I make beans with that same sort of inattention to recipes. Depending on how much room I have for freezing the leftovers, I use 2 to 4 cups of dry beans. Soak the red kidney beans over night or do the boil 2 minutes/sit for an hour trick, then cook them with a hamhock and a couple of bay leaves. That's about the only measured part of it. I look around for whatever meat is in the freezer to add (hamburger, Italian sausage, Jimmy Dean sausage, ham). Tomatoes (canned, diced), tomato sauce, an onion, green peppers, cilantro, cumin, oregano, garlic, salt, pepper, chili pepper, eyeball each and put in as much as feels right. The stuff that it makes sense to sautee together is sauteed before being added to the rest (it's best to sautee your dry spices if you can do it without burning them in the pan with the onions, etc. The flavor explodes exponentially in the dish). My not-so-secret ingredient, when it just a couple of minutes from finished cooking, I add a few tablespoons of capers. Those little vinegary bursts of salt are wonderful!