Dinner Diaries

Baked Beans

So I still have my strange obsession with food and I've been trying to avoid things that come in a can or a box if I can help it. We grilled burgers the other day and I wanted to have baked beans. Usually I just buy a large can of baked beans and add a little onion and be done with it. But as I'm in the grocery aisle I wondered how hard it is to make homemade baked beans. Buy regular beans and add pre-made BBQ sauce? But then I'm just swapping a can for a bottle. And what kind of beans do you use anyway? So I threw some pinto beans in the cart and hoped for the best. I got home and consulted google for some recipes. As you can imagine there are a zillion different ways to make baked beans. But among them I found a common thread. So here's what I did...

Ingredients:
2 cans pinto beans (drained)
Ketchup
Brown grainy mustard
1/2 diced onion
Brown Sugar
Black Pepper

Directions:
Dump all into a bowl. Mix. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 300 for 3 hours. Uncover. Bake additional 30 minutes.

I don't know if the excessive cooking time was really necessary. I made them on a Sunday and they baked while we were at church and then I uncovered when we got home while grilling the burgers.

But can I tell you something? They were really good! I have no idea on the exact amounts of ketchup, mustard or brown sugar. I just squirted and dumped respectively. I was even expecting them to be kind of bland since I didn't know what I was doing. But I will never buy baked beans in a can again. This was too easy and too successful.