What Do I Make With the Beans I Panic-Bought, and Other Burning Questions | Cup of Jo (2024)

A baseball shaped cake, a rerun of the yankees MLB final or a red sox yankees game? (maybe a print out of a score card so he can follow hits, runs etc?), crackerjacks, peanuts, soft pretzel (you can make them! Or buy frozen), hotdogs, and soda. Stadium seating? (a row of the fam sits on the floor and then the couch?), some baseball cards, a baseball hat… Trivia on baseball hidden all around the house on a scavenger hunt (the baseball hall of fame instagram looks like a good spot for trivia!). You could take him to a park and hit baseballs or play catch (at a distance from others). Give him tickets to get a tour of the stadium for later? Looks like there are a few YouTube videos of the stadium! Just a couple ideas! Happy birthday kiddo!

Thanks Kaitlin! Those are fantastic ideas!

Kaitlin’s suggestions are so great and thorough and it really warmed my heart to see such a great thoughtful response :)

BTW, if you can get your hands on a couple boxes of ice cream sandwiches, one or two tubs of Cool Whip, and some sprinkles, bam — birthday cake. Just stack the sandwiches on a rectangular or square platter, cover with Cool Whip, and let it set in the freezer. It doesn’t have to be big. Just pretty, and festive.

In the absence of these ingredients, almost anything can become a birthday cake (pancakes, pudding…..?) with a candle in it.

Happy birthday to everyone celebrating a birthday right now — especially the little ones. Things will get better. God Bless.

With this type of community, I’m sure you could get 20 cards! :)

On adding a “wow” factor for family dinners – I love making the slightest adjustment to our otherwise routine dinners and seeing my boys’ reactions when they come to the table! Gingerbread shaped pancakes, two gummy worms on spinach leaves next to their hot dogs, milk served in a mug rather than a glass (“cold white hot cocoa”!). It’s not every meal, but it helps brighten the mood when we are (once again) all coming together for the n-th time that day!

Yes to the “wow” factor at dinner…We were able to do a very careful curbside pick up from one of our favorite Friday night places last Friday – while I was doing Zoom Happy Hour with some girlfriends and otherwise busy my two kiddos (6&9) decided to get all dressed up and fancy. It was adorable. I put on a dress that I would NEVER wear to be in the house and my husband put on a blazer. They loved it.

melissa, check out the budget bytes website. She has oodles of great ‘pantry’ cooking ideas. She recommends substitutions where possible. Her recipes are very accessible, and – most importantly- everything I’ve made using her recipes has been delicious.

We ate that last night! I think we eat it twice a month. It’s official name in my house is Little Ears.

crab salad! like tuna salad – but with crab. All you really need is mayo. little thin sliced celery would be good, or some dill or or some chives.

I love crab and I eat it for lunch pretty often. I usually make a serving of Asian or spaghetti noodles. Then heat the chopped crab quickly in a small skillet with spinach. Stir into to noodles and top with a bit of olive oil, garlic salt, pepper and Parmesan. If I have them, I also sprinkle with pine nuts. The whole thing takes however long the pasta cooks, so that’s handy. OR second choice crab lunch is an omelet with spinach, mushrooms and Swiss cheese. I use the same routine with shrimp, too

If you have Alfredo sauce, drain the crab and add it ti the sauce and heat — you can add frozen spinach if you like. Cook pasta separately. Serve the sauce over the pasta, with a little Parmesan, if you have it,

If you have Alfredo sauce, drain the crab and add it ti the sauce and heat — you can add frozen spinach if you like. Cook pasta separately. Serve the sauce over the pasta, with a little Parmesan, if you have it,

My mum makes a tinned crab and fish noodle dish (stir fry? Salad? Whatever?) When she and my dad go kayaking. Just add soy sauce, crunchy veg and sesame at a bare minimum.

CRAB DIP! lots of recipes online but cream cheese + crab dip + other ingredients baked in the oven would be such a fun weekend app.

Sub in for tuna for a classed up melt! Sandwich or open-faced :D

seafood enchiladas!

Or maybe tuna salad sandwiches, with all or part canned crab? I don’t think crab-stuffed mushrooms are any simpler than crab cakes, but hot crab dip is generally pretty quick to throw together and could be eaten on bread or crackers (sounds like my dream solo meal in front of the TV).
Possibly a corn & crab chowder? I definitely feel your lethargy right now too, but occasionally a recipe sounds promising/nostalgic enough to motivate me.

