water first, to help prevent fermentation and hardening of skins. An
hour of soaking is enough after boiling, but overnight may be more
convenient. Cook beans in the soaking water for best flavor and highest
nutritive value. Split peas do not need soaking.
Baked chili beans and hamburger
1 cup dry chili or kidney beans
3 cups water
½ pound ground beef
2 tablespoons drippings or other fat
1 small onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, sliced
½ green pepper, chopped fine
2 cups cooked or canned tomatoes, or 2½ cups raw tomatoes cut in
pieces
½ teaspoon salt
Chili powder to taste
Boil beans in water 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and soak 1 hour
or overnight. Cook in same water until almost tender.
Brown meat in fat. Add onion, garlic, green pepper, tomatoes, and salt,
and cook a few minutes.
Add meat mixture and chili powder to beans.
Place in a baking dish or bean pot, cover, and bake at 350° F. (moderate
oven) about 2 hours. Uncover during the last half hour to brown the
beans if desired.
Or cook the mixture slowly for about 1 hour in a covered kettle on top
of the range. Stir occasionally.
Menu Suggestion
Serve with a large garden salad and fruit betty or apple dumplings.
For Variety
Cook the beans with a ham bone, omitting ground beef and chili powder.
Or use 1 cup ham trimmings from a baked ham instead of beef.
Dry bean or pea soup
1 cup dry beans or whole peas
6 cups water
Meaty ham bone
1 small onion, chopped
Salt and pepper
Boil beans or peas in water 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and soak
1 hour or overnight.
Add ham bone. Boil gently 2 hours in a covered pan.
Add onion and continue cooking 30 minutes, or until beans are soft.
Remove bone and cut off meat.
Add meat to soup. Season to taste, and reheat.
Menu Suggestion
Serve with tomato aspic, or fruit salad, with cottage cheese. Have
custard pie for dessert.
For Variety
_For Thick, Smooth Soup._—Put beans or peas through a sieve before
adding meat; discard skins. Mix 2 teaspoons flour with a little water;
stir into soup. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.
_Split-Pea or Lentil Soup._—Use 1 cup of split peas or lentils instead
of beans in the recipe above. No soaking is needed. Boil gently,
stirring occasionally, about 3 hours. Proceed as for bean soup.
_Hot Pot._—Add a garlic clove and 2 chili peppers or a teaspoon of chili
powder to beans before cooking. After cooking, remove garlic and
peppers.
Quick baked beans
2 slices bacon
3 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon molasses
1½ tablespoons catsup
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon powdered dry mustard
½ teaspoon worcestershire sauce, if desired
2 to 3 cups canned or cooked dry beans
Fry bacon, remove from pan, and cook onion for a few minutes in bacon
fat.
Add molasses, catsup, salt, mustard, and worcestershire sauce.
Add beans and mix lightly. Pour into a baking dish. Crumble bacon and
sprinkle over the top.
Bake 20 minutes at 350°F. (moderate oven). Or heat in a fry pan on top
of range, and serve with bacon crumbled over the top.
Menu Suggestion
Serve with hot cornbread, carrot and cabbage slaw, with baked custard
for dessert.
For Variety
_Hot Bean Salad._—Omit molasses, add ¼ cup vinegar and ¼ cup water, and
cook until the liquid is absorbed. To complete the meal serve
quick-cooked green cabbage, crisp strips of celery and carrots, and
pumpkin pie with cheese.
_Creole Beans._—To 2 cups cooked beans add ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ cup each
chopped green pepper and onion, and 1 cup canned tomatoes. Bake at 350°
F. (moderate oven) 1 hour.
Soybean chop suey
1 green pepper, shredded
1½ cups shredded onion
1½ tablespoons cooking fat or oil
¾ cup diced celery
1½ cups cooked dry soybeans
1½ cups meat broth
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
1 cup quartered radishes or sliced carrots
Soy sauce
Cook green pepper and onion in the fat or oil in a fry pan 3 or 4
minutes, turning them often.
Add celery, soybeans, broth, and salt. (Canned bouillon or bouillon
cubes and water may be used in place of broth.)
Cover and simmer 5 to 8 minutes.
Blend cornstarch with water, stir into the mixture, and cook until
thickened. Add radishes or carrots and soy sauce to taste.
Menu Suggestion
Serve with hot flaky rice, pineapple and cottage cheese salad, with ice
cream for dessert.
Another Soybean Recipe
_Soybean Souffle._—To 2 cups cooked dry soybeans, ground or sieved, add
2 beaten egg yolks. Season with chopped onion, parsley, salt, and
pepper. Fold in stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Pour into a greased
baking dish and bake at 350°F. (moderate oven) about 30 minutes or until
set.
