Beans and Fideo Soup

Day three of the Great Freeze. There is no end in sight....

Ever since Covid, there have been a few select staples bought in mass bulk every time: flour 25 lbs at a time and frozen in gallon bags, sugar 20lbs at a time and frozen in quart bags, 4 packs of salted butter and frozen, powdered milk, evaporated milk, beans, rice, noodles, bouillon cubes, canned veggies. It is a good thing there was still a stock pile of staples otherwise this table might have had a tough time surviving on condiment soup. Meals might have been simple but there were sweets everyday to cheer up the cold soul and warm dinners at night to warm the heart. We are doing just fine. Today was a staple Beans and Fideo, slightly modified to soup format.

Ingredients:
1 box fideo
1 tablespoon oil
1 cube tomate de pollo bouillon cube
1 28 oz can pinto beans
28 oz water

Instructions:
To large pot, fry fideo noodles in oil until nice and golden brown. Add beans and tomate cube. To bean can, add small amount of water to wash out starch from can, add to beans. Add remaining water. Cook on low until fideo is soft to desired texture.

Scaled for Likability: Great
All the same great flavors of Beans and Fideo but not a one pot version. The pinto beans were plain but this would have been fabulous with any of the flavored pinto beans: charro, barracho, green chilis and tomatoes, or jalapeno. If one desired even a can of rotel could have been added. The only way this could have been better would to have fresh warm tortillas. Unfortunately, lard was not one of the staples being stored. Going to have remedy that this day forward.

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