Low(er) carb Helen's beans

Low(er) carb Helen's beans
From: VunderBob

I made this up after my gastric bypass, when I had a craving for my mom's beans, but had an aversion to the metric buttload of brown sugar. This recipe makes a smaller batch than the other one (4-5 people, vs. ~20)


2 cans (regular sized) of pork and beans (get the kind without the tomato sauce; just pork and beans)

Ketchup, maybe a cup (lo carb, if you can find it)

1 cup Splenda

½ cup sugar free maple syrup

2 t garlic

1 t dried mustard

1 t onion powder

2 T dehydrated chopped onion (fresh onion may be used; I was lazy)

1 t Worchestershire sauce

½ t liquid smoke (optional)

½ cup chopped ham bits

Mix everything together except the ham. Adjust spices to suit your taste, and put the ham over the top. Bake at 350F for about 2 hours. Mom always used bacon, but I never liked the grease, hence the ham.

If you're doing Atkins, and are more careful about all kinds of sugar, be warned that standard ketchup has a lot of corn syrup in it. There are brands of low-carb ketchup available, and I liked the Atkins brand because it tastes like the stuff Mom used to make when we were kids.

The Splenda and SF syrup combo is a poor man's replacement for brown sugar. Sugar Twin makes a substitute, but I've not found it around here. (Update: Splenda makes brown sugar blend, but I've not tried it in this yet)

The results were mighty close, BTW.