My Spruced-Up Bush's Baked Beans on my Monday OFF

One thing I love about being self-employed is that I'm in control over my time. However, you have to be careful not to go overboard working so many long hours. After awhile, you wonder what happened to your life! So, I asked my Facebook friends and hubby if I should work four days a week, instead of the six I was doing, and it was unanimous that I should not work on Mondays. So, this is my first Monday off! If you follow me a lot, you know how hard I work and for the most part I like it. I like to feel useful and I love to contribute to my household helping hubby. But the downside to all that is I push myself way too hard. I've known for a long time that I need to cut myself some slack.

I come from such a strict background that I think it's still in my blood. I make out daily goals, weekly initiatives, monthly strategies, all with individual deadlines and timelines for completion. I sound like a corporate big whig huh? And, of course if I missed any deadline or to-do task, I was mad at myself which made me feel like a failure and then here comes the increased stress level. Well, working for myself does mean that I don't report to an actual boss so I have to be self-starter, but it doesn't mean I have to put myself through burnouts and anxiety attacks either!

So, I'm stopping the madness! I talked long and hard with hubby, my friends, and to the Lord about all this and it feels good to downsize so to speak. I'm not used to this new work schedule, but my hope is that it will help calm my nerves and get me on a better more balanced track. Wish me luck!

One of the things that I know I'd like to do more with the extra time off is cook in the evenings and so for today, I decided to make my Spruced-up Bush's Baked Beans. I love their baked beans and most of the time they come perfect for me. I just like to add some embellishments to them like: grilled chopped turkey dogs, balsamic vinegar, green onions, brown sugar, ketchup, maple syrup, garlic pepper, chili powder and for garnish any herb on hand. YEAH, that's a lot of embellishments, but it's worth it!

This is my method so before you try this, I recommend reading through this post and then you can tailor any of my preparation to your own liking. And, after adding each layer of flavor, taste it to see if you like it because you may not like your beans as sweet as I do.

So here's what I do:


I start off with Bush's Original, Seasoned with Bacon and Brown Sugar. I chop up the green onions and saute them in EVOO. Add a little balsamic vinegar (not too much) until the onions are translucent. Meanwhile, I grill four turkey dogs.

Then I add the beans to the onions, stir, then add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. I use the light brown kind. Now the beans come with brown sugar, but I like mine a little more sweeter. And all of these additives are to my taste so I don't measure much for this recipe.

I squeeze the ketchup bottle about twice, sprinkle some garlic pepper, and then mix again. The ketchup gives the beans so much more flavor. Bring to a boil. Then squeeze about 2 turns of the pan with the maple syrup and stir again. Continue cooking and then add some chili powder. I taste it at this point to see if I need to add anymore ingredients and usually I'm satisfied and I just lower the heat and let the beans continue cooking.

The turkey dogs are normal done on my grill in about 10 to 15 minutes so after that, I let them cool off and then chop them up and stir them in the beans. Then I let them simmer and get all nice and gooey ooey and then I sprinkle some dried parsley or you can use fresh - whatever you have on hand. That's it and it's ready to serve. Delicious as a side dish, and it serves 2. If you want to make these for 4, I would buy 2 cans of beans and just double up on the brown sugar and maple syrup. ENJOY!