Mamaw J's Baked Beans

This recipe was given to me by my mother-in-law many years ago.  We have had these baked beans at almost every holiday dinner or cookout ever since.  I've kept the ingredients the same but I changed up the prep a little bit in order to make them a little healthier.  The recipe does not call for precooking the bacon, but rather, just adding it on the top of the bean mixture and letting it cook in the oven as everything else cooks.  I first started precooking the bacon simply to render away the fat first, so that there would be less fat in the finished dish, and also I didn't particularly like the resulting texture of the bacon in the original method.  By doing this, I figured out that I could cut the bake time in half by taking advantage of an already-hot skillet.  After cooking the 1 inch pieces of bacon, I removed the bacon to a paper towel lined plate.  I then drained away almost all of the bacon fat from the pan, leaving only a couple Tablespoons in the pan ('cause you gotta have SoMe of that bacon grease flavor, right?) ;-)  With that couple Tablespoons of bacon fat, I threw in my chopped onion and bell pepper for a quick saute.  I learned that by sauteing the veg for a couple minutes first, I could cut the overall bake time down from 2 hours to only 1 hour!  Half the time and almost none of the fat?  That's a winner in my book!  Also, these are the most delicious baked beans I've ever eaten.  Before receiving this recipe, I didn't even like baked beans.  Y'all give 'em a try.  Here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

5  16 oz.  cans pork-n-beans

1  Bell Pepper, chopped (usually green, but I use a combo of red & green at Christmas) 

2  Medium (or 1 Large) Onion, chopped

1/2 cup Ketchup

1/2 cup Chili Sauce (or, as I like to call it: chunky ketchup. lol)

1/2 cup Packed Brown Sugar (use light or dark, whichever you prefer)

1 Tbsp. Yellow Mustard (however feel free to use your fave.. dijon, spicy brown, etc.)

1 Tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar

1 lb. Bacon (cut into 1" pieces and cooked)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Mix all together in a 9"x13" pan.  Bake uncovered @ 350 for about 1 hour.

*TIP*

For an eVeN quicker method, minimal cleanup and ZERO added fat, you can just buy precooked bacon and cut it into 1" pieces.  Then zap the peppers and onions in the microwave for about a minute to soften them up.  This will still cut your bake time down to 1 hour.  The uncooked bacon and firm uncooked veggies were the reason for the long bake time anyway.  This way you get these delicious home-cooked baked beans at your holiday without spending all your time in the kitchen.  And who wants to do a lot of cooking and heat up your kitchen in the Summer?  Right?  

Enjoy! :-D