Pasta is a great idea with the crab, fennel (if you can get it), lemon, creme fraiche, and chili flakes

You can make warm crab melts on bread or English muffins.

no specific recipe to offer, but a yummy crab dip appetizer? crab soup? crab rangoon appetizers?

A favorite food memory l have: a dinner of Virginia ham with sautéed crab and spring peas. The light taste of butter with lemon and pepper balanced with the salty ham. Substitute pasta if you have no ham- always good.

Hi Lynn,

It’s my sons 6th birthday Friday (we’re from the Netherlands and semi-quarantined)
It takes some time adjusting because I too want to make it a great day for him, especially because nothing feels normal and he has to miss a lot.
It is common they get a birthday crown at school so I’m making one at home, they are allowed to give treats at school so he’s going to do that for his brother and sister during homeschooling, his teacher is going to phone him and I’ve asked all the grandparents and uncles and aunts to mail him his gifts and then we’re going to open them (and eat loads of cake) while we FaceTime.
It will not be the same, but we can make something memorable.
I hope your daughter will have the most fantastic birthday!

These are good tips. I make endless burritos by refrying black beans with onions and serving on a tortilla with cheddar. The beans last for a week in the fridge and it’s simple and delicious.

I do want to comment that I get frustrated with “driving around” suggestions. I live in NYC, the epicenter of the US coronavirus where we are terrified of leaving our apartment buildings (so many common spaces!) and so many of us don’t have cars. Whenever I see advice that involves “go for a drive”, “drive to remote locations for a hike”, etc it makes me SO lonely. I know there are literally millions of other people in my position in this city, so maybe we can be more considerate about those who don’t have the same level of access. Believe me, this is especially hard when your neighbors are dying/sick and you can’t escape a shoebox of an apartment.

Yes, for what it’s worth they’ve cracked down on this in Washington state – all the places you would drive to go for a hike have been closed, and they are urging people not to drive to rural areas.

I’ve never made a cheesecake with eggs! All no-bake cheesecakes don’t use eggs, just cream cheese + heavy cream or sweetened condensed milk.

Hate to break it to you, but at the moment, brown sugar is nearly impossible to come by in America as well. I guess everyone really feels the need for the comfort of a chocolate chip cookie at the moment. Not so shockingly, all of the vegetables are still quite well stocked. Lol Brownies with plastic dinos sounds like an amazing birthday to me! I’d rather have that than cake any day!

such a cute idea I would have loved that as a kid too! I think as parents we think it needs to be fancy but I think kids really just want it to be personal…like someone knows them.

I suggest this soup called “Roberto” because it is delicious, easy to make, and riff on, and it calls for beans:
https://tinyletter.com/hels/letters/issue-1-hello-roberto

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/oct/21/bean-salad-lentil-soup-recipes

Ottolenghi’s mung bean salad! It’s easy and delish. :)

oh my gosh, that is SO cute!!

How lovely and exciting! I’m sure it was glorious for everyone involved!

We are doing this for one of my best friends’ 5 year olds tomorrow and everyone – including the adults – are so excited about it!

I’m in the middle of decorating for my almost 7-year old Zoom party tomorrow. I emailed a few moms, asked that the girls wear hats or tiaras and the big surprise- their teacher is going to join in for a while. They have no idea and I just know they’ll go bonkers when their 1st grade teacher’s face is on the screen ?

Can I ask what you did? My daughter is turning 9 very soon and is very sad about her party being cancelled. All ideas will be much appreciated!

I’m dying to know the million little gestures!

