Time management gurus advocate going after "low hanging fruit" first: identifying and going after your most obvious opportunities. This same "go after the low stuff" theory also applies to edible activism: "Eat low, use more."

Basically this means eating as much as possible lower on the food chain, using a core staple of whole grains, beans and generally less processed food. Grains and beans pack a nutritional wallop — a single serving of cooked beans counts as one, one-ounce serving of lean meat in the USDA Food Pyramid, yet costs only about twenty cents. That single bean serving delivers approximately one third of the daily Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) protein recommendations.

Plus, the cost of producing beans and grains results in a much lighter impact on the planet. Over half the water consumed in this country and eighty percent of our agricultural land goes toward raising animals for food. While these statistics motivated our own decisions to become vegetarians, an unexpected perk happened on the way to the bulk bean aisle: we saved a lot of green.

Some tips on slowly bringing beans and whole grains into your diet:

• For the bean-eating newbie, start with canned beans, versus dried. Simply open the can and conveniently use it in your recipe. Black beans serve as a good introductory bean since they have an appealing smoky, almost meat-like flavor. Look for organic canned beans since conventional commercial canners add chemicals to the beans to harden the skins so they won’t mush when they cook. Sometimes conventional canned beans also have dyes and chemical preservatives added.
• Once you get the hang of some bean-based recipes, move on to utilizing dried beans and start saving big time. Plus, with dried beans, there’s one less thing – the steel can – to recycle. Dried lentils are an easy dried bean to try, as they’re typically added directly into a recipe without presoaking or cooking. The trick with other dried beans is planning ahead, since they require time to soften and cook. Soak a bowl of dried beans overnight; keep in mind that most dried beans will double in size when reconstituted. After rinsing the beans, we like to cook them in our energy-efficient crock-pot for several hours until soft. As we explore at length in our book, Rural Renaissance, using a crock-pot is just one of the many ways to cook more efficiently and reduce our energy needs, therefore reducing our carbon dioxide emissions. Since you’re going through the effort, make a big batch of crock-pot beans and freeze some for easy defrosting later.
• Morning warm breakfast cereals are an easy option for adding in some whole grains to your diet: oatmeal is an accessible choice. Try some plain, whole oats and dress them up with honey and raisins for a cheaper, more nutritious alternative than the processed packets. For variety, try bulgur, a wheat-based grain that originated in the Middle East that has already been soaked and baked to speed up cooking time.

Here’s one of our favorite easy recipes using chickpeas, “Casablanca Couscous,” from our cookbook, Edible Earth: Savoring the Good Life with Vegetarian Recipes from Inn Serendipity:

Ingredients:

1 c. couscous
1 lb. tofu, cubed
1 onion, chopped
1 c. carrots, sliced
½ c. chopped walnuts
2 c. cooked or canned chickpeas, drained
2 c. tomato sauce
½ c. raisins
1 ½ c. water
2 t. curry powder
1 t. paprika
1 t. salt

Directions:

• In large pan, brown tofu, onion, carrots, nuts.
• Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes.
• Separately, boil 1 ½ c. water with 2 T. oil. Add couscous, stir, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Serve vegetables over steaming couscous.

Serves 4.