Rich Ranch Bean Soup in the Crock Pot

I am sad.

Why am I sad, you ask? Well, I made a delicious, beautiful meal tonight, and I have absolutely no proof of it.

We visited my parents last night for my younger sister's birthday, and I left the camera there by mistake. So sadly, there will be no pictures accompanying this post. I'll have to make it again sometime very soon so I will have pictures to post.


This recipe is adapted from a little recipe booklet extolling the virtues of sweetened condensed milk. I cut the original recipe in half. Next time, I'll make the whole thing so we can have lots of leftovers, because this was a very delicious soup! It was sweet and savory, and creamy. Soooo good!

Originally this recipe was written to be prepared on stove top, but I adapted it for the slow cooker.

Rich Ranch Bean Soup
1 15-oz. can pork and beans with tomato sauce
1/2 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. salt
Dash pepper
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk

Combine all ingredients except milk in slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Add sweetened condensed milk and stir thoroughly. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook for about half an hour more, or until heated through.

Makes five 1-cup servings
Calories per serving: 250

You can add some chopped ham or hot dogs if you choose. We didn't have any, so we didn't add any. But they would taste fabulous with this soup.

The cooking times I give are pretty variable. I started this about 4:00, then added the milk a little while before I expected to eat. Since the temperatures are so low, you can be pretty flexible with how long you cook this. That's what I love about crock pot cooking - unless you wait until 5 or 6 in the evening to plan your meal, you can pretty much fit in a crock pot meal no matter what kind of day you have!

In keeping with frugality, I served this with a garden salad. Literally, everything in the salad was from the garden - lettuce and spinach from my parents' garden, fresh green beans from ours. Yummy!