Heinz Baked Beanz in tomato sauce comprise the ‘umble baked bean - from the same family as lentils, Fabaceae (leguminosae) – try asking for that in the Co-op – and tangy-sweet tomato sauce.

I have tried baked beans by other manufacturers but, in my opinion, none of them are as good to eat as the Heinz variety. There is something about the texture of the bean – firm yet not hard. Other beans I have found can be mushy. The tomato sauce is superior to the other brands but perhaps this is not surprising because Heinz are rather famous for their gift for making an incredibly tasty tomato sauce – though obviously the tomato sauce with the beans is not the same tomato sauce you get in the squeezy bottle or the dollop you get from a good smack on the bottom of the glass bottle.

Heinz Baked Beanz are a fast, convenient and tasty way to help achieve your recommended daily intake of several essential nutrients:

A 207g (two servings or one huge one for a hungry man) contains:

High fibre - 42% of the RDA
Magnesium - 20% of the RDA
Iron - 20% of the RDA
Low fat content - only 0.4g
Cholesterol free

and also contains essential vitamins such as niacin, B1, B2, B6 and minerals like phosphorus, calcium and zinc.

Recommended for slimmers and diabetics alike because not only do the baked beans in tomato sauce come in perfect ‘portion controlled’ small/single serving sized tins, but the product is also high in fibre and complex carbohydrates. This means you will feel fuller for longer and less likely to get cravings for sweet, sugary foods or suffer swings in blood sugar.

Heinz Baked Beanz are the perfect economical but all-round good food for hard-up students – a point I make now seeing as so many young people will be going off to college and university and having to feed themselves for the first time.

I prefer my beans on toasted white bread accompanied by a cup of tea. Tea tastes particularly good with baked beans – I think it’s the slightly spicy tomato sauce. My husband, who is diabetic, enjoys his beans on toasted wholemeal bread. This particular combination ensures that his blood sugar will be better controlled because the fibre in the beans and wholemeal bread will ensure a slow-release of insulin for some time afterwards which means his sugar levels are unlikely to crash and cause him to feel unwell.

I see more and more of the phrases ‘GI food’, ‘The GI Diet!’ etc. GI simply means Glycaemic Index. Quote from glycemicindex.com: ‘The glycemic index or GI ranks carbohydrates according to their effect on our blood glucose levels. Choosing low GI carbs - the ones that produce only small fluctuations in our blood glucose and insulin levels - is the secret to long-term health reducing your risk of heart disease and diabetes and is the key to sustainable weight loss.’ Heinz Baked Beanz are great GI food and are easy to obtain – unlike some of the strange and exotic ingredients some of the more complex GI Diets would have you look for.

My daughter, who lives in America, adores her Heinz Baked Beans and she and her husband buy them by the case in the British shop selling UK favourites. So much does she enjoy them that when they came to the UK for her wedding a couple of years ago and they stayed at The Ritz (yeh, I know!), she requested Heinz Baked Beans for the breakfast she and I shared on the morning of her wedding day and they were duly served, with great ceremony, on a plate beneath a solid silver serving dome. The pot of tea to accompany this rather special breakfast is one which I will never forget, served as it was with simple ceremony and aplomb.

When not dining at The Ritz (yeh! I double-know!) my husband and I work hard for our living with a couple of jobs each, one of which is behind a checkout at our local Co-op. This job is hard, physical work and immensely tiring. When we get home after a shift we are far too tired to prepare anything extravagant and where we live there are no handy fast food/take-a-way places and even if there was we couldn’t afford them, so we eat a portion of Heinz Baked Beanz at least twice a week.. This simple meal takes about 2 mins to prepare:

Heinz Baked Beanz on Toast:

1. Stagger in, clutch chest and gasp: “I’m knackered!”
2. Put kettle on to boil
3. Grab Pyrex dish from cupboard, open a large (207g) tin of Heinz Baked Beanz and empty contents into the dish and place lid on top.
4. Place in microwave oven, heat at full power for approximately 3 mins.
5. Place required slices of bread into toaster
6. When timed to perfection, the toast will pop up at the same time as the microwave pings and the kettle boils.
7. Pour boiling water onto tea bags and whilst tea is ‘infusing’
8. Butter toast and put onto plates
9. Empty Beanz onto toast
10. Slop some milk into tea, squeeze the last of the tannin from the tea-bag and remove tea-bag.
11. Call him indoors who has gone into a decline on the sofa: “Tea’s ready, precious!”
12. Snaffle food, pat belly and stagger to bed.

Other good ways to eat baked beans are with baked potatoes; fish; chicken. Baked beans are particularly tasty when eaten at breakfast with scrambled egg and thin brown bread toasted so it’s crispy when cool.

No doubt there are many suggestions on how to serve or use baked beans in cooking but to be honest, I am not keen on baked bean casserole or variations on that theme – somehow the product becomes a little sickly if served in a great big ‘mess’ of other foods.

Heinz Baked Beanz are also available with sausages and this is another favourite of ours.

A normal two-serving 207g sized tin costs approximately 65p.

You will notice I haven’t said a word about wind.


© Louise Saunders – 2007