Eating More Whole Foods: Beans

I've been getting lazy in my eating habits the last few months.  I used to feel guilty when I ate anything that wasn't organic or something that I had to unwrap before I ate it.  Now I just feel good when I have a meal that's entirely comprised of whole foods.  This used to be my goal for every meal, but as I said, I've been lazy.  As the weather gets warmer and I'm thinking more and more about my garden (You had no idea I was thinking about my garden, did you?!  I've NEVER mentioned it!) I'm trying to incorporate more whole foods into our diet.  I'm working on more beans and grains.  I've been looking for recipes for these two groups, but what I really need is just a basic way to cook them so that I can just serve barley, not some kind of barley pilaf.  I need a way that is going to be fast (which is a relative term when talking about cooking grains and legumes) and easy, with minimal ingredients.  We have so many nights of lessons, classes, organizations  it's too much for me to be making an elaborate dinner each night.  If I want to do this right, I need to be realistic.  I don't want to set myself up for failure.


I'm starting with beans.  I found a recipe in my Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook for Black-Eyed Peas and arame (a sea vegetable) but I couldn't find the arame anywhere so now I have a jar full of black-eyed peas.  As I've said before, I'm not a good cook.  I can follow a recipe, but as far as just throwing a little of this and a little of that into a dish--mine usually don't taste anything like I want it to.  So I searched the web, looking for a "quick" easy way to make black-eyed peas.  I found a great article on ehow about how which herbs and spices go best with Black-Eyed Peas.  Basically, just use the spices you like.  I'm going to try one of the Penzey Spice blends with some olive oil.  The article I read suggested spicy flavors go well with BEPs so maybe Southwestern seasoning would be good.  Another Ehow I found suggested these seasonings :pepper, salt, Lawry's seasoning salt, honey, imitation bacon bits, onions, margarine, baking soda. Onions might be a good addition too.  Hopefully, I find something I like.