Eat Them Beans

Any Cool Hand Luke fans out there?  It's a family favorite, and "eat them beans" is often quoted at our family meals :)

Do you like green beans?  I LOVE them, thanks to a cooking technique I learned from my family.  When I've had green beans from restaurants, usually they're pretty crunchy and can be rather bitter.  I prefer them to be soft and falling apart, and today I'll share my "secret" for making them that way.

You just have to remember 2 important things:  use very little water, and cook them for a long time.

First, rinse your fresh green beans and cut off the ends (I think it's easiest to use scissors to snip off the ends).

Next, put them into a pot with just a little water, about 1/2 inch to 1 inch.

Turn heat on high and cover.

Let the water come to a boil (this won't take long since there's not a lot of water in there).

Once the water comes to a boil, turn the heat down and simmer.  Leave the lid cracked open slightly to allow steam to escape.

Now you just let the beans simmer for about 40 minutes, stirring every once in awhile and checking on their progress.  This is VERY important:  make sure to add water if necessary to ensure that the pan doesn't go dry - this will burn your beans.  And no one wants burned beans.  Simmer until they're very tender and starting to all apart.

When they look like the beans in the picture above, they're done!  Remove from heat and season.  (Seasoning after the food is cooked means you don't have to use as much!)  I used some smoked sea salt on these and they tasted wonderful.  I actually could have eaten the entire pot.  But I resisted so that I would have some leftovers!

I ate mine with roasted sweet potato wedges.

Really, really delicious.

If you think you don't like green beans, you should really give this cooking method a try.  And if you already like green beans, here's a way to switch it up!

My family always makes them with bacon (cut the bacon in small pieces, fry them in the bottom of the pan, then add the beans and water), which is also delicious, but I wanted to make this recipe a little healthier and vegetarian-friendly.

I can't wait to dig into my leftovers tonight.  Let's eat them beans!

I meant to go to the gym this morning since I didn't have class, but then I decided to sleep in instead :)  So I went after my classes, per usual.  I did the same strength training routine I've been doing lately (really time to switch it up) and then did a 15-minute treadmill workout after that.  It's funny, some days I feel like I'm rocking it out on the treadmill (at least for me), and other days it just kicks my butt.  Today was one of those days when it kicked my butt, even though it was only 15 minutes long.  I was a sweaty Betty (I just made that phrase up, but it kinda works, right?).

Post-workout protein smoothie:

1 cup almond milk, 1 T ground flax seeds, 1 scoop vanilla Sun Warrior protein powder, 1 T natural peanut butter, 1 frozen banana, a heaping 3/4 cup of frozen mixed berries (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries), and 2 ice cubes.  Verrrrrrrry tasty.  It's all in the peanut butter, I tell ya!

Time to shower and scrounge up something for dinner.  Later!

If the weather insists on being chilly again, at least I still get some fantastic sunsets.

Song of the day:

"The Lonely" by Christina Perri.  Heartbreakingly pretty.  You've probably heard her song "A Thousand Years" a lot on the radio recently (it was in the most recent Twilight movie).  I like that song, too, and her entire album, Lovestrong.