Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 pound dried navy beans
• 5 cups water
• 5 slices bacon
• 1 cup tomato juice
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon seasoning salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper
• Serves 5-6

Directions

1. We start by precooking the beans, then the meal is cooked in a crock pot.
2. Soak the beans overnight in large bowl of water.
3. Drain the water from the beans.
4. Wash the beans in fresh water and drain again.
5. Transfer the soaked beans into a large pot and measure in 5 cups of water.
6. Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer with the lid on over medium low heat for one hour or until the bean are tender.
7. Drain the beans but reserve 2 cups of the liquid.
8. Keep this reserved liquid set aside as you will only add as needed to the crock pot as the beans are cooking.
9. Transfer the beans to a slow cooker.
10. Chop the bacon into small pieces.
11. Place the bacon pieces into a skillet and cook over medium heat until it is crispy.
12. Use a slotted spoon to put the bacon into the crock pot. Discard the bacon fat.
13. Add the juice, chopped onion, ketchup, molasses, brown sugar, dry mustard, salt & pepper to the crock pot and stir into the beans and bacon to combine.
14. Cover and cook on low for 7 hours or on high for 4 hours.
15. Watch that the mixture is staying nice and juicy and add a little of the reserved liquid as necessary.