Bean chowder
1 cup dry beans
1 quart water
¾ cup chopped carrots
¾ cup cooked or canned tomatoes, or 1 cup chopped raw tomatoes
1 onion, finely chopped
⅓ cup shredded green pepper
1 tablespoon flour
1½ cups milk
Salt and pepper
Boil beans in water for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and soak 1
hour or overnight.
Cook beans in covered pan until they begin to soften. Add vegetables;
cook until tender.
Mix flour with a little water and stir into vegetables. Cook 10 minutes
longer, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
Add milk and seasonings, heat to boiling, and serve.
Menu Suggestion
Serve with a peanut-and-fruit salad—sections of grapefruit and
orange—and for dessert, prune whip with custard sauce.
For Variety
_Baked Bean Chowder._—Use leftover baked beans. Cook ¾ cup diced
carrots, ⅓ cup green pepper, and 1 onion in 1½ cups water, until tender.
Add ¾ cup canned tomatoes, 2 cups baked beans, and seasonings, and
reheat. Blend 1 tablespoon flour and 2 tablespoons cold water and stir
into the vegetables. Cook 10 minutes. Add 1½ cups of milk; reheat.
Savory bean stew
1 cup dry beans or whole peas
1 quart water
¼ cup diced salt pork
⅓ cup chopped onion
½ pound chopped beef
2 to 2½ cups cooked or canned tomatoes, or 2½ to 3 cups chopped raw
tomatoes
Salt and pepper
Boil beans or peas in the water 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and
soak 1 hour or overnight.
Fry salt pork until crisp, remove from pan, and brown onion in the fat.
Add meat and stir and cook slowly a few minutes.
Combine all ingredients, season, and simmer until meat is tender and
flavors are blended.
Menu Suggestion
Serve with squash, a shredded raw vegetable salad, and lemon sponge
pudding.
For Variety
_Chili Con Carne._—Add 2 to 4 teaspoons chili powder and a little garlic
to recipe. Red kidney, and the pink beans of the West, are favorites for
this dish.
_Hopping John._—Add ½ cup dry blackeye peas to 2¼ cups ham broth. Boil 2
minutes, soak 1 hour or overnight. Cook covered until almost tender. Add
½ cup raw rice, ½ cup chopped cooked ham. Cook gently 20 to 30 minutes.
The broth should be almost gone when the rice is tender.
Bread and other cereal foods ...
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Bread and other cereal foods are truly the staff of life for some
families and are used for all or part of the main dish for many of their
meals. Griddlecakes, toast, or oatmeal is a favorite breakfast dish. And
sandwiches, spaghetti, or macaroni may form the bulk of a noon or
evening meal.
Bread and other cereal foods do not provide large amounts of protein in
any one serving. But, because we eat bread and other cereals so often,
grain foods contribute a fourth of the protein in diets in this country.
The cereal foods also contribute to our diets more calories, more iron,
and more thiamine than any other group of foods.
Grains cannot make an adequate main dish unless eaten in large
quantities or combined with protein-rich foods.
A few figures on grain proteins may be helpful. A pound loaf of
whole-wheat bread contains a little less than three-fourths as much
protein as a pound of beef with a moderate amount of fat and bone. You
would need to eat one-third of the loaf, seven or eight slices, for as
much protein as you get in a fourth pound of the meat—an average
serving.
A pound loaf of white bread contains somewhat less protein than a pound
whole-wheat loaf. The use of nonfat dry milk solids in bread increases
quantity and quality of proteins slightly.
Proteins from bread and other cereal foods are not of as high quality as
proteins of animal products, although some are better than others. You
can somewhat increase the protein values obtained from cereals by using
whole-wheat bread and whole-grain breakfast cereals and by adding corn
germ or wheat germ to other cereals. Milk, eggs, soy flour or grits,
meat, or fish help to bring up the protein content and protein value of
a cereal main dish.
Familiar examples of the cereal-extended main dishes are creamed chicken
or fish—or meat in brown sauce—served with toast, noodles, spaghetti,
rice, or hominy grits. Other popular combinations of cereals with
high-protein foods are scrapple, macaroni or rice with cheese, eggs with
toast, and meat loaf or patties with breadcrumbs. And we are also
extending high-protein foods with cereals when we add biscuit to the
meat stew, dumplings to stewed chicken, and waffles to the breakfast or
supper sausages.
