Here's A Green Bean Winner!

At Christmas time I wanted a new way to jazz up some veggies for dinner. In perusing the internet searching for recipes I ran across Green Beans With Cherry Tomatoes at allrecipes.com and thought it would look rather festive on the table. This dish was a hit and now that I have made it 3 times I have my tweaks down to where I am happy to share the recipe.

Green Beans With Cherry Tomatoes

serves 8

1 1/2 pounds green beans, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces

1 cup water

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp. garlic salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

2 tsp. chopped fresh basil

1 pint cherry tomatoes

Place beans and water in large saucepan. Cover, and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes or until tender. 

While beans are cooking melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garlic salt, pepper and basil. Add tomatoes, and stir just until tomatoes are soft.

Drain water off beans and pour the tomato mixture over the green beans. Toss gently to blend. Serve at once. 

A Short Bit More . . .

If the tomatoes are large you might want to cut them in half. I left them whole this time and they seemed a bit too big.

If you don't have fresh basil you can use dried, but only use 3/4 teaspoon.

I have only used frozen beans, but I look forward to using fresh beans from my garden this summer. Two 12 ounce bags of frozen beans are needed for this recipe. If serving fewer than 8, it is easy to cut the recipe in half. 

These beans not only look pretty, but they are very tasty. I think a crumble of bacon on top would be a nice addition, too.

Bonus 

I found this at the store last week . . .

So, I turned it into this . . .

It turned out very yummy! I followed the directions on the package, but I baked the fish instead of frying. 

I made a little cole slaw with cabbage, green onion, green pepper. I used salsa and plain greek yogurt with some cumin for the dressing and topped the fish in the shells. I topped my green salad with tomatoes, yellow and red peppers and a bit of salsa. 

Delicious dinner on a very cold night!