Tasty Tuesday - Baked Beans

**I can't take credit for this recipe. I got it from the March 2011 issue of Chatelaine.  All my other recipes are also borrowed but have been adapted by me in some way to make it my own. This one however, was not and well, I don't want to get nailed for stealing a recipe**  As a side note, if you don't already have one, I would highly recommend a subscription to this fine magazine. There is not an issue that goes by that doesn't have at least one amazing recipe in it and it's not all 'magazine recipes' that real people and real families wouldn't eat. And if you can get through the 80 million ads there are some good articles too.

But I'm getting off track.

If you're like me, baked beans are a comfort food. I love that musical fruit. And the thing about baked beans is that it works as a stand alone meal or a side.  However, if you're further like me you like to avoid canned foods. The sodium content in a can of baked beans is through the roof. And one can of baked beans will do one, maybe two people in our house. So in a family of 5, that's a lot of cans of beans. Not so economical.

Beans can be tough to make though, you need patience when cooking with dry beans because otherwise you'll end up cracking a tooth. This particular recipe is for the slow cooker - so it takes the pressure off of the wait.  Throw it in the pot in the early morning and when you get home from work, you're set.

I usually double this recipe because they freeze really, really well.

Baked Beans

1 onion, chopped
4 slices of bacon (I like to use back bacon, it's thicker and tastier)
1/2 cup of fancy molasses
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp hot chili flakes
2 cups of dry navy beans, rinsed
1 bottle of beer (the recipe calls for de-alcoholized beer but the alcohol will cook off so don't worry about it)
3 cups of water

Now here's the hard part. Put it all into the crock pot, turn it low and cook for 10 hours. (I do mine on high for 6 hours and they cook nicely too)

You do not need to pre soak your beans for this recipe. There is so much water and beer that they cook really nicely and what liquid doesn't get absorbed by the beans reduces nicely.

Talk about your simple recipes.

Enjoy!!