Green Bean Tartine

Isn't it great when suddenly you like a food that you thought you hated? For me- green beans. Yuck. I probably haven't touched them since...well, probably since I was a kid and couldn't leave the table until I finished all my veggies. Oh, I do eat green bean casserole at Thanksgiving, but mostly just the french fried onion top!

Husband has been asking for beans for dinner, so a couple weeks ago I picked up a few and roasted them with red potatoes. Amazingly, they tasted just like asparagus (which I love). This must have been a fluke though because I really hate green beans, right?

It has been about a million degrees with no breeze here on the island, so all I wanted for dinner last night was vegetables, and set out to find whatever was least expensive. I ended up with a bunch of green beans (and beets and a cabbage and mushrooms), so I made a green bean tartine. I made an asparagus and goat cheese tartine a couple weeks ago - it was delicious and easy and no cleanup because it is cooked in a foil packet! So this is what I did:

Start with a piece of foil maybe a foot long. Fold it in half and then unfold it, and make a little box with one half. Lightly oil with olive oil and place whatever bread you have on the bottom. I used leftover wheat for one and rye for the other.


Combine all your vegetables with about a cup of chicken (or vegetable) broth, along with a couple tablespoons balsamic and salt and pepper. I used green beans, cabbage, mushrooms, red onions, and beets. See my last post for how NOT to cook a beet. This time I boiled them.




Pile all the vegetables on top of the bread. Combine a couple eggs with about a quarter cup of your broth, and pour it on top. Sprinkle some panko and lay a sprig of rosemary on top.



Seal the packet and bake at 400 for 30 minutes.



Top with goat cheese. Eat every last bite. Throw away the foil. Done!




My budget ($105 for the week) was a little off this week because we popped up to Ft Lauderdale for a long weekend, and I don't do the food budget while we are on vacation. (Whenever I come in under budget for the week I put the extra into Vacation Fund, so I feel ok about spending more while on vacation. So it all works out.)

Before we left we had to finish whatever was in the fridge, and I think the highlight was pulled pork made from a tenderloin, served with coleslaw. The tenderloin went into the slow cooker with a can of root beer and a little balsamic. I made a BBQ sauce with pureed mango, honey, and cayenne...I loved it, T thought it would be better on chicken since it wasn't a "real" BBQ sauce.

The highlight from our weekend away was a portobello bruschetta we had at a brick-oven pizza place. Really tasty and interesting because it wasn't served on bread which I always thought was necessary for bruschetta (am I uninformed?) I do have to say the size of the portions everywhere we ate were ridiculously huge (and our servers told us that yes, most people eat it all)...I guess no wonder so many Americans are overweight!

Ok, I just realized our tartines were ridiculously huge and we ate every bite (but veggies don't count, right?).

Anyway, hope everyone has a great week!

Smokin' Beets

Well, my beets were smoking, and not in a good way! Confession: I have never prepared fresh beets. My impression was that they take forever to cook, are difficult to peel, and the canned ones are just fine!

A restaurant on the island used to serve a veggie burger with beets and goat cheese, but I didn't have a chance to try it before they took it off the menu...but it sounds so good I wanted to try at home, and with fresh beets. I looked at lots of recipes for roasted beets, and yes, they seemed to take forever. One recipe reviewer said she just did them in the microwave for 10 minutes, then ran them under water and the peel just rubs right off!

I had to give that a try. My beets were kind of small, so I put them in the microwave for only 8 minutes. The first couple minutes they smelled great- like beets! The next couple minutes they smelled like potatoes...and soon I was smelling burning popcorn. Hmmm, that's interesting.

Eight minutes up, I open the door and the paper plate I'd set them on was burned (popcorn smell) and my beets were shriveled and literally smoking. Black smoke was pouring out of the little holes I'd made so they wouldn't explode. Well. Luckily I had a few more beets! This time I put them on for less than 3 minutes, just until they smelled good (and on a glass plate this time), took them out and tented them with some foil til they were cool. I wasn't able to rub the skins off, so had to do it with a paring knife, which was a little tricky now that they were soft.

Instead of a veggie burger, I marinated 2 portobello mushrooms in balsamic and garlic, salt and pepper, then pan fried til golden. I had a taste for those little Hawaiian buns, so I made the sandwiches into sliders, stacking the beets, mushrooms, red onions, and goat cheese. WOW. Delicious! I have to say the fresh beets were tastier than canned (of course), and now that I have my method down I will try again!

I served these with what started as sweet potato fries, and ended up as a sweet potato hash brown. They never got crispy in the oven and were sticking and making a big mess, so I smushed them in a fry pan with some oil and cooked til crispy. Tasted great!

Came $1 under budget this week (it's $105 for breakfast and dinner, food and drink) and this is what we ate:

Sunday: Crispy Rosemary Chicken with roasted red potatoes and asparagus

Monday: Portobello Beet Goat Cheese Sliders

Tuesday: Lobster Feast (see last post!)

Wednesday: Soup and Beef Springrolls

Thursday: Leftovers with Basmati Rice

Friday: Date Night (T took us out for pizza)

Saturday: Chicken with roasted green beans and carrots

Thanks for stopping by, hope everyone has a great week!