Oatmeal griddlecakes with sausages
2 cups milk
2 cups quick-cooking oats
⅓ cup sifted flour
2½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, separated
⅓ cup cooking fat or oil
Cooked sausages
Heat milk and pour it over the oats. Allow to cool.
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
Beat egg yolks and add to oat mixture. Add melted fat or oil and stir in
dry ingredients.
Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.
Drop the batter by spoonfuls on a hot greased griddle. When the surface
is covered with bubbles, turn and brown on the other side. Oatmeal
griddlecakes take longer to brown than plain griddlecakes.
Menu Suggestion
Serve the griddlecakes with sirup and the sausages. The rest of the meal
may be a large fruit and carrot salad and gingerbread.
For Variety
_Apple Griddlecakes._—Add ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, 2 tablespoons brown
sugar, and 1 cup finely chopped, pared apples to the batter before
adding egg whites.
French toast with tomato-meat sauce
2 eggs
⅓ cup milk
¼ teaspoon salt
8 slices bread
Cooking fat or oil
Beat eggs, add milk and salt. Dip bread quickly into mixture. Brown on
both sides in a little fat or oil, using moderate heat.
Tomato-meat sauce
2 cups canned tomatoes or 2½ cups chopped raw tomatoes
½ pound chopped raw beef
2 tablespoons chopped onion
2 tablespoons chopped green pepper
Cooking fat or oil
1 tablespoon flour
Salt and pepper
If using raw tomatoes cook them until soft. Press tomatoes through a
sieve.
Brown beef, onion, and green pepper in the fat or oil. Blend in the
flour, add tomatoes slowly. Season. Cook and stir over low heat until as
thick as desired.
Menu Suggestion
Serve with a green vegetable, peanut and cabbage salad, and fruit and
cheese for dessert.
For Variety
Serve the toast with cheese sauce and omit dessert cheese.
Whole-wheat scrapple
2 pounds fresh pork (bony cut)
1½ quarts water
1½ cups uncooked fine whole-wheat cereal
1 small onion, chopped fine
Salt and pepper
Cook pork slowly in the water until the meat drops from the bones.
Strain off the broth.
Separate bones from meat, taking care to get out all the tiny pieces.
Cut meat fine.
Add water to the broth, if necessary, to make 1 quart. Bring to boil and
slowly stir in the cereal. Cook until the mixture is thickened, stirring
constantly.
Add meat and onion. Cook 15 minutes longer, stirring frequently. Season
with salt and pepper.
Pour the mixture into loaf pans and let stand until cool and firm.
To serve, slice scrapple and brown slowly on both sides in a hot fry
pan. If the scrapple is rich with fat, extra fat is not needed for
browning.
Menu Suggestion
Serve with baked sweetpotatoes, scalloped or fried apples or applesauce,
a green salad, and lemon meringue pie.
For Variety
One cup _cornmeal_ may be used instead of 1½ cups whole-wheat cereal.
Rice with chicken
1½ cups diced leftover cooked chicken
Chicken bones
Salt
1 onion, chopped fine
1½ tablespoons chicken fat
½ cup raw rice
Grated cheese
This dish may be made with more or less than 1½ cups chicken, but this
amount is needed to give enough protein for a main dish for four
persons.
Cover bones with water and simmer an hour or longer. Drain off the
broth. Add any leftover chicken gravy and water, if needed, to make 1
quart broth. Add salt to taste.
In a large fry pan, cook onion a few minutes in chicken fat, add broth.
When it boils up rapidly, add the rice slowly.
Cover the pan. Simmer rice about 25 minutes or until the grains swell
and become soft. Stir with a fork from time to time to keep the rice
from sticking.
By the time the rice is done, it will have absorbed the broth, and the
grains will be large and separate. Then add the pieces of chicken and
more salt if needed. Turn mixture onto a hot platter, and sprinkle
generously with grated cheese.
Menu Suggestion
Serve with spinach and hard-cooked egg, celery and carrot sticks, fruit
pickle, and apple or peach dumpling or pie.
Noodles, western style
3 ounces noodles (about 1¼ cups broken noodles)
½ small green pepper, diced
1½ tablespoons bacon fat or meat drippings
1½ tablespoons flour
2 cups cooked or canned tomatoes, or 2½ cups raw tomatoes cut in
pieces
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1 cup chipped corned beef, spiced ham, or dried beef
¼ teaspoon salt
Pepper
Cook noodles 10 minutes in boiling salted water. Drain.
Cook green pepper in fat in large fry pan until tender.
Blend in flour and add other ingredients. Simmer 5 minutes to thicken.
Add salt and pepper.
