Pinto Bean Soup (Pintos & Ham)... Simply Delicious - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 leftover meaty ham bone (or 2 Ham Hocks)
24 ounces dried pinto beans, sometimes I use 2 to 1 ratio of pintos to white beans
1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes (undrained)
1/2 teaspoon extra spicy Mrs. Dash seasoning mix
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt (or less if salt is a concern... still delicious)
1 -2 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1/2 yellow onion, coarsely chopped (or sliced)
1/2 red onion, coarsely chopped (or sliced)

Preparation

Sort dry beans removing broken beans and any foreign debris. Rinse the beans.
Soak overnight in a large bowl covered by 2-inches of water (slow soak) -or- put in a stock pot covered by 2-inches of water; bring to a boil for 2 minutes; remove from heat and leave covered for 1-hour (quick soak).
Drain and rinse the beans. Return to a stock pot covered by 1-inch of water.
Add all the remaining ingredients except for the ham bone; stir to mix well.
Nestle the ham bone into the bed of beans, cover and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to a low simmer for about 3 hours,occasionally stirring gently in the beans under the hambone -or- until the beans are tender.
Carefully lift the ham bone (or hocks) from the soup and place on a board so the lean meat can be cleaned from the bones. Return the lean meat to the soup. Discard the bones.
Enjoy with hot cornbread!
Freezes well.