Green Beans With a Taste of Bacon

Like many other people who cook for a family I try to make nutritious food that tastes good. Easy....but I also like economical. Take green beans for instance.... nutritious and taste wonderful fresh from the garden but the price starts to climb if you buy them at the grocer or frozen.....and they don't look near as pretty from a can.....however, canned is cheap and if the liquid is saved it can be added to a vegetable soup....but they do taste kind of yuck compared to fresh. Here is a fix I got from a friend that I think is worth sharing. 

Green Beans with a Taste of Bacon

1 pound of green beans, washed and cut into small pieces
1 small onion, diced
4 slices bacon, diced
Salt, 1/2 tp
Pepper, dash
Sugar, 1/2 tp

Heat a skillet over a medium heat. Fry the bacon. With a slotted spoon remove the bacon bits and save. Add the onions to the grease and saute until clear and glossy. Add the green beans and stir coating the beans with the grease. Add the salt, pepper, and sugar. Stir. Add the bacon bits. 
Serve.

Diced Bacon in the Skllet

diced onions

Saute onions with bacon bits

Add green beans and season.

I used a beautiful, fresh Florida onion (part of one, really) but a regular Spanish onion can be used. I just couldn't resist the Florida one at the flea market. 
The green beans in the pictures are fresh. Canned green beans can be substituted but make sure they are well drained before adding them to the skillet.

To make this recipe a little healthier:
Saute the onions in olive oil. Add the green beans. Season. Add bacon bits (an uncured brand is preferable). Stir and serve. 

P.S. That's a cast iron skillet in the pics...not burnt black. Treated well and seasoned appropriately they last a lifetime or two without things sticking. Hard to use anything else after using these babies.

Post by Eileen Patterson.....who should be sewing but is GoofingOff....again. Ha ha.

Thrifty Crockpot Cooking: Taters N Beans with Ham

I always look for ways to save a buck but still create good tasting meals and, because I am usually busy doing something, I try to use the crock pot as much as possible. This recipe is easy to make, cooks in the crock pot without tending to it, and tastes good.

One year I saved the ham bone after a celebration and, instead of making a pot of beans or split pea soup, I decided to try something a little different. I heard a friend talking about eating Taters n beans when he was a boy and it made me wonder what if I used green beans. Too easy. A few potatoes, ummm, and one ham bone. Not bad. Since then, I monkeyed around with the recipe. It  is still as simple as before but you don’t have to wait for Christmas or Easter dinner to make it.

To feed a family of four, you need:

2 cans of green beans (15 ounce cans)

3 or 4 pounds of new potatoes, scrubbed and cut in chunks (you can use other potatoes but little red new potatoes are pretty. Yukon Gold is good, too)

2 1/2 pounds of ham (buy a ham when it is on sale and have the butcher cut it in four big, thick slices with the bone. You can use a picnic, too)

Black Pepper to taste

Rinse the ham and place in the crock pot. Set the crock pot on low.

Place the potatoes in the pot with the ham. Add the green beans. Sprinkle with about 1/4 tsp black pepper and let it cook.

You can add more potatoes if you have hearty eaters. Corn bread, corn muffins, or biscuits go well with this dish.

            Drop Biscuits (you can use canned)

Pretty easy. Good alternative to split pea soup (I love split pea but I need variety) after Christmas or Easter dinner.

Cost: The ham was on sale at $1.48 per pound. I bought the smallest one, $14.34, and had it cut into four pieces.  $14.34/4 = $3.58 each. Two cans of green beans $0.60 each. 2 x 0.60 = $1.20. New potatoes were $0.40 per pound at the green grocer. I bought 2 pounds. $0.40 x 2 = $0.80.

Total: 5.58 or $1.39 per serving.

Enjoy!