Roasted Green Beans and Onions

With our green bean plants somehow still producing, I found myself in need of a recipe. None of this just boil and eat them business. I turned first to my Taste of Home cookbook that my momma gave me for Christmas. I found the perfect recipe. (Perfect partially because I had everything on hand)
Hubby and I both really enjoyed the dish- but feel free to change it up to your taste. Don't put garlic in if you don't like it. Add more onion if you love the stuff. You get my drift.

Roasted Green Beans and Onions about 4 servings
(adapted from a recipe in Taste of Home)

3/4- 1 lb of green beans, ends snapped off and washed
1 small onion, thinly sliced into rings (or half rings if you're like me)
2 garlic cloves, sliced thin
1 tbl. red wine vinegar
1 tbl. olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. (I used my toaster oven here)
Bring a pot of water to a boil and blanch the beans for approx. 5 minutes or so. Their color will become more pronounced, but still be firm. Drain.
In a medium sized bowl, combine the beans with the remaining ingredients and mix until everything is covered in oil and vinegar. Place on a greased baking dish. Spread out a little bit- too much spreading and things will burn quickly.
Bake for 10 minutes and check. If you want it more cooked, stir and pop back in the oven for another 5 minutes of so. After 10 minutes, the beans and onions were plenty cooked for my taste. Enjoy!

I have linked up this delicious recipe at:

• Sunday Recipe Swap at Remodelaholic
• Potluck Sunday at Mommy's Kitchen
• Mouthwatering Monday  at A Southern Fairytale
• Tuesdays at the Table at All the Small Stuff
• Tuesday Night Supper Club at Fudge Ripple
• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace
• Topsy Turvy Tuesday at I'm Topsy Turvy
• Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
• Delicious Dishes at It's a Blog Party

Green Bean Bundles

When I first saw a recipe over at http://www.ourbestbites.com/ for Bacon Wrapped Green Bean Bunndles, I knew I had struck gold. I found the recipe as green beans were plentiful in the backyard, but was out of bacon! Bummer, I know. By the time we bought more bacon, the grean bean plants had seemingly given up for the summer. That's when one of my local grocery stores put green beans on sale.
Yes! Green bean bundles, here I come!
The original recipe calls for a pound of green beans- but with only 2 of us, I used less. Used as a side dish to most anything, this recipe can feed as many people as you like, one bundles per person.
Each bundle is about 10 to 12 green beans. I like using a number better than a weight since I don't use a kitchen scale and it makes it easier for me to scale up or down depending on how many are over for dinner.
The sauce for the green beans seemed weird for me as I was cooking it. The combination of onion and garlic seemed fine enough- but butter and rice vinegar? That seems weird. Make sure your face isn't over the pan when you add in the vinegar unless you want your sinuses cleared! The sauce was tasty though. Very tasty- I ate some of it without any beans. The sugar and onions give it a sweetness, while the vinegar tones it down a bit and the browned butter gives it a nuttiness (It's true- those food network people are right about browned butter!). And as the hubby said- the beans make it nutritious and the bacon makes it AWESOME. What vegetable can't bacon make better? (Not that green beans needed it- buy hey!)
So my only changes to this recipe was lowering the amount of beans and changing the sauce recipe just a tad. I lowered the amount of butter, which in the end makes less sauce than the original- perfect for my smaller amount of beans.

Green Bean Bundles (serves 5)
http://www.ourbestbites.com/

1/1 lb. fresh green beans (50-60 beans)- ends trimmed off and washed
5 slices of bacon
1 1/2 tbl. butter
1 tbl. minced red onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbl. sugar
1 tbl. rice vinegar

Preheat oven (or toaster oven!!) to 400 degrees.
Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Once the water reaches the boil- add in the green beans and blanch for 2-3 minutes. Take the beans out of the boiling water and dump into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.
Divide thebeans into 5 bundles and wrap each one with a slice of bacon. Use a toothpick to secure it and lay it on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the bacon has cooked through.
Torwards the end of the baking tim- start making the sauce. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium low heat.  Add the onion and garlic and stir around for 2-3 minutes until the butter bubbles up a bunch and starts turning brown. Add the sugar and vinegar and immediately take the sauce off of the heat. Stir everything around to dissolve the sugar and serve on top of the bundles. Just remember to take out the toothpick before eating! Enjoy!

This tasty side dish is linked up at:

• Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
• Tuesdays at the Table at All The Small Stuff
• Tuesday Tastes at Crazy Daisy
• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace
• July Side Dish Showdown at Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice
• Delicious Dishes at itsablogparty.com
• Strut Your Stuff Thursday at Somewhat Simple
• It's Party Time Thursday at Pony Tails & Fish Scales
• Friday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home
• Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum

Easy Bean Dip

Okay, so this picture DOES NOT do the dip justice in the least. But boy is it sooooo good!
The hubby and I had some leftover chips and cannellini beans from our taco night. Not having any more tortillas or meat for tacos, I saw fit to make a bean dip. I hadn't had bean dip in yeaaarrrsssss.
Taking some inspiration from Stephanie O'Dea and her use of the CrockPot Mini Dipper- I knew I wanted to make a warm bean dip. Yummy.
This recipe is really more of a parts list that can be changed around to suit your tastes.

I used up the rest of my cooked cannellini beans (about a cans worth) and added in a can of low sodium black beans...it's what I had in my cabinet other than garbanzo beans, which I thought would be weird. Definitely not going for the hummus flavor here. Not yet.

So to my 2 cans worth of beans I added an 8oz can of tomato sauce. Heated the whole darn thing up in a small saucepan and added some various seasonings. In my case, garlic powder, cumin and pepper. Just a little at first because you can alwasy add, but cannot take away!
Blend all that goodness up in a food processor, blender, or in my case- the immersion blender! What a fun tool! Taste for seasonings and serve.
I put my dip in the little dipper to keep it warm- but this stuff is great right out of the fridge.

Easy Bean Dip

2 cans worth of beans (black, white, whatever you like!), drained (I prefer low sodium)
1 8oz. can of tomato sauce (I prefer low sodium)
seasonings! cumin and some lime juice would be great.
                   some chili powder for kick
                   garlic and lime juice
                   italian seasoning
                   you're only limited by what's in the cabinet!

Combine everything in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook just long enough to warm everything up. Then blend it all until smooth, or chunky, or whatever you like. Check the seasonings and add more if desired!


I linked my dip up to these awesome parties:

• Tuesday Tastes at Crazy Daisy
• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at BlessedwithGrace
• Tasty Tuesday at Beauty and Bedlam 
• Strut Your Stuff Thursday at somewhat simple
• It's Party Time Thursday at Pony Tails & Fish Scales
• Recipe Share Party at Harrigan Howdy