Honey Beans and Spinach

Hold on.  Before you read the list of ingredients and click away, hear me out.  This was good.  For real.  Very different, but really good.  My husband took one bite and said with a surprised tone, "This is really good!"  I took a few bites and said, "I would make this again".  He took another bite and said, "Totally".  And there you have it - an established "keeper" from the Payne kitchen.  The honey, lemon, and cream cheese make for a nice tangy sauce.  I'm not going to lie and say that the kids gobbled theirs up, but I'll give them the fact that it looks anything but appetizing.

1 (15-ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 onion, diced finely

2 medium (or 4 tiny) sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground corriander

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 lemon, juiced (I ended up with about 1/4 cup juice)

1/4 cup honey

1 (12-ounce) bag baby spinach, washed and drained

2 tablespoons cream cheese (optional)

Drain and rinse both cans of beans, and dump them into your crockpot. Add the onion, garlic, and sweet potato. Add dry spices, and stir in honey and lemon juice-- you want the beans and veggies in the pot to be coated with them. Rinse off your spinach, and add it to the pot. You'll need to squish it all in, but I promise it'll fit. Plop a dollop of cream cheese on top. Cover, and cook on low for 6 hours, or on high for about 3. Stir gently before serving over a bed of white or brown basmati rice.  Half-way through, I pulled the spinach away from the side of the crockpot so it wouldn't crust and crunch too badly, and I smeared the cream cheese around since it had melted by that point.