Beans, Beans, Beans

My family loves beans and so saving money making something that my family likes to eat just makes sense.  But I could never get over the convenience of canned beans.  Sure, I know they are expensive, sure, I know there are "other" ingredients in the can, but how could making beans be easier than using the can opener?  Insert 50 pounds of beans staring at me every time I walked in my back pantry, what to do with all the beans? Thankfully a friend of mine invited us for dinner and bless her soul, shared a super easy recipe for beans.  I tweaked the recipe and made it my own.  And yes, these beans taste better than their canned counterparts.

Slow Cooker Beans 
2 cups dry beans (black or pinto)

1/2 cup yellow onion, diced*
2tsp cumin
2tsp kosher salt
1tsp black pepper

Rinse beans and place in slow cooker.  Cover with 7-8 cups water.  Cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours.  Remove lid, add remaining ingredients.  Cover and cook on low 3-4 hours or longer depending on how soft you like your beans.

These beans freeze very well just make certain you allow them to cool completely before you place in freezer bags for storage.  To defrost, place bag of beans in shallow pan of water.

* I am not a fan of dicing onions for individual recipes (takes too much time).  Instead, I dice my onions in groups of 4-5 and parcel the diced onions into 1/2 cup servings that I freeze in double plastic bags.  Then, whenever I need onions I just add them in their frozen state.