Healthy Mexican Beans

My dear friend in Alabama, Susie requested the Healthy Mexican Beans. I'm gonna try and put it together. It's one of those, put this in and then that. These are all approximates go with what you need.

Let's see.....

1 lb. FRESH pinto beans, put in a big bowl with water at least 3 inches above the beans, soak overnight
1 onion chopped
8 cloves garlic, chopped
Epazote - mexican spice flavors the beans and removes some of the "noise" after you eat them. Available at Mexican markets.
1 tsp ground cumin (optional) but I like the flavor it adds to the beans
Salt & Pepper to taste DO NOT ADD SALT UNTIL THE BEANS ARE SOFT, toughens the beans if you add salt when they are still raw.

Drain the beans, put fresh cold water about 2 inches above the beans. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, add onion, garlic & Epazote. Simmer for at least two hours, I simmer them for hours because I like a soft bean. Add water as needed, DO NOT ADD COLD WATER, it makes the beans turn dark, ugly. Boil water and add that to the beans as they begin to dry out. You want a soupy bean so you can refry with liquid.

When the beans are very tender and soupy add cumin and the salt and pepper to taste. Beans require a lot of salt so add & taste, add and taste to desired saltiness.

Ok, so now you are ready to refry if that's what you want. Get out a skillet add about 1-3 TBS olive oil, when it's hot add the beans along with juice. Keep cooking and stirring, they will slowly begin to thicken as the juice evaporates. When they are at the consistency that you like, you have refried beans. There is very little fat but lots of flavor.

Use these beans for:
Bean & cheese burritos
Saute some chicken tenders for chicken burritos
Bean Tostada - Toast a corn tortilla, spread w/beans, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, & avocados you can also had a meat if you like.

If you choose not to refry these are great "de olla", (from the pot). Just add cheese, salsa, onions, you have a little bean soup.

This is sort of rambling but I don't know how else to tell you, it's just stuff I've been doing for years and it's how my mom cooked her beans, except she used LARD. Taste w/lard is incredible but really not healthy. That is what you get at the Mexican restaurants, you know where the beans are very light in color? LARD. But yummy for sure. Hope you try these and let me know how you liked them, can we improve them in any way? Want to hear from you. COOK ON..........