Easy Homemade Baked Beans

Ingredients

2 lbs navy beans
1 tablespoon butter or buttery spray
1-2 cups chopped onion
1 jar Hormel bacon bits
1 18oz bottle BBQ sauce
1 cup water
1/4 cup ketchup ($0.10)
1 cup brown sugar (1/2 cup if you prefer less sweet) (
2 teaspoons salt

To cook beans:

1. After picking through, quick soak navy beans. To do this, place navy beans in a large pan and add 6 cups water for every one pound of navy beans. Bring to a boil, let boil 2 minutes, remove from heat, cover, let stand one hour. (you can also soak in cold water overnight – no more than 8 hours)
2. Rinse and drain navy beans. Place in crockpot and add 6 cups water. Cook on low or high heat depending on time. Cook until barely tender. (You can also cook in pan on stove. Bring to boil, then let simmer about one hour until barely tender)

Sauce:

1. Coat skillet with buttery spray. Add onions and saute over medium heat until translucent. Add bacon bits, stir and saute about 2 minutes.
2. Pour entire bottle of BBQ sauce into onion/bacon mixture. Fill bottle with 1 cup water and swish around to remove all sauce from sides of the bottle. Add to onion/bacon mixture. Stir.
3. Add ketchup, brown sugar and salt. Mix completely.
4. Simmer over low heat for an hour. This will give all the flavors a chance to blend.
5. Add sauce to beans and mix thoroughly. Place in baking dish and bake 1 hour at 350 degrees or until beans have reached desired tenderness. If freezing, do not bake. Instead place in freezer containers and let cool before placing in freezer. When ready to serve, thaw and bake 1 hour at 350 degrees or until beans have reached desired tenderness. This recipe yields 12 cups.

All of the ingredients for this recipe were in my pantry except for the navy beans. I purchased those at Crest Foods for $1.98 for two pounds.