Baked Beans with Ground Beef

Thanksgiving 2026. Third in the house. The menu hasn't changed (it never changes — the menu is constitutional). The guest list is growing: this year we added Cody's sponsor Dale and his wife Sandra, because Dale has been part of the sobriety story for six years and it was time to give him a seat at the Thanksgiving table. Sixteen people. The dining table, the kids' table, and two folding chairs. The house holds everyone. The kitchen feeds everyone. The counter has room for the turkey, the sides, the pies, and a full photo spread for the blog. This kitchen was made for Thanksgiving. Every kitchen I've ever cooked in was made for Thanksgiving. But this one was especially made for it.

Total cost: $61. I posted the breakdown with a note: "Year one in the apartment: $42. Year six in the house: $61. The food costs more. The love costs the same." The post was shared 4,000 times. The math of Thanksgiving resonates. Everyone is doing the same math. Everyone is looking at the turkey and the can of cranberry sauce and doing the division in their head: what does this cost per person, and is it worth it? It's worth it. It's always worth it. The cost per person is: one plate of food and twenty minutes of sitting at a table with people who showed up. That's the cost. That's the whole cost.

Colton, now almost three, sat at the kids' table and ate turkey with his hands and threw a roll at Brayden (their tradition, apparently — the throwing is seasonal now) and Harper corrected his grammar ("It's 'please,' not 'pease,' Colton") and Wyatt watched everything and said nothing and ate his sweet potato with the quiet satisfaction of a monk at vespers. Four cousins. Four Turner-Moreland children. The next generation, eating Thanksgiving dinner at a kids' table, creating memories they'll carry to their own tables someday.

Sixteen people, two folding chairs, and one table that somehow holds it all — that’s Thanksgiving at our house, and the sides have to work as hard as the host does. Baked beans with ground beef have been on our constitutional menu for as long as I can remember, because they do everything a Thanksgiving side should: they’re warm, they’re filling, they stretch to feed Dale and Sandra and all four kids without a second thought, and they cost almost nothing per person. When I posted that $61 breakdown, this pot was in it — one of the quiet heroes of a feast that fed everyone and still had leftovers.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 1 hour | Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Servings: 10

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cans (15 oz each) pork and beans
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
6 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish or a large oven-safe Dutch oven and set aside.
Brown the beef. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook the ground beef and diced onion together, breaking the meat apart as it cooks, until the beef is no longer pink and the onion is softened, about 8–10 minutes. Drain excess fat.
Build the sauce. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in the ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, and smoked paprika. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring to combine everything into a cohesive base.
Add the beans. Pour all three cans of pork and beans directly into the skillet (do not drain). Stir well to combine with the beef mixture. Taste and season with salt and black pepper as needed.
Add bacon and transfer. Fold in most of the crumbled bacon, reserving a small handful for topping. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish and spread into an even layer. Scatter the reserved bacon over the top.
Bake. Bake uncovered at 350°F for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the edges are bubbling and the top has developed a slightly caramelized crust. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Baked Beans with Ground Beef — The Side Dish That Fed Sixteen