Nicola! I feel you! Some things she especially loved for anyone in our same boat… Decorated over the top with every party related thing we had – cinco de mayo? sure, played recorded messages from friends every hour through the day… Alexa announced when it was time which made it exciting, homemade birthday crown, made sure the house was spotless – just feels good to wake up to even if you’re little, rearranged furniture a bit and made a sign for the best comfy seat in front of the tv that declared it her personal throne for the day, wrote sidewalk chalk jokes down the street, decorated her scooter/helmet and went for a walk to discover the chalk notes, set up a pillow fort ready to go with a laptop playing old home videos of her, each of us wrote her a thoughtful love note/note of gratitude and hid them under her pillow to discover at bed, watched her favorite movie with popcorn, siblings did her daily chores while she got to take a bubble bath with grown up candles, we blasted and danced to her favorite music (that other’s normally begrudge) all throughout the day, hosted a family spa service for her (mom did nails, sister did hair, brother was on leg and arm lotion duty, dad played guitar for relaxing music), played her favorite game and came up with ways to give her a “birthday advantage” like getting to go one extra spot with every turn, had family call staggered through the day to sing and FaceTime, she gets to stay up as long as she wants with the grown-ups tonight (incredibly exciting!), we are only referring to her with fancy names like your majesty, we remade her bed in secret with the softest blankets we have in the house, made a giant cookie for a cake, gathered as many pictures of her as we could find and put them in to a kitchen table centerpiece with construction paper hearts so we could talk at dinner about all the memories of her, while in her throne we all bowed and each person presented a homemade service coupon (like a foot rub or taking her turn for dog poop pick up ha), set out her toothbrush with toothpaste on it and ready to go, made her favorite meals based on what we had and got out the fine china and stemware, sang happy birthday as crazy as we could at every meal – why not?, dressed up in our absolute fanciest clothes to greet her in the morning for the special occasion, washed and laid out her favorite outfit to wear so she’d feel her comfiest, gave full access to mom’s makeup to put together her desired “look” (she always asks hahaha), gave little bro a personal assistant name tag to be at her service through the day, did a messy art project shes been dying to try, she was banned from cleaning up after herself for the day (we all shout silly and go crazy if she tries to do anything which makes everyone laugh), etc. etc etc. We made as many things a surprise as possible to enhance the drama – like having the candles lit and bath drawn before she looked in the bathroom. I hope your little has the happiest of birthdays amidst quarantine! I’ll never think about my kids’ birthdays the same again. It wasn’t special in spite of being stuck at home. It was special because of it. ❤️ Good luck and happy birthday ?

Oh my goodness, Meg! That sounds amazing and reading all the little things you did made me cry! My little one is turning 2 tomorrow so we don’t need to modify much because she won’t know the difference but I’m going to do a couple more things than I planned for us all to be in a more festive mood. What a memorable birthday your daughter had!

Omg Meg, your family is beautiful. Your list of things you all did for your little lady made me cry! What a special and loving family you have❤️

Meg I just want you to know that you just changed birthdays forever! This was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER! So much better than the a regular old party. I just showed my husband, and he says you’ve set yourself up, every birthday will now be compared to this forever. I posted earlier about my Cup of Jo folder, where I stash all the wisdom from this blog and this is definitely folder worthy!

WOW! She must’ve felt incredibly loved.
I’m going to borrow some of these ideas for my almost-7-yo’s birthday at the start of April – thanks!

Wow Meg – thank you SO much for all the wonderful ideas! I am very grateful and so inspired by this. You sound like an amazing family, I’m sure she will remember that birthday forever. A huge thank you from me over in the UK.

Be careful, Meg, she’s gonna want this every year now. But congrats on making it such a wonderful and memorable day. I’m sure THIS is the birthday she will remember!!!!

I bought a bag of mung beans like three years ago when I read an article about how nutritious they are. They are still sitting in my pantry.

I agree, Alexis! I am having a harder time being interested in the design and style posts I used to love but I also don’t want to read only really heavy news. I love the acknowledgement of the situation but not too heavy or panic-inducing. Thanks Cup of Jo team!

Absolutely! So well said.

Whoa, breathe!. All your points are true, but some people just have to think of the simplest task in front of them – FOOD! People’s anxieties pop up in different and strange ways that may be different than how you process things. Hope you are doing well in these trying times!

For me cooking is how I relax, how I feel like me again when my kids both have a fever and we haven’t left the house in weeks. It’s how I breathe.

Easy does it. People still have to eat. Nothing wrong with beans, or dinner.

Sometimes one’s mind pops to the only thing they can control. I am an elected official of a city and logistical head of a family with 7 people over the age of 70 all suddenly with inadequate income and varying levels of ability to protect themselves in their homes. I am desperately trying to keep everyone safe. Thousands and thousands of people. And I’m also a wife and I am fighting the societal pressure to deliver a dinner party for my household every night. I absolutely understand why you’re focused on negative externalities. You’re right to do that. And everyone will panic in a different way. And that’s ok too. I’m very grateful to come here for a moment and remember that you’re all out there doing lots of things to keep your families safe now too, including feeding them.

I think a ton of people are spending way more time than usual thinking about dinner right now. For many of us, family dinner is the one time during the day that we actually get to enjoy ourselves, or at least not be in a constant state of stress and panic. An emergency situation that requires most people to sit at home is a particular challenge because there are fewer releases for anxiety that don’t put our communities in danger. Since we all still have to eat multiple times a day, food is a natural outlet for that anxious energy.

