We were fairly poor when I was growing up, and we ate lots of dinners that weren't very tasty, like cornbread and milk, or a single baked sweet potato or a sandwich with a thin smearing of "potted meat product" between the bread. Those are things I no longer eat. But we also had various types of beans. I have never stopped liking beans and still enjoy them. These days I have to watch my carbs, so I will not have things like red beans and rice any longer. Mostly I buy dry soybeans. They have a flavor and appearance similar to Navy beans or Great Northern beans, but they have the lowest carb count of all beans. There are also black soy beans which I add to chili.
There’s one recipe that I haven’t made in forever but I really like. You take dried kidney beans and soak them overnight. Then you put them in a dutch oven layering with bacon and onions then you cover with brown sugar and molasses, dry mustard, and then bake them for 10 hours. Serve with fresh homemade biscuits and butter
Makes me hungry just to write this down.
Just don’t overdo the soybeans if you or anyone in your family tree has thyroid illness. Soy also produces estrogen in the body, and vegetarian men can grow manboobs from eating too much soy.