  Cooking dry beans is quite easy but it takes a lot of time.  The cheapest and easiest way I have found to cook dry beans is using a slow cooker.  Cooking beans on the stove requires you to check them more often and uses vastly more energy (money!) than a slow cooker.  I've cooked many different kinds of beans and they have all turned out well.  Cooked beans can be frozen and quick defrosted in the microwave so they are extremely convenient!  I keep ziplock bags with pre-measured quantities of beans in my freezer for whatever I may want to use them for.  (Cans of beans normally have about 1 1/3 cups of beans.)

How to make beans in a crock pot:

1) Clean your beans.  Sort through for clumps of dirt and broken beans.

2) Put your beans in your slow cooker with at least two inches of water covering them.  Check back every hour or so to test for doneness.  Beans take anywhere from 4 to 8 hours depending on their type and freshness.  When done, use in recipes or freeze!

Note:  If cooking kidney beans, the FDA recommends that you boil your beans for at least 10 minutes to destroy a potential toxin.