Weekend parties on holidays such as Labor Day often require hours of food preparation, but there is no reason to labor over a meal for family and friends thanks to many take-home options.

Chicken and beef fajitas with all the accompaniments are as close as your favorite Tex-Mex restaurant and are easy to reheat in the oven.

Fried chicken is a perennial favorite, and most restaurants also have salads or side dishes.

EVANS CAGLAGE/DMN; styling by ANNE GREER McCANN

Take advantage of store-bought ingredients such as chopped onions and cooked bacon - they make this easy, slow-cooker recipe for cowboy beans even simpler. Cook them the day before for better flavor.

These slow-cooker beans are a Mexican dish (frijoles a la charra) , often called cowboy beans, and are a good accompaniment to any of the above menus.

They can be made a day in advance and reheated in the same slow cooker.

Serve in small bowls, as these beans have more liquid than regular cooked beans.

You can buy frozen chopped onions at many stores, as well as cooked bacon. Both shorten meal preparation time.

If you have leftovers, add chicken broth to make a pinto bean soup.

Anne Greer McCann is a Dallas author and restaurant consultant.

Put the ham hock, beans, onion and garlic in a slow cooker. Add the water and cook on low for 8 to 9 hours or overnight. Remove and discard the ham hock.

Add the salt, bacon, tomatoes, green chiles and cilantro and cook on low another 15 minutes. Beans can be refrigerated at this point and reheated close to serving time. The beans thicken when cooled, and the flavor will improve when the beans are cooked overnight and reheated the next day.

Makes 10 to 12 servings.

Note: For spicier beans, add 2 jalapeños, seeded and chopped.