A Bean Dish to enjoy all year long!!

I love taking dried pinto beans
and sorting through them, filling a pan with water and then letting them soak over night. The next morning when I wake up I rinse them well, add in more water and let them cook all day until they are tender.

The thrift of cooking with dried beans
is truly joyful and rewarding to me!

A few months ago we had a funeral in our community and I was asked to bring a pot of baked beans for the family dinner after the funeral. Well, my week got away from me and I awoke the morning of the funeral and quickly remembered I had to bring these...I panicked for a minute and then ran and grabbed a bag of cooked beans from my freezer, defrosted them, mixed the ingredients together and baked them for an hour and a half and we had a pan of piping hot baked beans and that were
absolutely delicious, thrifty and SO quick and easy to make.

I really enjoy this recipe because we can enjoy it all year round.
In the Fall, Winter and Spring
I bake these up and we enjoy baked bean casserole with corn bread
(click here for cornbread recipe)

In the Summer I bake these up and they are the perfect baked beans for a Summer Picnic!!
We've enjoyed them on picnics a few times this summer
and they have been a hit every time.

Most people think that cooking with "dry beans" is too much of a hassle, but that couldn't be further from the truth. What saves me time is I take a weekend and cook up a large stock pot of beans and then put them into quart sized bags and freeze them.
That way, instead of using cans of beans from the store, I can pull cooked beans from my freezer to make up meals and it's using my dried beans that are plentiful in my food storage.
I LOVE cooking once
and having many meals from that one time of cooking!

Here is a HELPFUL TIP for Bacon---
Cut the packages in half when you get home from the store and then freeze them. That way you can add the flavor of bacon to your soups/beans without adding as many calories AND it saves money as well!

After I have cooked beans all day, I usually end up making "Beans and Hamhocks" (click here for recipe) for dinner that night and then the rest of the beans get put in the freezer for future meals.

Baked Bean Casserole by Kimmie
6 cups cooked Pinto beans
1 can Great Northern beans ***
1/2 pkg bacon cut into small pieces
1 large chopped onion (OR 2 small chopped onions)
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2/3 cup catsup
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Fry cut up bacon and chopped onions until bacon is fully cooked and onions are tender.
Mix in remaining ingredients and
bring to a boil.
Bake for 1 to 1-1/2 hours in 325 degree oven.
***(you can delete the can of Great Northern beans and just use 8 cups of pinto beans instead...but, I like adding in the Great Northern beans for color)

Enjoy!