Anyone Tried These Beans With Rice?

I know I've seen people here on MP talking about bags of beans and rice together being good dirtbag/climber food. Anyone tried the brand Vigo and if so, which of the three varieties (red beans w/rice, black beans w/rice, Santa Fe pinto beans w/rice) was the best? They all get good reviews on Amazon so I don't think I can go too wrong, I was just wondering what your personal experiences were.

Amazon link to all three.

Buyer beware: those sorts of packaged and preseasoned rice dishes tend to have insane amounts of sodium. If you want less than 1000 mg of sodium per serving, you probably ought to just buy your own bag of rice and bag of bean separately. Not to mention MSG, and all the other junk that they put in. Making things yourself will be cheaper, healthier, and taste better.

With even the smallest shred of thought and preparation, eating cheaply does not have to mean eating poorly.

I like a lot of the pre-packaged stuff. I have used a number of the Indian meals ( shop.tastybite.com/Entres/c…@Entrees ) over rice. They are yummy!

My only issue with the beans the sodium content. Some meals have over 40% of the daily allowance per serving.

From one of the reviews, regarding the sodium:

"I cannot imagine you'll find a better, more satisfying prepackaged- just add boiling water- red beans and rice dish anywhere. Each package is said to have (4) servings, more realistic would be 2 servings. Add andouille sausage and it is a feast.(I mentioned in the title of this review that Vigo red Beans/Rice is high in salt, it's 730mg per serving- which is high. recommended daily intake is 2,300mg...and I eat half the package totaling 1460mg)"

So it looks like each "man serving" has 1460mg of sodium.

NC Rock Climber wrote:I like a lot of the pre-packaged stuff. I have used a number of the Indian meals ( shop.tastybite.com/Entres/c…@Entrees ) over rice. They are yummy! My only issue with the beans the sodium content. Some meals have over 40% of the daily allowance per serving.

Wow, those look really good... Thanks for the link.

NC Rock Climber wrote:I like a lot of the pre-packaged stuff. I have used a number of the Indian meals ( shop.tastybite.com/Entres/c…@Entrees ) over rice. They are yummy! My only issue with the beans the sodium content. Some meals have over 40% of the daily allowance per serving.

+1 for tasty bites. Here's how to do a no dishes dinner (except eating bowls):
1. Boil water
2. Leave tasty bites in inner foil pouch and submerge in boiling water until heated.
3. While tasty bites are heating, measure out couscous(the five minute cook type) into each bowl. Add boiling water to bowl and cover and let stand..
4. Pour tasty bites over cooked couscous.

Personally, I'm leary of the dried bean mixes. The beans don't always cook right at altitude or less than perfect conditions, and I've eaten way too many crunchy beans. I prefer cans of beans and boil in the bag rice plus my own seasonings.

I'm not sure that white rice is a good choice from a nutrition standpoint. While it's true that eating some simple carbs (eg white rice, sugar, refined flour) shortly after a workout is beneficial for recovery, you're not really giving your body the long-term fuel that I imagine you are looking for from a dinner, nor is this likely occurring close enough to your physical activity (within 60 minutes) to provide recovery benefits. The beans of course provide protein, but I think that brown rice, potatoes, or some sort of whole grain would serve you better.

From a financial standpoint, I wouldn't describe $2 per meal for beans and rice (which you will almost certainly want to supplement with additional protein and vegetables) to be a great deal, although I suppose that each bag serves around 4 regular people or 2 hungry campers.

I eat those packets around 4 times a week. Black bean and venison burritos are fantastic. Great cheap meal.

The Vigo stuff is good (I like the black beans), but beware the cooktime is pretty long. Not a good choice for backpacking or camping, unless fuel and time time are plentiful.

Maybe if you soaked them for a while before heating you could get away with less fuel? Never tried.

Put some hotdogs, cheese, and hot sauce in it. Mmmm...

I don't advise buying any of those pre-packaged dishes like that, the nutritional quality isn't really that great, not to mention per weight, it's expensive. They take 30+ minutes to simmer anyways, so if you're cooking this on a camp stove, that's a lot of fuel. You'd be better off with instant rice.

