Are you still looking for side dishes to take to your Memorial Day get together this weekend? Well you can stop right here because this recipe for Calico Beans is highly requested in my family. You can cook the ground beef and bacon on a skillet and just add all the rest of the ingredients to a slow cooker and keep it warm until you serve it.
What is a Calico Bean?
Wondering what a calico bean is? From dictionary.com a calico bean is referred to a lima bean mottled with purple; also called [speckled butter bean]. You do not need to use calico beans in this recipe and you can use whatever type of beans you like.
Hamburger or Ground Beef?
This calico bean recipe comes from a very old cook book written by a bunch of ladies that lived in the Midwest. This particular recipe was written from a lady named Mary Jane Schmidt in Wadena Mn. I like it how ground beef used to be called hamburgers. Do any of you still call ground beef hamburger? Notice the spelling of catsup too. I looked this up on google and this is what it had to say was the difference between the two.
Catsup vs. Ketchup are two different spellings of the same condiment, which, today, is a Westernized version of a condiment first introduced to European traders in the late 17th century. The same thing goes for hamburger which is just a different name for ground beef. Ground beef can't have extra beef fat added to the mix, while hamburger can, as long as it doesn't contain more than 30 percent total fat. Old recipes like this are kind of fun to look at and learn more about. There were no pictures in this one book as well and look at how much different recipes are back then vs today. Very fascinating.
There are very many ways you can make this recipe more Weight Watcher Friendly. Without all the changes one serving of calico beans is 13 points. The can of beans used in this recipe unfortunately aren't zero points but you could sub kidney beans, black beans, etc. Use turkey bacon instead of regular bacon and 98% fat free ground turkey or chicken. 🙂 You can also used reduced sugar ketchup/catsup however you spell it.
Recipe Video:
PrintSlow Cooker Calico Beans
- Yield: 12 1x
Ingredients
- 2 lb of hamburger or ground beef , cooked (I used 93% lean ground beef)
- ½ cup of chopped onion
- ½ lb of bacon, cook brown, and cut into pieces
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ cup of catsup or ketchup
- ¼ c brown sugar
- 1 tsp mustard
- 2 tsp vinegar
- 1 15oz can of pork & beans
- 1 15oz can of Bush's Baked Original Beans
- 1 15 oz can of lima bean (see notes for sub)
Instructions
- Bake 40 minutes at 350. Can use 1 large can of beans in place of kidney and lima beans.
- Slow Cooker method: Cook ground beef in a skillet and drain extra fat. Cook bacon in a skillet. In a bowl add the catsup, brown sugar, mustard, and vinegar. In your slow cooker, add the ground beef, bacon, ketchup mixture, and all the cans of beans.
Notes
myWW points: Blue 11; Green 12; Purple 11
- Category: Medium
- Method: Slow Cooker
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 402
- Sugar: 10
- Fat: 6
- Saturated Fat: 6
- Unsaturated Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 33
- Fiber: 7
- Protein: 33
Keywords: slow cooker calico beans
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