16 Cans of Diced Tomatoes

That's what my roommate and I left Costco with when her mom was in town a few weeks ago. And it was completely intentional. Why, you ask? Because diced tomatoes are an integral part of about 18 out of 20 of my favorite weeknight dinner recipes. And the following recipe (courtesy of my roommate) is my current favorite:

1 can diced tomatoes
1 can beans (black or cannellini are my favorite for this)
2-3 handfuls of roughly chopped kale
Cumin

Combine the above ingredients over medium heat until the kale has wilted. This combo is perfect on it's own, on top of rice or quinoa, or (drained slightly) in a tortilla with cheddar cheese for a vegetarian quesadilla!

Three-Hour Black Beans

What to do with the huge bunch of cilantro I had left over from Chickpea Tacos? So many things come to mind (I'm of the mindset that cilantro makes every dish better). But really, what goes better with cilantro than black beans? That's right, absolutely nothing. Then it occurred to me that I have never once prepared dried black beans. So I decided to give it a try.

I used this recipe for Cuban Black Beans, which was really simple other than requiring enough forethought to soak the beans the night before. But while cooking, a curious situation developed -- I let my gigantic pan of black beans simmer for almost 3 hours, and every time I grabbed a spoonful to check if they were done, I kept tasting blacks beans that were kind of...coarse. And leathery. And then I thought that maybe no matter how long I let the pan sit there those beans probably wouldn't end up being quite as soft as what I'm used to because they haven't been been sitting in a can. Now isn't that just funny? Despite tasting MUCH better than what comes out of a can, the texture may just take some time to get used to. 

Has anyone else found this? I'm still not entirely convinced that homemade black beans are destined to taste so fibrous. It might just require more patience than I have...