As someone who grew up dirt poor (like actually poor, not just middle class) and who is now struggling to provide for my family on solely my retail salary – I hear you. There is definitely a class divide in *how* a person is struggling right now. But you know what? We are all in this together, rich and poor. We have all lost something (or, god forbid, someone) to this, and we are all struggling with an abnormal timeline, in which we don’t if we will ever get back to the old normal (most likely not). And we are all human. Don’t compare your struggles. Don’t put yours or anyone else’s struggles on a top ten list, it isn’t worth it. That we are ALL struggling at all is worthy of compassion. If someone is buried in beans, that’s their story. If someone else is feeling pressured to be an all-star chef, that’s their story. If someone else can’t worry about anything other than basic survival – that’s their story. We all have one, and they’re all valid.

I just wanted to thank you for your thoughts and concerns. Your comments are really important and valid. Your compassion for those who have it much harder is beautiful, and I appreciate your care for those who are struggling in ways hard to imagine. Take care.

Agreed, Annie. The comment seemed ridiculous and ill-timed to me. The replies you received were a bit harsh, in my opinion. This is an adult blog, and I don’t think everything should have to be so overwhelmingly “sunshiny” all the time.

I will point out that “wowing at dinner” could also be the pressure parents are feeling to try and soothe their kids’ anxieties. They are just trying to do something to cheer everyone up at the end of the day. These days are exhausting after all.
I am struggling with remembering that everyone has their own struggles right now. I am SO envious of everyone getting to work from home when I work in a financial institution as an “essential” employee. There is no thanks or recognition in it but I am still risking my children to this virus. I also know other people have lost their jobs so I am grateful I am secure but it doesn’t make my struggles and anxiety less, if that makes sense?

I don’t get the point of any of this. It’s just dinner, and it’s a blog post about beans. It’s not a mandate, and it’s a big leap to turn it into judgement about character. You still get to choose how you fix dinner, so just do it how you want to do it. We are all tense and worried, nobody needs to freak out over beans.

C.
I mean, it IS called “the comments section”…

i hear you, liz xoxo

I agree Sarah! Just about the sweetest idea I’ve heard of during this strange, isolating season.

This recipe is super-easy, very kid-friendly, & uses pantry ingredients. We just made it for lunch! https://food52.com/recipes/66790-victoria-granof-s-pasta-con-ceci

One of my favorite bean recipes:
https://travelerslunchbox.com/2011/04/22/a-super-natural-spread/

That Shepard’s pie recipe looks amazing! Thank you!

That samosa-inspired shepherds pie looks AMAZING, thanks for sharing all these ideas.

Immediately pinned the shepherd’s pie recipe to my “Things My Husband Wouldn’t Eat” board. Thanks for sharing!

You can sheet pan them for 20 min tossed with a little olive oil and they get crispy! Or, depending on what else you have at home, I will often throw them + ~2/3cup water & a handful of frozen shrimp in a pan, let them steam thaw for about 5 min and then add half a container of pesto, a bag of spinach, and whatever extra veg I have lying around (chopped onion, mushroom, cherry tomatoes). The whole mixture will thicken as the shrimp cook & it’s all done in 10-15 min.

This recipe for a cheesy white bean bake is VERY easy and quick. And everyone in my family likes it, even my four year old, who basically subsists on mac and cheese.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019681-cheesy-white-bean-tomato-bake

We made that a few weeks ago — delicious! (Note: You have to have a subscription to NYT Cooking to access.)

LOVE beans! Mash them and put on toast. Saute with spinach or any greens. Make a dip.

It’s my birthday (and my twin’s) on Sunday. We were supposed to meet in Arizona. I’m having a hard time trying to figure out how to celebrate when I live on my own ;(

I was just saying to my husband tonight that there are going to be SO MANY birthday parties once this eases up. Two of our three kids are spring babies, and with the steady pace of birthday invites from school etc, there’s going to be an explosion of celebrations in a few months (which I both sincerely hope for and also dread a tiny bit haha!)

These are great tips!

For beans, I’m also a big fan of SOUP! Here’s a guide to making soup with whatever: https://easyanimalfree.com/post/2020/3/22/four-flexible-vegan-meals-for-quarantine

Anna!! I love your instagram and blog! So great to see you in this corner of the internet!

Yes, soups and chili are great for beans and veggies you would like to use up. I made a big pot of chili last week and froze batches of it.

I have gone down the rabbit hole on this blog! It’s great!! Is it yours, Anna? Your soup breakdown is so accessible and makes me want to go make soup right now!! :)