One of the things I didn’t know about menopause until I was going through it was what it will do to your digestive system. Hot flashes would leave me feeling like I had snakes in my belly, and I’d have to go lay in the shower for a while and just let cool water run over me until I felt steady again.

I did a bunch of reading on menopause and digestion and how to keep your system in good working order and it basically boiled down to: move your body, eat less animal, eat more plant, and get your fiber. I was already walking so I had that part, but I needed to address my diet. The cheapest way to go plant-based and get more fiber was to eat more beans, so I started experimenting with bean cooking.

Well, when I say “experimenting” my first trial was with beans (mostly canned, always well-rinsed), some spices, diced garlic, and olive oil. Black beans, kidney, navy, northern, pink — pretty much everything but chickpeas. The meals were certainly edible but very boring. So I started adding things in various combinations: greens (mustard or turnip), salsa, black olives, chopped onions, corn. My husband wanted to do something with some NC barbecue one night (the pork/vinegar kind) so I put about a sandwiches’ worth in a pot with a tablespoon or so of Baby Ray’s, added plenty of navy beans, chopped tomatoes, chiles, and mustard greens, and let it cook for a couple of hours. I know he liked it because he scraped his plate!

I don’t like using pork too often as I think it would annoy my stomach, so when we have animal protein in the stew it’s usually shredded roasted chicken. Tonight we’re doing buffalo beans: great northern beans, mixed greens, diced tomatoes, onions, and shredded chicken tossed in olive oil and buffalo sauce. I only use a chicken breast or so worth of meat but the stew will feed about four people (we usually have the leftovers for lunch the next day.)

I make the stews 3-4 times a week which means I get a good serving of bean stew 5-6 time a week thanks to leftovers. Between the increased intake of bean stew and being a bit more careful about my other food choices, my stomach is a lot happier. (And in these days of outrageous food prices, beans are still less than a buck a can at Food Lion, and would be even cheaper if I took the time to prepare them from dried.) Up next I want to get better at making bean croquettes.