Smuggling Refried Beans

Feel free to click on this music first to get in the mood:

Your mission, if you choose to accept it:  Help us figure out a way to bring 180 cans of low fat refried beans into Canada from the USA.

My Fella and I eat a lot of refried beans when we're travelling in the States or Mexico.  Our daily slunch (supper/lunch combo) is usually a mix of lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, corn, brown rice, spicy salsa, jalapeno pepperjack cheese and low-fat refried beans.  

Easy, healthy and cheap. We're definitely creatures of habit.

We've been trying to follow a similar diet since we returned to BC in April but have you seen the price of refried beans in Canada?

In Arizona you can pick up a can of No Fat Rosarito Refried Black Beans for 98 cents.  Not only can we not find this brand in Canada, but a simple generic can of these beans sells for around $3 CAD in BC. Three times the price.

My Fella and I have driven south for the winter every year since 2007 and we know Canada Customs has a number of rules with regards to bringing food back into the country.

But the border agents have never questioned us about transporting canned goods, even in our RV. My thinking is:

• it's not fresh food
• it's not for re-sale
• and the total value is only $180

What do you think?  Can we legally bring the beans into Canada when we come back to BC in April 2012?  

Do we have to tell customs officials we have 180 cans of refried beans?  Should I just tell the border agent they're magic beans???  If I do that and get arrested, can you bail us out? 

If you know the answers to these questions PLEASE ADVISE, cause I'd also like to bring home 60 cans of reduced fat sour cream Pringles   :) 

Comments

[Brenda]

I can't comment on taking the canned goods across the border as it has been many years since I crossed the CAD border by land.
What I want to comment on is the IDEA of eating CANNED refried beans, sorry but that almost made me upchuck lol.
You cook so much with your crockpot or used to that I can't imagine why you would not make your own fresh, additive and preservative free beans. Throw them in the crockpot and let them cook and then make them into refried beans afterwards, it is not that labour intensive.
My Mex. landlady makes a bunch and then freezes them and uses them as needed.
I have her recipe although it is in Spanish but I could translate it for you and send it if you want. In the meantime here are a couple of links to a blogger lady who cooks some good stuff. One link for cooking the beans to begin with and one for making them into refried.

http://www.lacocinadeleslie.com/2009/08/cooked-beans.html

http://www.lacocinadeleslie.com/2009/10/refried-beans.html

Let me know if you want my landladies recipe, she is an excellent cook by the way.
I cannot get past the idea of refried beans from a can. Yuck.
Have a good day.

[Croft]

Humm.. We have never been asked about groceries at the border. But then again if you had a fifteen cases of beans stacked up in the bedroom, what would they say?? Would they assume you were reselling them? There is a phone number you can call and ask, that may be the way to go.

[kelsi]

Hola Guaymas B!
We still use the slow cooker a lot but it honestly never occurred to me to make refried beans myself since I thought the word 'refried' meant you had to fry them twice after first cooking the beans. That sounded really labour intensive.
Your comment about your landlady prompted me to do a Google search for refried bean recipes and I found a TON of them online, that don't even use a frying pan - just the slowcooker. Which means they're healthier too.
Thanks for inspiring me... I'll let you know how they turn out :)

[kelsi]

Mexi-Croft
We've never been asked about groceries at the border either. I'm gonna attempt making my own refried beans at home now... but I still need a way to sneak in the cans of low fat Pringles ($1.50 in the USA, more than $3 in Canada).
In all your years of travelling south, have the border agents ever even come into your RV when you've stopped at customs?

[Don]

We were searched at a small, quiet BC customs entry point in our RV. They spent about 1/2 hour searching our unit and we had to remain outside. It was a very thorough search. I think we were just a random chance that it happened to us.

[Don]

I think home made from scratch would be much healthier then anything out of a can, and you might be very pleased with the end result. Any extra you make would freeze perfectly in meal size portions.

[kelsi]

Mr P - I'm definitely gonna try making homemade refried beans in the slow cooker - if they're yummy I'll post the recipe I found online.
We have been questioned in both the RV and the car, but never really searched for anything. And no one from Canada Customs has actually ever entered our RV. Or asked about the pets. They only seem to be interested in alcohol, firearms and fruit.

[John Calypso]

I concur on the homemade adventure. I would not give bringing the cans a second thought however.

I HATE borders.

[kelsi]

Hola Senor C!
Not surprised you don't like border crossings ... Those new Reef flask flipflops probably make you look a little shifty :)