Black Beans with Bacon

OK, I'm lazy and took a lot of shortcuts. Instead of dry beans, I used two cans of drained black beans. I also substituted a can of diced tomato and dried parsley for the fresh ingredients. I fried the bacon first and drained all but a little of the fat before adding the onions, garlic and carrot. Once they were tender, I added the beans and other ingredients and cooked until warm. This recipe was delicious as a side or on a tortilla with other fixings. My kids loved it, too!

Doubled the recipe and substituted a jar of medium salsa for the two tomatoes required (Safeway Select Roasted Tomato Salsa: EASILY the best salsa available in any supermarket!). I also added a tablespoon of ketchup to nullify the spiciness a bit to make it more kid friendly. The only problem I ran into is that the additional moisture of the salsa made it impossible to brown the bacon inside the vegetable mixture. So, Instead of cooking the bacon until it was brown and crispy, I just made sure it looked more or less "done" and reduced the moisture a bit before adding to the beans. I also dumped out some of the standing water in the bean pot to reduce moisture there. In the future, I will probably prepare the bacon in advance, though, honestly, it wasn't AT ALL bad with the bacon just "done". My kids (ages 11, 9, and 4) really enjoyed it, and the ketchup added just enough sweetness to the dish to make it taste like baked beans. Lastly, we served this dish as a main dish with rice and tortillas. I and my wife found that wrapping a mixture of beans and rice in the tortilla made for a very nice burrito. Anyway, thumbs up all around.

This was very delicious!