If you've got access to a kitchen.... a cheaper, healthier and tastier (this takes practice) method to red beans and rice is to buy bulk jasmine rice and bulk kidney beans, (in the hippy, bulk food aisle at the grocery store) cook big batches of them separately (I do my beans in a pressure cooker, add S&P, cayenne, white pepper, bay leaf, etc.) and then combine and spice as needed. Making your own tortillas is cheap and easy too. Look it up. Your ingredient list will be mega short, your food much better for you and your wallet.

If you need any reasoning why to do this, look at the ingredients list and then the nutritional info on the Vigo pack.

Saw the title of this thread and immediately thought "This is something Tristan would ask."

Last year, I practically lived off of Vigo rice & beans. I've had all of their stuff, and what other people have said is true--they're high in sodium, and high in deliciousness as well. And high in MSG--but that's not a bad thing, just a buzzword that the diet-hip have caught on to.

I'd recommend them for backpacking, were it not for the long simmer time. Now I do dried refried beans and parboiled rice to make the same meal, except it cooks in 8 minutes instead of 25.

They have instant brown rice. Boil five minutes and let sit 5 minutes. Don't even need exact amounts of water just strain out the extra.

Evan if you like tasty bits you can skip a step while camping. Buy "boil-in-the-bag" rice. While boiling the rice drop the foil pack in the same water. When done, drain the bag and open your tastybites.

Or, here in the west, we have Trader Joes and their branded Indian Food. It's yumm yumm good.

Sorry Tristan, no reference to the treat you found. As for the sodium content, I'm left wondering if you girls afraid of bloating?

~Susan

susan peplow wrote:Evan if you like tasty bits you can skip a step while camping. Buy "boil-in-the-bag" rice. While boiling the rice drop the foil pack in the same water. When done, drain the bag and open your tastybites. Or, here in the west, we have Trader Joes and their branded Indian Food. It's yumm yumm good. ~Susan

You are speaking my language! I actually prefer the whole wheat couscous from TJ's. Just pour in your eating bowl and cover with boiling water.

TJ indian is good, too.

The only warning I have is not to buy the tasty bites at the Lee Vining store. I don't know how long they had to store them, but they had gone rancid.

susan peplow wrote: Or, here in the west, we have Trader Joes and their branded Indian Food.

TJ's indian food IS Tasty Bite. That's TJ's business model, have the producers make it as a house brand. BITD, maybe 5-6 years ago, TJs sold the same stuff as Tasty Bite branded but at about $1/ea less than the TB cost at a regular grocery. Once TJs make something more or less permanent, where it will always have shelf space, it gets the in-house branding.

If you're after the premix beans/rice, Zatarains (sp?) is good stuff. Black, red, jumbalaya, etc. Same sodium issues though.

Zatarain's has some reduced-sodium mixes. And yeah, they're tasty.

The quick brown rice works great. And it's goof-proof.

Consider mixing Mahatma's Spanish rice (cooks in 10 minutes) with Fantastic Food's instant refrieds or black beans. Almost-instant burrito. I add salsa, cheese, bagged chicken (unlike its canned counterpart, this actually tastes like chicken, not the sole of my shoe), maybe wrap the whole thing in a tortilla.

Herb-Ox makes a sodium-free chicken bullion. I often add this to the rice-cooking water to pump up the protein content. Their veggie bullion is similarly yummy.

David Sahalie wrote:this crap is loaded with MSG and tons on other shit. here is a thought: make organic brown rice at home, mix with can of organic beans at camp, mix in salsa, spices, whatever. cheaper, healthier, better

Actually, I'm looking at the ingredients on a package of the red beans and rice right now. There is no MSG in it. Moreover, I've eaten a ton of food with MSG and have never suffered adverse effects. Your mileage may vary, of course.

If you really like Indian food and think that the Tasty Bites are ok but kinda' bland, head to your local Indian grocery and get these:

Haldiram's Minute Khana : haldiram.com

They are very spicy and more authentic by comparison to the Tasty Bite meals. Too hot for some (my wife won't eat them).