Here are a couple recipes for beans. The first is relatively cheap and nutritious. The second is a little more time consuming but worth it.

Basic Beans.

1 lb beans, soak overnight with 1 TBS salt (keeps the beans intact)
(my personal favorite is cranberry beans).

Drain and wash off with lots of fresh water before cooking.

Ham hock, bacon, cheap hunk of sausage or some other smoky piece of meat.

1 onion, chopped, maybe 2
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes with green chilies, maybe 2 cans
5-6 (or more) cloves garlic
Couple boullion cubes

Cover beans, ham hock (or whatever ) with water, add everything else in pressure cooker and let her rip for 20 minutes at 15 pounds.

Serve with cornbread.

Second recipe is my modified version of minestrone. This recipe came out great.

1 cup dried cranberry beans
1 cup dried garbanzo beans
1 cup dried cannellini beans

Soak overnight, change water, over with water and cook for 1-1 ½ hrs until tender

2 slices pancetta, about 3/8 inch thick, diced

3 stalks celery, diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 8 oz package button mushrooms, stems removed, sliced
Small handful porcini mushrooms, soaked, soaking liquid reserved

Two tbs good olive oil in a stockpot along with 1 ½ tbs butter. Saute pancetta, then vegetable mixture until onions are soft, about 10 min

Add 3 quarts chicken stock. I used Swanson 99% fat free.

1 bunch Swiss Chard, de-stemmed, rough chopped
2 Zucchini, quartered and sliced into small chunks
1 red bell pepper, chopped
3 leeks, rinsed and sliced into ½” pieces
1 potato, peeled and cubed
1 28 oz can tomatoes, roughly chopped, juice included
1 tsp pepper flakes
1 Knorr chicken bullion cube
1 Knorr beef bullion cube
1 sprig rosemary or to taste
3 sprigs thyme or to taste

Add to pot

Add 1 small can tomato paste

Add beans and cooking liquid (liquid should be thickened)

Salt and pepper to taste

Add 1 box small shells shortly before serving. Adjust consistency of broth as needed.

Makes a lot.