Boston Baked Beans Recipe

Finally, here is the Boston Baked Beans recipe. I have made this in the traditional way, in the oven, and in a crockpot, with equal success. I have an older crockpot, so I use the high setting. Your crockpot temp. may work for this on a lower setting.
If preparing in a crockpot, I find you don't need as much of the reserved bean water poured over the beans before baking/simmering either, as the oven dries out food & a crockpot doesn't.
This recipe is great as a side dish or can stand alone as a main dish, especially on those cold, cold days of winter. Serve with fresh homemade bread, biscuits or rolls.

Boston Baked Beans

Ingredients
2 cups navy beans(can use other similar type beans-navy, great northern)
1/2 lb. bacon
1 onion, diced
3 Tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 cup ketchup
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar

Directions
*Soak beans overnight in cold water. Simmer beans in the same water until tender, approx. 1-2 hrs. Drain and reserve the liquid. (For a shortcut, you can use canned beans too. If doing so, skip this soaking & simmering step but still reserve the "juice" from the cans for later.)
*Preheat overn the 325 degrees F.
*Brown bacon. Remove from pan. Add diced onions to the bacon grease & cook about 3 min., until soft.
*Arrange the beans in a 2 Quart bean pot/casserole/dutch oven(or crockpot if using a crockpot)by placing a portion of the beans in the bottom of dish, and layering them with bacon and onion.(I cut or tear the bacon into 1 inch pieces.)
*In a saucepan, combine molasses, salt, pepper, dry mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce & brown sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil and pour over the beans.
*Pour in just enough of the reserved bean water to cover the beans.(If using a crockpot, pour about 1/2 cup of that water in.) Cover the dish/pot with a lid(or aluminum foil if it has no lid).
*Bake for 3-4 hours in the oven, until beans are tender(the crockpot may take longer). Remove the lid about halfway through cooking & add more liquid if necessary to prevent the beans from getting too dry.
*Serve & enjoy. Makes 6 generous main dish portions. This dish can be doubled.

Utilizing Sales, Your Pantry & Leftovers AND a Trip to Target

This past week, the regional chain grocery store in my teeny tiny town had Ground Beef for $1.69 lb. That is the rock bottom price here for GB. So like any self-respecting couponing stockpiler, I stocked up of course!

Now what to do with all that Meat....
I repacked about half of the 12 lbs. of it into 1.5lbs. portions in foil and froze it. That is enough to make most any recipe I have that calls for ground beef, or in some cases a double batch of a recipe. These packs will be used for Tacos, Sloppy Joes, Chilli, Meat Spaghetti Sauce, etc.

Some more of it was used to make last night's dinner, Beef Pie. Beef Pie is my version of Shepherd's Pie. You substitute Cornbread topping for Mashed Potatoes.

I made 4 packages of precooked Meatballs for the freezer with 2 portions of the meat, so hubby or the kids can just make up a quick Spaghetti & Meatballs fare when I can't be here to cook dinner.

I debated with myself what to do with the last portion of meat. I looked around the kitchen pantry/fridge to see what I had that needed to be used up soon. You have to keep an eye out for Food Waste, don't you?
There was some leftover spanish rice and tortillas from last friday's Chicken Enchildas.
Bingo!
Use these 3 ingredients plus a can of refried beans(purchased on sale for 99 cents)to make Burritos for the freezer.

We love us some burritos in this house, usually buying the El Monterey brand, as it's the only brand available in the store here.
They hardly go on sale anymore, so that's $4.49 per bag we have to pay. The burritos also seem to have gotten smaller AND they have shrunk the number of burritos in the bag from 10 to 8! Of course, they didn't shrink the price you pay accordingly. grrrrrr

I just cook the ground beef up with garlic, onions, cumin, taco spices and some tomato paste. Take your tortilla, put some rice, some beans, some cheese(jack &/or cheddar, queso) & some beef in the middle and fold it up. I wrap each one in a piece of foil so it stays together until it hardens in the freezer.

I got to use up leftovers & make something I KNOW will be eaten by the kids, from ingredients that I bought inexpensively.

The cost analysis on this dish...
$4.53 for the ingredients
Made 8 large Burritos
So that comes out to $.56 per serving.
Basically, it cost me about the same to make these 8 Large Burritos as to buy the bag of El Monterey's, so in essence, mine cost half the price of the store bought ones.
That works for me!

I hurt my foot on wednesday trying to reach for those boxes of Green Giant veggies I bought for 50 cents a box.
I haven't been able to drive since then, as driving aggravates the foot. I spent Friday at the dr. office, getting x-rays and getting medicine. Luckily DH was home and could drive me around. He drove me to Target for the meds and I was able to pick up a few things for real cheap while there. ;-)

At TARGET I got...
4 x Mott's Applesauce for $.09 a package (reg. $1.66 -Target Q $1+IP Q $.55=$.09)
4 x The Good Life Cat Food for $.99 package (sale price $3.99 - MQ $3=$.99)
2 x Huggies Wipe Refill for $.99 (reg. $5.99 - IP Q $5=$.99)
1 x Glucerna Cereal for -$.51 (reg. $4.49-IP Q $5= -$.51)
2 x Deerfield Shredded Mozz. Cheese for $1.25 ea. (sale price $1.75-Target Q $1.00/2=$1.25 ea.)

