Using beans a fat substitute for food storage

[eric.]

My wife has recently learned about substituting beans for the fat portion of of stuff being baked.  Just rehydrate your beans and thoroughly mash them.  Then sub for equal portions of the fat (oil, butter) in the recipe.  You can use about any bean, but if you match the color of bean to your food you won't see it.  Most recipes call for about a half a cup, so my wife keeps several half cup things of mashed beans in the freezer.  It sounds crazy and gross, but in most things we have tried you can't even tell the difference except that the food seems more filling.  She has made several chocolate cakes that everyone has liked and nobody has known has beans in it until told.  All this because beans have a much longer shelf life than oils and butter, and cheaper to boot.  Knowing this is making our food storage simpler. 

[WTF]

you gotta be careful with beans, they are the most common item to spoil and cause serious food poisoning issues, High protein foods such as beans do spoil fast.

[rubbleroser]

Well, if all the extra carbohydrate in the beans doesn't bother you, this might be okay. Flour and sugar are carbs in your baked goods, and then you add more with the beans. There's zero carbs in oil & butter. Carbs are heck on the blood sugar and make people feel sluggish.

[e11charlie]

Yeah but legumes and rice have essential amino acids that you need to survive.  So in the absence of meat then rice and beans are not a bad idea at all.  Keep in mind that you also need carbs and fatty acids that  your body does not make which must be ingested.

[rubbleroser]

Yeah but legumes and rice have essential amino acids that you need to survive.  So in the absence of meat then rice and beans are not a bad idea at all.  Keep in mind that you also need carbs and fatty acids that  your body does not make which must be ingested.

Of course you're right, e11charlie, but I was referring to all the carbs in a baked good, such as a cake for example. With the added carbs of the beans, that's a lot of carbs in that cake. Maybe it's just me but that'd make me feel like sleeping the rest of the day or give me a carb headache.

[e11charlie]

Of course you're right, e11charlie, but I was referring to all the carbs in a baked good, such as a cake for example. With the added carbs of the beans, that's a lot of carbs in that cake. Maybe it's just me but that'd make me feel like sleeping the rest of the day or give me a carb headache.

I see what you are saying but in a SHTF scenario all the carbs you can get will help.  Every time I got deployed I would lose weight even with the 3000 kCalorie MREs and T-rats.  All the carbs you can get your hands on is great.

[WTF]

She has made several chocolate cakes that everyone has liked and nobody has known has beans in it until told. 

Having a culinary background, the mere thought of using beans in a cake sends chills up my spine, especially if you ever had a serious case of food poisoning, you'll know what I mean. I'm not disputing that beans (legumes) are good for you, and make a good prep item for long term food storage.

But to use Beans in a cake scares the crap outta me for the following reasons, once beans have been hydrated, or cooked, they will start to form dangerous bacteria after 2 hrs at room temps, or anything below 140 degrees. even if you reheat it the next day, that bacteria will die off and leave behind deadly toxins that will make you gravely ill.

if used in a cake and left to sit on the counter over night is a recipe for food poisoning disaster. Beans spoil extremely fast once they are cooked, or re-hydrated. and are one of those items you never want to put in the frig for the next day.

even in the dept of corrections, the most common illness with inmates was due to food poisoning from you guessed it....Beans.

[rubbleroser]

if used in a cake and left to sit on the counter over night is a recipe for food poisoning disaster.

That's a really good point.

[eric.]

Thanks WTF.  I haven't ever heard that.  I'll do some looking into it to try and avoid food poisoning.  She hasn't been doing that long, it's just a new thing she picked up off some mormen preparedness web site.

 I've heard that carbs screw with your blood sugar, I both my wife and I have blood sugar problems, but those cakes (and pastas) seem to give us more time without getting the sugar shakes.  I think our bodies are just weird.