Grandma Adams' Boston Baked Beans

This is my mother-in-laws famous Boston Baked Bean recipe. She serves it over freshly baked bread. Enjoy it people!

Ingredients:
3 cups assorted beans (navy, lima, pinto, red, kidney) sorted and soaked over night
1 small yellow onion
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 tbsp salt
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 tsp sugar

Rinse beans after soaking them over night. Put them in medium sauce pan and just cover with water. Bring to low boil and allow to cook for 15-20 minutes. Put all other ingredients into a Boston Baked Bean pot. Ladle cooked beans over ingredients and bake at 350 for an hour uncovered. Turn heat down to 250, cover and bake for 8 more hours checking every 1-2 hours and adding water just to cover the beans. Last hour, cook uncovered to bake the top brown and nice.

Spicy Black Beans

Spicy Black Bean Recipe:

This is something I came up with after trying different variations on my mother-in-law's Boston Baked Beans. It's a yummy recipe to serve over rice with sliced avocado on top. YUMMO! (and really not THAT spicy)

Ingredients:
2 1/2 - 3 cups beans (black and pinto, but more black than pinto), sorted and soaked overnight
8 oz diced green chilis
1/4 large red onion (you can leave it not chopped as it just melts in the cooking process)
1/4 - 1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 heaping tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 cup lemon juice

Cooking:
Rinse beans (after soaking over night). Put them in a medium sauce pan and just cover with water. Bring them to a low boil and let them cook for 15 minutes. While they are cooking, put all the other ingredients, except lemon juice, into a slow cooker (Boston Baked Bean pot or dutch oven or some other deep baking dish or slow cooker). Ladle cooked beans and liquid over the other ingredients and bake (or slow cook) at 350 for an hour. Then turn heat down to 250 and bake (or slow cook) 6-8 more hours. Check every 1-2 hours and add water if needed to keep beans covered and not burning on the top. When you are ready to serve, stir in the lemon juice.

For Black Bean Soup, whiz up in the blender after cooking. You may need to add a little more liquid before blending. Serves 6 -8 people.

Black Bean Burgers... Way good for you, SO THERE, Jillian Micheals!!!

Weighing in today at 176. That's officially 10 lbs. since I started WW this year.

I'm doing the 30 day shred and I don't think I will stop doing it after 30 days. Good workout and I'm not strong enough to get through level 3 in only 30 days. But I'm also doing Weight Watchers and that means I'm hungry all the time. I'm also broke. I have discovered the solution to all of these. The vegan black bean burger. Here's the recipe but I wanted to share it because it makes a ton of burgers and is cheap and really good for you and only 2.5 WW points per burger which is less than a griller and WAY cheaper.

1 can black beans
1 can garbonzo beans

Puree together

2 cups made oatmeal (that means you make it up and then put it in)
2-3 cups panko bread crumbs depending on the texture you want
1-1.5 cups chopped onion
1-1.5 cups diced celery
2-3 tablespoons ground flax seed
1 small can diced green chilies

spices to taste

I use the following (great thing about vegan recipes is you can taste as you go along because there is no fear of salmonella or anything from the raw egg):
chili powder
salt
black pepper
cumin
garlic powder
onion powder

each burger should use about 1/3 cup mix and be "fried" in a little Pam or a little olive oil until heated through and a little crispy on each side.