Total cost OOP=$6.43
Value of Items with tax=$43.72
Savings of $37.29 or OVER 84%!

Then we bought 2 new printer cartridges. All this coupon printing just sucks up the printer ink, doesn't it? There went all my great coupon savings.lolol

Sluggy

I'll Show You Mine...

I've been clipping coupons and practicing the Art of the Coupon now for just over 6 weeks.


On Saturday, I put all my toiletry steals & deals together and took this picture. I guess you would now call this a Stockpile.....





This is only the stuff I got for free or pretty darn close to free, up to March 12th. This doesn't include the armloads of stuff the family is now using and it's ONLY Toiletries(except for the 3 packs of gum on the bottom right side). There is also the PAPER Products Pile, the CLEANING Products Pile and the humongous FOOD & DRINK Pile.


With calculator in hand, I figured a rough estimate of $788.00 retail value on this, as they call it here, turlitrees lot. I paid approx. $20 out of pocket cash for all this and that included all the taxes.


I need to make some plans to utilize some of this now. Like taking the glucose meters to the free clinic & some of the toiletries to the local women's domestic violence shelter. Seriously, no one needs 14 tubes of toothpaste!


I've found that over these weeks, I've gotten a little more picky about what I try to score. I no longer try for the Glade products, Scenty Sprays & things like Fabric Softeners usually, as those are somethings we just don't use. Also Tums and Gastro-type medicines. This family has indestructible gastrointestinal tracts it seems.lolol
I don't wear make-up but I've gotten a bit(not pictured)for #1 daughter. She snatches that away right quick!

So, how am I doing with the Hounding??

And more importantly, WHERE do I put all this stuff??!!??!!

I really really need my dining room table back.

Every crevice is filled in my house and garage! My pantry is filled, the trunk of my car is packed, the shelves in the garage are groaning under the weight of too many canned goods ready to topple over.....I need to organize it all and FAST!!

I may have to evict a child and take over their bedroom.

Hey, now there's an idea.....

Evict the surly teen du jour, gain some storage space.

Hmmmmmm.

"Sorry hon....it was a choice between you & your stuff or the Bic Razor Stash. The razors keep my legs silky smooth & you keep my blood pressure up by arguing with me. Sorry, you'll have to find someone else to stress out for the next 2 yrs."

***Poof! Sluggy wakes from her dream.***

Seriously though, how much space does your total stash take up in your house?

I've seen other people's stash photos but tell me how much space you use for it.

Sluggy-Stash Challenged

Win a $10 CVS Gift Card from FRUGAL Rhode Island MAMA

Frugal RI Mama is having a great Giveaway for a $10 CVS Gift Card.
Go check it out HERE.

Sluggy

Meal Plan Monday March 16th Edition

Last week's meal went according to plan until Wed. Then things just went south fast!lol
The Beans & the Pork Chops didn't happen...too much going on here to get dinner going in time & then I hurt my foot, so it was sandwiches and soup or death dogs....er I mean hot dogs. So we've put the beans on this week and the pork chops will make a return appearance next week. Saturday was eating out at the Chinese Restaurant and Sunday hubby made the Beef Pie for me, as I fell dead asleep for exhaustion...or maybe it was the painkillers. Luckily this dish is something he knows how to make and he just took over for me. What a guy! Must be why I married him. ;-)

I think we'll keep with at least 1 weekend night with leftovers. With #1 son working 3-4 nights a week after school & #1 daughter with late play practice some nights, we are having more leftovers lately.
I baked a double batch of cookies last week, as well as had to prepare all that ground beef I bought, as the price hit rock bottom for our area, so it was time to stock up. We now have taco meat and 4 packages of meatballs cooked and frozen for later use, as well as portioned out packages of raw ground beef.

Here's what is on the Menu at Sluggy's house this week.

MONDAY-Leftovers, Leftovers & MORE Leftovers!
TUESDAY-Boston Baked Beans, Sweet Potato Biscuits w/Smithfield Ham Slices
WEDNESDAY-Boiled Irish Dinner-Corned Beef, Cabbage, Carrots, Potatoes
THURSDAY-Baked Chicken, Au Gratin Potatoes, Corn-On-The-Cob
FRIDAY-Fish, Coconut Rice, Chinese Veggie Stir-Fry
SATURDAY-Leftovers
SUNDAY-Homemade Pizza, Salad
Desserts for the Week-Pineapple, Apple Pie, Leftover Cookies

I'll be posting a recipe for my Killer Boston Baked Beans, so check back to my blog Tuesday. I know, I promised to post the recipe last week, but we didn't actually HAVE the beans last week and I forgot.
Yep, I am a screw-up.
What can I say?

Organizing Junkie is the home to Menu Plan Monday.
Go see what's on her and many other Home Cooks' Menus for the week at Organizing Junkie's website.
$5 DINNERS is hosting the links to the Meal Plan Mondays this week. Check it out Here.

Sluggy