Refried Beans

I made some black bean and refried bean burritos on Monday. It got me thinking about something I noticed about a year ago while buying refried beans.  I was at the grocery store and noticed for the first time there was a vegetarian can of refried beans sitting next to the regular.  Vegetarian?  I was confused because I thought beans were a vegetarian item.  I picked both cans up and compared ingredients.  Sure enough, right there on the ingredient list of the regular can: animal fat.  Yuck.  I knew refried beans were not considered healthy, but I did not know it was because animal fat was added!  From that day on I have only purchased vegetarian refried beans.  Yes, they taste a little different, but I would rather add some more seasoning or salsa than eat straight animal fat.  I was at the store yesterday and found another example of regular refried beans to take a picture of for you and it was worded a little different: partially hydrogenated lard.  Trying to get sneaky on me by switching the wording.  Definition of lard:

lard  /

noun

1.

the rendered fat of hogs, especially the internal fat of the abdomen.

GROSS!!!!!!!!

Still animal fat, they just changed the wording to try and make it sound better.  It's still animal fat no matter how you slice it.

One last thing.  It's easy to make this switch at home, but I never, ever get refried beans at a Mexican restaurant.  You know they are buying the cheaper, animal fat added beans.  Ask for black beans instead-they will be happy to sub those for you.

Here is a picture of the Old El Paso regular refried beans



I love Trader Joe's brand, but you should be able to find lard free at your grocery store as well.





This fits some of the rules I try to follow: 5 or less ingredients and I can pronounce all of them!