Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Healthy Eats - My Favorite Green Bean Side Dish

Hello lovelies! I've got a quick healthy recipe for you guys today that can be made as a side dish or enjoyed as a meal. I was half asleep last night and decided that I wanted to cook (random I know, but when I get sleepy I like to cook lol) but it was really too late to be making myself anything. So I pulled out the slow cooker. And if you don't know, I LOVE my slow cooker!! With the kiddo running around it can be a pain to make a nice healthy meal during the day, so getting to throw everything in the slow cooker before I go to sleep is a serious help to my diet.
I was going to try and put together something really fancy, but after I cut up my onion I was pretty well out of steam. So I threw this recipe together, it took me maybe 5 minutes total, and I put it in the slow cooker over night. This recipe is super easy and SO good for you! So here it is, my slow cooker green beans aka string beans.

Slow Cooker Green Beans
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 8-ish hours
Serves 3 as a side dish

Ingredients
1 medium onion, any variety will work though I used a sweet onion
1/2 a bag of frozen green beans
1 jar of mushrooms (fresh are better, but this was what I had on hand)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup of water


  1. Cut your onion into fourths and then slice. You can cut up your onion however you like, I just like big pieces of onion because I really love onions. If you're not an onion person, dice the onion so you don't get big bites of it. Then toss the chopped onion in your slow cooker.
  2. Toss your frozen green beans into the slow cooker.
  3. Drain your mushrooms and then toss them into the slow cooker.
  4. Add the water, salt and pepper to the slow cooker and mix it all together.
  5. Put the slow cooker on low heat and let it cook for about 8 hours. Make sure to check it every now and again as you may need to add more water to prevent burning. 

This is a really versatile recipe, you can add a lot of things to make it more hearty or complex. My mom makes a similar recipe and she adds bacon (which is totally delish, btw) but bacon is really fatty and I'm avoiding it at the moment. Smoked turkey would probably be a really good substitution for the bacon... I'll have to try that next time..
This recipe is so good for you! The onion is great for your heart, it can help lower cholesterol and it protects your heart and blood vessels. It's also been shown to help prevent the loss of bone density when eaten regularly AND it can help prevent cancer. And green beans are loaded with vitamins and minerals, as well as antioxidants which is great for your overall health. And then there's the mushrooms which are also loaded with antioxidants and vitamins and such, most notably potassium and vitamin D.

 I hope you guys enjoyed another healthy recipe from my kitchen. This is great comfort food without having to worry about a lot of fat or calories. It's really dreary and rainy here and this made for a great lunch. Til next time!


3 comments:

  1. WOW 8 hours? and the beans don't get overcooked? I don't have a slow cooker so I have no clue lol.
    ps I love your hair in that banner photo

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, 8 hours. And the beans weren't overcooked. It takes 4 hours for carrots to cook through on high in a slow cooker, they just work, well, slow lol. It cooks on a really low heat so you have to cook for a long period of time. It helps to bring all the flavors together.

      And thanks!

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  2. Sounds very healthy, I would add some meat, but not bacon :)))

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