Baked Bean Medley

Received this recipe from Don's mom this past year. She won first place at a ward chili cook-off using this recipe many years ago when Don was growing up. Since then I've also had a sister-in-law also get first place at her ward chili cook-off too - so this is definitely an award winning recipe, twice over! We're still tweaking it a little to our taste but here are all the ingredients and the instructions for baking it in the oven from the original recipe. Last time we made it we just made it on the stove top and didn't bother putting it in the oven. I imagine you could also cook this in a slow cooker if you wanted to and it would be just as good.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 lb bacon - cooked & diced
• 1 lb ground beef
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 2 (31 oz) cans pork and beans 
• 1 (15 oz) can kidney beans
• 1 (15 oz) can red beans
• 1 (15 oz) can lima beans
• 1½ cups honey barbecue sauce
• ½ cup packed brown sugar (maybe only use 1/4 - 1/3 cup?)
• 3 Tbsp vinegar
• 1 Tbsp liquid smoke, hickory (optional) 
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• shredded cheese for topping

PREPARATION:

1. Cook bacon. Either dice and cook or cook whole and crumble bacon into medium size chunks. Remove and set aside. 
2. Cook ground beef and onion until meat is brown and onion is tender; drain fat
3. In a colander drain only one of the cans of the pork and beans, the kidney beans, red beans, and lima beans.
4. Add cooked bacon, all drained beans, the remaining whole can of pork and beans, all remaining ingredients to beef and onion mixture and mix well.
5. Bake covered at 350° F for about 1 hour or until heated through.
6. Serve with shredded cheese on top!