Your plan should work just fine - just be sure you brown the hamburger first, as I'm sure you knew. Most recipes of this type have you brown the hamburger before mixing it in. I would probably cook the onions with the hamburger too.
Teresa

Assuming that you're using canned beans, I think you'd be better off simply taking the ingredients and mixing it there as freezing and then defrosting the beans might turn them into mush. It sounds like you could take everything you need in a couple of grocery bags. From experience, I would suggest you take a couple of those disposable aluminum baking pans lest you get there and discover you have nothing to bake your casserole in.

I would brown the hamburger and the onions before mixing with the beans. Mushy beans is what I am worried about. I wonder if I could take the beans, but brown and freeze hamburger and onions ahead and also make the "sauce" ahead - then put everything together at the beach. Would that be better?

The sauce has lots of things in it that I wouldn't ordinarily take to the beach - molasses, brown sugar, dry mustard, etc. I just hate to lug a sticky bottle of molasses back and forth to the beach if I don't have to.

If you have a recipe for your beans I'd love to see it. I'm also going to the beach for a week - only 13 in our group, but I'll be doing a little cooking too - 4 of us will take turns - I'm sure especially the kids will like hamburger beans.

I would make sure to bring disposable pans that will fit your beans - we rent a condo for a month every March and you just never know what will be provided in your rental kitchen.

I also think you could put everything together, freeze and then bake. My only experience with freezing baked beans was when I had leftovers from my wedding. They had already been cooked for several hours, but I stuck them in plastic freezer bags and froze them and then later I thawed them and heated them. They were fine, there was no meat in them, but I don't think that would make a difference, and I started with canned Bush's baked beans too.

Annie

woodie2 - here you go. Thanks to everyone who responded.

Baked Bean Casserole from Recipes for Creative Living cookbook

1 pound ground beef
1 can lima beans
1 can kidney beans
1/2 cup catsup
2 T vinegar
1 tsp dry mustard
pepper
1 lg onion, chopped
1 lg can pork and beans
3 T dark molasses
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder

Brown meat and onion together, drain. Combine all the other ingredients and add to meat mix in a casserole. Put bacon slices over top. Bake at 350 for 1-2 hours.

Note - I usually bake this covered for 1 1/2 hrs, then uncover it for the last 30 minutes. It also tastes better if you let it stand for a little while before serving.

Thanks so much! I will look forward to making this recipe and to the beach house too - its our first time with the family and the grandkids at a rented house all together - wish us all luck :)

Let us know what you ended up doing, and how it worked out! Have a great time!

Sounds like a great time. I am inclined to think that I would have everything except the canned items frozen and ready to defrost and add the cans when ready to heat. The only thing that occurs to me is that you may have a rather large mass to defrost. Actually if you leave the house with the mix frozen and in a cooler, it should safely defrost in a few days. But, if you do mix it all at home, I would not worry about mushy beans. I like the casserole types bean dishes to be cooked down to a thick paste. The flavor is great.

I will try your recipe soon, as we love lima beans.

Do take the pans or disposable (please recycle) pans to prevent surprises.

Have a great time.

DP

I don't think the beans would really break down enough to worry about it. I'd just put the whole thing in gallon baggies and freeze. If you wanted to add the beans when you get there I'd still make the sauce and mix it with the meat and onions and bag that mixture, then add the beans later. I think having the sauce on the meat and onions would be a good thing.

That recipe is very much like my cheater baked bean recipe but I don't put hamburger in it. However, I made it a few months back for a family get together and added sliced wieners to it. The kids loved it!

I would do as coconut describes. Cook the meat, add the sauce, and freeze but don't add the canned beans until ready to cook.

This is a great casserole. We chop up a package of bacon and brown it with the beef. Yum :)