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A cup of unenriched long grain white rice has 4g of protein. A cup of brown rice has 5g. A small potato, baked, has 3.5g. Bread can have around 5g, as said. The bread and potatoes at 100-150 calories, both rices at around 200.

So, ultimately, they're all reasonable contributors. Nothing like beans, but still pretty decent. Ultimately, it comes down to avoiding the really processed stuff, like fries(3g at 270 calories) or potato chips(1.9g at 155 calories). And making sure that your plate has some dedicated protein at every meal, be it meat, beans, cottage cheese, eggs, tofu or whatever. Which is something you should be doing anyway if you're planning any kind of regular exercise. Avoid the obvious bad, try to roughly balance everything.

And really, everyone should try to have beans as a side with one meal a day. Lord knows fiber's a problem for most folks.

Apparently lentils (or other legumes) combined with some type of cereal grain will give you a complete protein, which is probably why a lot of cultures have a dish consisting of beans and rice. Sesame seeds also appear to be high in threonine and methionine, which appear to be the two hardest "essential amino acids" to get in the required amounts.

And obviously, soybeans would be the best bean as they are a complete protein by themselves.

Edit: Apparently, quinoa is also a source of complete proteins.

Edited, Apr 24th 2012 3:46pm by Bigdaddyjug

Edited, Apr 24th 2012 3:52pm by Bigdaddyjug

I'm a big fan of black beans. They're cheap, and they're tasty, as well as being pretty healthy. A relatively easy meal you can make that's pretty healthy, is something I've copied from a healthy fast food place where I used to live. It's mostly an Oregon chain, called Cafe Yumm, and they sell these delicious rice bowls. They come with various ingredients in them depending on which kind you get, but the idea is to have some sort of bean (usually black or red/kidney), avocado, cheese, sour cream, salsa, tomatoes and their signature yumm sauce. There are a few that are healthier, like the one with zucchini and summer squash, or the one with edamame (never been brave enough to try that one). But it's not too difficult to come up with your own variations of that which are still pretty healthy.