[Saturday Sides is a weekly feature I run to help you combat the side dish blahs. Check here Saturdays to see what’s new and different you can add to your dinner table. Or, you can subscribe here so that you never miss a Saturday Sides Recipe.]

I’m just going to go ahead and say it. I know that another prominent food blogger wrote about baked beans this week. I’m guessing many of you already know it, too.

That’s so frustrating!

Just sayin’.

This isn’t the first time it’s happened, either. We’ve done fried potatoes within days of each other, green beans, corn – sometimes she is first, sometimes I am first. At first I thought she might be a copy cat. Then I decided we must be soul sisters. She just doesn’t know it . . . yet.

I plan ahead by as much as a couple of weeks to a couple of months for my blog posts. When her baked bean post went up this week I had already made and taken photos of my beans. I just hadn’t written the post yet. I wasn’t very happy. They looked amazing! They always do, don’t they?

And, I thought about not posting them at all. I’ve done it before. She put up ice cream a week before I got mine up and I canceled the post. I figured “why bother?”

Add to that the part about baked beans not being a veggie – something that has caused me a lot of grief over the last week – and trying to decide if I use them as a “Saturday Side” or just a side. I was starting to think maybe it was a sign. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to post my baked beans at all.

Then something happened. I had the leftover beans today for lunch. The sky opened up and I think I heard angels sing. I’m not sure. It might have been the dog snoring in her sleep, actually. But, there was definitely an unidentified background noise when I ate them. I chalk it up to the fact that they really are that good.

What really cinched it, though, was the fact that my beans take a total of 15-20 minutes to make. You make them in the microwave and you don’t have to use pork, unless you want to, of course. I have a love-hate relationship with pork. Bacon does taste good, but it’s bad for you. Plain and simple. I honestly try to avoid it.

Well, anyhow. When I put it all together – the angelic dog snore, the difference and ease of this recipe and the fact that it is a side dish-even-though-it’s-not-a-veggie – I decided I’m posting the beans.

Besides, they really are perfect for the upcoming Labor Day Holiday and end of summer BBQs and such. They’re simple to make and those of you who aren’t celebrated home cooks will be mighty proud that you made these from “scratch”.  No Bush’s secret recipe or pork and beans involved.

So, I hope Ree (my secret soul sister) doesn’t mind, but I’m going to give an alternative to her two and half hour – trash the kitchen recipe. These are Angie Pangie’s baked beans because I just can’t be bothered with 14 dirty pans every time I want baked beans.

Baked Beans

Adapted from Everyday Food

1 tablespoon vegetable oil or 2 slices of bacon, cut into 1/2 pieces
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 cans (15-16oz) pinto beans or about 3 cups, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon cider vinegar

If you want to skip using bacon, mix the onion with the vegetable oil – if you want bacon skip using the vegetable oil. Either way mix them together in 2 quart microwave safe dish.

Microwave on high, uncovered, 5-7 minutes, until onion is tender and the bacon has rendered fat (if using the bacon).

Just use plain pinto beans in this recipe – you don’t need pork and beans or baked beans or chili beans. Just pinto beans. You can use canned beans or beans that you make from dried if you have some. I like to make a bunch and freeze them, but I was out so these are the canned variety.

Mix in the beans, ketchup, molasses, mustard powder and water. There is no shame in cooking with ketchup, folks. No shame at all.

Molasses is used in this recipe instead of brown sugar, like many other recipes use. Did you know that brown sugar is pretty much just sugar with molasses?

Cover with lid or plastic wrap and microwave until liquid has thickened, about 8-10 minutes.

Stir in the vinegar and serve. The vinegar makes them taste AWESOME!! These beans are not super sweet, like many of you may be used to. They are sweet, but just barely so. I like them this way, but if you want sweet – add more ketchup. Go ahead, I won’t tell!

Mmmm. These took 15 minutes! YES! I had one dirty bowl and rubber spatula, a knife and cutting board from the onion and a couple of measuring spoons and cups to wash. That made me very happy.

Similar Posts:

• Saturday Sides: Green Bean Saute with Tomatoes
• Saturday Sides: Roasted Green Beans aka “Green Fries”
• Time for some R&R
• Saturday Sides: Apple-Turnip Mashed Potatoes
• Saturday Sides: Seasoned Green Beans