"Cheater" Baked Beans

Beans are another food that I discovered post-childhood. I have to give my friend Liza some credit for this revelation by introducing me to her chili in our college apartment. I will delve into chili some other time, but soon after my bean-loving eyes were opened I also discovered baked beans.
Until I started making them on my own, my only experience with baked beans had been one of someone opening a can and heating the contents in the microwave. The brown soupy goo that resulted was never appealing enough for me to give it a second spoonful. Then I saw two TV chefs use canned baked beans, but create a much more appetizing dish with them and decided to try it myself. I call it "Cheater Baked Beans" because the actual preparing and cooking of the beans is done for you via the canning process. Someday I will experiment with starting from scratch- but the whole soaking beans overnight thing has always put me off.
I begin with Bush's Vegetarian Baked Beans. I go with vegetarian because I like to add my own meat, and honestly the pork bits they put in the meat versions just give me the heebie-geebies. I have tried other brands of vegetarian variety, and so far I think Bush's is my favorite. I usually only need one of their 28 oz cans because that makes about 4-6 servings, since you generally don't eat a huge amount in one sitting. I dump the can into a small round casserole dish and add the following:
Bacon bits (real bacon bits, as in chop up some bacon and fry it in a pan, not some soy product in a can)
A chopped, sauteed until translucent onion (usually a sweet yellow onion, like Vidalia)
Dijon Mustard (a good squirt- that's a technical measurement for you)
Brown Sugar (a couple tablespoons maybe... I never measure)
A couple chopped green onions, plus some for the top
And then I usually add some molasses or maple syrup, or both
Stir that all around and add some more green onion on the top. Bake until bubbly- I usually leave it uncovered, unless I'm waiting for other dinner dishes to finish, then I'll cover it and leave it in the oven to stay warm.
The result is a sweet, tangy and a bit salty bowl of beans with texture from the bacon and onions that's isn't too soupy. Plus the can of beans is fat-free (before the bacon addition, of course).