5 Bean Casserole

This recipe is courtesy of my sweet Mother in-law, Betty. My husband's family has been vacationing in Wisconsin for over 30 years at the same resort and each year they have a picnic. She makes this 5 bean salad/casserole and it is my husbands favorite. He actually loves a lot of what she cooks but she cooks like I do....add a little here, add a little there so when I actually get a written recipe, I am thrilled!

This is a great side dish to take to a potluck, cookout, or make as a side with your family dinner! Very easy to make and you can either use the oven or a crockpot! Enjoy!

5 Bean Casserole

1 can kidney beans

1 can yellow beans

1 can green beans

1 can butter beans

1 can pork & beans

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 can tomato soup

1 pound Italian sausage ( you can do half ground beef or all beef if you prefer)

1/2 green pepper-chopped

1/2 white onion- chopped

1.) Sauté sausage with onion and green pepper. Add brown sugar and tomato soup to pan, stir well.

2.) Add all cans of beans to the mixture, drain and rinse first. Then pour into 13X9 casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees until hot (apx 40 min) or put all ingredients into a slow cooker and cook for 3-5 hours.

Red, White & Blue Crisp

This recipe was supposed to be just a rhubarb and strawberry crisp because I harvested my first years crop of rhubarb! Well it turns out that I didn't have regular oats or strawberries so I improvised coming up with a new recipe! I used to bake all of the time and loved it, the only part I don't love is cleaning up. But my husband and I had an understanding if he wanted the goods, he did the clean up ☺️ it worked for a long time until we both decided we needed to stop eating so unhealthy!

I do not claim this recipe as healthy by any means, but I did decrease the butter and sugar in a few areas and that has to count for something right? Then....I doubled the recipe for the topping or the "crisp" as you call it. But you don't have to do that at all, I just love that part!

This recipe makes 1 pie dish of crisp! The recipe below is not doubled so if you want to double the topping like I did, than just factor that in!

Topping:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup oatmeal ( I have used both quick cooking and old fashion oats, as well as gluten free. All of them work great!)

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup butter, softened not melted. If I double the topping mixture I only use 1 1/2 sticks not 2.

Measure out all toppings into a bowl, dry ingredients first, stir together. Then add in butter. I find it easier to crumble butter into dry mixture with my fingers. You just want to achieve that "crumble" texture. Set aside.

Filling:

3 small apples, such as gala peeled and chopped into bit size pieces

1 cup chopped rhubarb

1 cup blueberries

1/4 cup sugar ( I use less if my apples are sweeter)

Mix fruit with the sugar and pour into glass pie dish. Add crumble to the top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes depending on your oven! You want the fruit to be tender and the topping to be golden brown!

Serve warm with ice cream!

I think another great substitution for the rhubarb, since is seasonal, would be the bing cherries or of course strawberries! You can adjust your sugar ratio to how sweet your fruit is. The sweeter the fruit, the less sugar you will need!

I hope you enjoy and I always love hearing about and seeing your photos re-creating my recipes! Cheers friends!