Add noodles and simmer 10 minutes longer.
Menu Suggestion
Serve with cooked cabbage sprinkled with cheese, and cooked carrots. Add
a salad of apple, celery, and raisins, and have jellyroll for dessert.
Noodles in Another Way
_Noodle Omelet._—Drain the cooked noodles; fry in a little fat or oil
until golden brown. Add to 4 eggs, lightly beaten and seasoned with salt
and pepper. Turn back into fry pan, and cook slowly until brown on
bottom and set on top. Fold onto a hot platter.
Tamale pie
1 cup cornmeal
3 cups boiling water
1½ teaspoons salt
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
3 tablespoons cooking fat or oil
¾ pound chopped raw meat, or 1½ cups chopped cooked meat
1½ cups drained canned or cooked tomatoes
Chili powder and salt to taste
Stir cornmeal slowly into rapidly boiling salted water. Bring to boil
over direct heat. Cover, and cook 45 minutes over boiling water,
stirring occasionally.
Cook onion and green pepper in fat or oil until tender; remove. Add meat
to fat. If raw meat is used, cook until done.
Add remaining ingredients and heat thoroughly.
Pour a layer of the cooked cornmeal into a greased baking dish, add meat
mixture, and cover with the rest of the cornmeal.
Bake at 400° F. (hot oven) 30 minutes.
Menu Suggestion
Serve with crisp green salad with cheese dressing, and cherry tart.
Other Meat Pies
Leftover meat, gravy, and cooked vegetables may be used in meat pies.
Heat together, put into a baking dish, and cover with rounds of
baking-powder biscuit dough. Bake at 450° F. (very hot oven).
Lunch-box main dishes ...
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Packing a really good lunch-box meal—one that is high in important food
values and in appetite appeal—takes more careful planning than many a
meal that goes on the family table. For lunch-box foods are necessarily
limited to those that can be held for several hours without spoiling or
losing their freshness. But there are foods that pack well, and ways to
vary them, so packed lunches need not be monotonous.
Sandwiches tend to be the “backbone” of the lunch-box meal. And when the
fillings are high in protein foods—meats, eggs, cheese, fish, peanut
butter, baked beans—they really are main dishes. To increase the protein
value of these sandwiches, be generous with the filling. One-fourth cup
of filling, spread clear to the edge of the bread, or 2 slices of meat
or cheese, is not too much. Salmon or egg salad on a roll is a better
main dish and more appetizing if part of the roll is scooped out to make
room for more filling. Use centers as bread crumbs.
Provide variety in sandwiches by using different kinds of bread. For
instance, “cheese on rye” is a favorite, but cheese on raisin bread or
Boston brown bread may be a welcome change.
Vary the fillings—spread salad dressing or prepared mustard, topped with
sliced cucumber or a lettuce leaf, over the meat or cheese; spread a
thin layer of jelly over the peanut butter. Try different kinds of
cheese. Or make a cheese spread: Put cheese through the food chopper and
add jam or mashed cooked fruit, or salad dressing with chopped onion or
sweet pickle.
For food value and variety, pack a salad of raw fruits or vegetables
with the sandwich lunch. If the sandwiches are a little low in protein,
include cottage cheese in the salad. Even with dressing and greens,
salad travels well in a covered container of paper, glass, or plastic.
Hot soups, stews, or chowders—made with meats, fish, or beans—are good
winter additions to the sandwich lunch. An individual-size insulated
bottle or wide-mouth container for them may be a good investment, if
these hot dishes cannot be bought at school or at work.
Moist, soft sandwich filling or salad mixtures made with finely chopped
meat, eggs, or fish with salad dressing spoil quickly when temperatures
are high. Refrigerate all such mixtures immediately after buying or
making them and use them within 2 days. Lunches containing these
mixtures are best refrigerated if they have to stand more than 3 or 4
hours before they are eaten.
Salads
_Ham and Egg._—For each serving, use 1 chopped hard-cooked egg, ¼ cup
chopped cooked ham. Add onion, celery, green pepper, pickle, and salad
dressing to taste.
_Meat and Macaroni._—Mix equal parts of cooked meat and macaroni. Add
chopped pickles and celery and moisten with salad dressing.
_Meat and Bean._—Use shredded chipped beef, or chopped cooked corned
beef. Mix with any kind of cooked dry beans; add diced onion and tart
dressing.
_Potato With Meat._—Mix cut-up ham or crumbled bacon with potatoes. Add
cut-up pickles, celery, onion, and salad dressing.
_Meat and Fruit._—Mix any cut-up cooked meat with celery and raisins or
raw dried apricots. Add salt and salad dressing as needed.
