Slow Food Fast

Maybe I'm making assumptions here, but I think that most stay at home Moms with young children welcome recipes that can be tossed together in very little time without relying on hard to find ingredients or a lot of processed or expensive food. I'm hoping to share a few of those types of recipes in honour of my favourite season, Fall. These are foods that I've discovered over the past few years setting up my own house, and recipes that I return to again and again because of how simple they are, how little time and effort they take, and how inexpensive they turn out to be.


Bacon Beans.


1 cup of dried beans
1 clove of garlic, pierced.
2 bay leaves
1 small onion, chopped in eighths
1 Tbsp flavoured vinegar (I use raspberry red wine vinegar, but apple cider is nice, too)
2 Tbsp tomato ketchup (or tomato paste)
1 tsp Worchestershire sauce
2 Tbsp brown sugar, firmly packed
1.5 cups water
half a package of bacon, coarsely chopped


1. Soak beans overnight and drain.
2. Add all ingredients to a pot and stir well.
3. Simmer until beans are tender.
4. Discard bay leaves before you serve.


When I use Romano beans it usually takes about 3 hours to cook. Navy beans might take a bit less. This meal takes less than 5 minutes to throw together and feeds two adults as an entree if that's all you're having. You could feed four if you want to serve it with rice or cornbread. I think it probably costs about $2.00 to make.