Tostadas

Ingredients

• Two Cans Goya Black Beans

• Two Tablespoons of Salt

• One Cup of Vegetable Oil

• One Package of Goya Queso Blanco Cheese

• One package of Tostadas

Bean Paste

1. Place large skillet on over top and preheat with medium flame.

2. Place cup of vegetable oil on skillet.

3. Sprinkle two tablespoons of salt evenly across oil.

4. Empty two cans of Goya Black Beans onto skillet

5. Wait about two minute until fully warmed.

6. Use masher to ground the beans into a paste.

7. Continuously mash beans for about five minutes.

8. Turn off flame.

Tostasdos

1. Spread small amount of bean paste of smoothly across tostados.

2. Cut off small piece of Queso Blanco Cheese and crumble it across tostados.

3. Enjoy!

Analysis

About ⅘ of my recipe can be considered processed, only the beans can be considered a whole food. I’m not sure what other outcome you expect when a recipe is supposed to be tied to family and culture yet somehow avoid processed foods when they’ve been used for decades.

Mostly all of my ingredients are made by Goya Foods located in America, the only exceptions being the Salt and Vegetable Oil which were made by separately. None of the ingredients were organically grown but all are domestic products. Every ingredient was processed from raw materials in a factory setting.

The entire meal costs less than $15 if all ingredients were purchased new, it costs even less since most items on the ingredient list are aleady in most households. It’s not that great of a price when compared to $5 meals I could purchase at fast food restaurants, say McDonald’s. But since all of the ingredients were manufactured domestically, the money would be going to the private companies that made them.

Overall this meal, or snack, takes less than half an hour to make and it’s very convenient to make since most of the ingredients were already in the house. As someone who comes from a low-income family that’s always strapped for time, this a very affordable dish. I prefered making this to a more expensive meal that would cost nearly triple to make if all the ingredients were bought organically.