_Egg and Beet._—Combine sliced hard-cooked eggs and pickled beets. Add
shredded endive or other salad greens. Pack dressing separately.
_Kidney Bean._—Combine drained cooked kidney beans, cut-up celery, dill
pickles, and cubed cheese. Add mayonnaise.
_Fish_.—Shred leftover cooked fish—halibut, salmon, or sardines. Combine
with cut-up celery, cooked peas, lemon juice, and salad dressing.
_Chicken._—Mix equal parts of cut-up cooked chicken and crisp celery.
Add salad dressing and thin slices of sweet pickle or stuffed olives.
Sandwich fillings
_Sliced Meat or Cheese._—Use two slices with vegetables between. Good
combinations are: Beef with parsley or thinly sliced tomato and salad
dressing; tongue with watercress and salad dressing or prepared mustard;
cheese with either of the above combinations, or with jam, jelly, or
marmalade.
_Bacon._—Crumble crisp fried bacon, and add it to one of the following:
Cottage cheese, sliced tomato, diced hard-cooked egg, raw carrots,
onion, sweet or dill pickles.
_Baked Bean._—Mash cold baked beans and moisten with thick chili sauce.
Add diced sweet pickle and thinly sliced onion or cucumber.
_Peanut Butter._—Mix equal parts of peanut butter and chopped raisins or
other raw dried fruit. Or, mix the peanut butter with diced pickle and
chopped onion.
_Cheese Salad._—Dice cheese fine. Add a little chopped onion and green
pepper or parsley, season, and moisten with salad dressing.
_Cottage Cheese._—Mix cottage cheese with cut-up celery, a little grated
carrot, diced pickles, and nuts.
_Fish._—Mix flaked cooked fish with chopped cabbage, salad dressing, and
salt to taste. Or mash sardines with hard-cooked egg.
_Egg._—Combine diced hard-cooked egg, celery, and pickles with prepared
mustard and salad dressing.
Other main dishes for the lunch box
_Hot Soup._—Add thin slices of frankfurter or Vienna sausage to
split-pea or bean soup. Pack some cheese to go with vegetable or cream
soup or corn chowder. Heat soups very hot; pack in insulated container.
_Meat Stews._—A favorite stew with vegetables and gravy, kept hot in an
insulated container until lunch time, is a welcome winter dish.
_Baked Beans, Corned Beef Hash, Creamed Meats, or Eggs._—These are
cold-weather dishes. Pack hot in special insulated container.
_Cheese._—A large slice of cheese or serving of cottage cheese teams
well with fruit in summer lunches.
_Deviled Eggs._—Mash, season, and moisten hard-cooked egg yolks as
usual. Add finely chopped peanuts or cooked meat before stuffing the egg
whites with the yolk mixture.
_Chicken or Chop._—Yesterday’s drumstick or pork chop makes a main dish
to eat out of hand.
_Sliced Meat._—Spread two slices of ham or other meat with chopped
vegetables and salad dressing. Roll, and fasten with toothpicks.
_Smoked Fish._—Bone and skin pieces; pack by themselves. Drain
oil-packed sardines; wrap well.
_Luncheon Meats._—Many ready-to-serve meats—liver sausage, bologna,
salami, spiced meat loaves—give as high protein value per pound as fresh
meats. Keep cold, add to lunch last.
To complete the lunch-box meal
Plan the lunch-box meal to include contrasts in flavors and textures. It
is more appetizing when it contains something moist to offset the dry
foods, tart foods to offset the sweet, and crisp foods as well as soft.
_Relishes._—Raw vegetables and pickles add crispness to the sandwich
lunch. Try carrot and celery sticks, pieces of cauliflower or turnip,
sliced cucumber or onion, or crisp lettuce leaves rolled together.
_Desserts._—With soup or salad, use cake or cookies for contrast. If the
main dish is sandwiches, choose a juicy fresh fruit.
Fresh fruits are easy to pack and popular. As a change from the
often-used apples, oranges, and bananas, try plums, grapes, and pears in
season.
Baked and canned fruits travel well in covered containers—glass,
plastic, or paper. Try an occasional baked pear or peach, as well as
apple.
Sweet fruit desserts like pie or fruitcake or fruit-filled cookies taste
best after a tart salad or a milk-flavored soup.
Baked custards are good to use when the main dish is low in protein. It
is best not to use cake with cream filling, or cream pie or cream puffs.
The fillings spoil easily in hot weather, or even in winter if the lunch
is not kept in a cool place.
Index to Recipes