Instant Refried Beans and Quesadillas

Last week we told you about Thrive’s new Instant Refried Beans. Well we got together and gave them a try and wanted to let you know how they turned out. We loved them for a lot of reasons but here are our top 3.

First, they were super easy. Just add water and simmer for 2 minutes and they were DONE.

Second, one of the things we love about Thrive is they pride themselves on their clean labels. So if you’re looking at the label for Thrive Instant Refried Beans you’ll see ONE ingredient. That’s right JUST Pinto Beans. Because of this you are able to add and control your own desired seasoning however we didn’t even add anything for the kids quesidillas we made to test them out.

Third, they are great for emergency preparedness. A lot of why we have Thrive is for our everyday cooking but we also store extra for food storage. Just in case we needed to use these in case of powerless situations the amount of fuel required to get them cooked and ready to eat will be minimal compared to regular beans. Not to mention this is a great source of fiber and protein in potential disaster situations.

So how did we test them? We tested them on kids. Because that’s the true test of goodness. Between the 2 of us, we have 8 kids who like to eat. We often make the kids quesidillas when we are in a time crunch. The quesidillas we usually are make are flour tortillas and cheese (we told you it’s what we do in a time crunch we know it’s not the best option). By adding the instant refried beans we will be able to add some nutrients and density to the quesidillas. This is awesome because we can make as little or as much of the beans we want each time and not worry about opening and wasting part of a can. Sometimes the quesidillas are only for a couple of the little kids while the big ones are at school. Sometimes they are for the big ones because they’re STILL hungry. We also could see ourselves using these in taco’s 7 layer tips, and so many other dishes. Yay for easy. We give this new product two thumbs up!