Tilapia with Bacon and Green Beans

I was looking for something different the other day and had some tilapia filets to work with. I also had a can of green beans and some bacon, and went looking for a recipe that might incorporate all three. What I found was lots of green bean and bacon recipes and one tilapia and bacon recipe that used some brown sugar. In a moment, I'd combined the two and here's what came of it: 

Ingredients

• 2-4 tilapia filets 
• 3-6 strips of bacon, cut into pieces of varying size 
• 1/3 cup chopped onion 
• 2 tsp's of lite brown sugar for each filet 

 Preparation

In a non-stick skillet, brown the bacon pieces over medium heat until they're as brown as you like. Sauté the onions until soft. Add 1 Tbl butter or margarine if you don't have sufficient bacon fat to sauté the onions.

Salt and pepper the first side of the tilapia, and use one tsp of the brown sugar for each filet, spreading over the filet evenly. Turn heat to medium-high and lay filets on top of the bacon and onions, sugar side down.

Salt and pepper the opposite sides of the filets and spread with more brown sugar. After 3-5 minutes (edges of fish begin to turn white), slide a nylon spatula under each filet and the bacon and onions, and turn the filet. Repeat for each filet.

Add drained green beans to pan and salt and pepper to taste. Turn heat to medium-low and cover. Simmer for 10 minutes. Finish with a squeeze of lime juice over each filet.

Serve with rice or pasta.

Fresh Frozen Green Beans

I haven't put up a new recipe lately, and that's my bad. But tonight I thought I'd share something I worked on. We found some fresh green beans at the grocery this week, and in order to keep them I thought I'd freeze them. Like most vegetables, green beans need to be blanched before they're frozen. Blanching is simply the process of "half-cooking" raw vegetables before you freeze or can them.

In order to blanche veggies, you need a big stock pot full of boiling water, about 1 gallon for each pound of green beans (this will work with wax beans also). You should wash the beans first and trim them, remove any strings and cut them into the size you want, usually between 2 and 4 inches. I like mine a little shorter, about 1 1/2 inches.

Once the water's boiling and the beans are ready, just dump them in and let them cook for 3 minutes. You should prepare a bowl with icy water, too. When the 3 minutes are up, scoop out the beans and dump them into the ice water bath. This is called "shocking" the beans. Leave them in the bath for 3 minutes also.

After the beans are drained, lay them out on some kitchen towels or paper towels to help soak up most of the excess water. Then put the beans in a container (I use a freezer bag), pack them closely without mashing them, leave some small amount of head space (breathing room) and put them in the freezer! They'll be good for 8 to 10 months this way.

To cook, take some beans out, put them in a pan with a little salted water and cook for 5-6 minutes. Here's a video I found over at YouTube that is only 2 minutes long that illustrates the process:

Blanching vegetables when they are in season (and less expensive) is a good way to eat fresher food at a lower cost than buying prepared vegetables. Bon Apetit!

Green Bean Casserole

One of my all-time favorites. Usually served at big family holiday meals, or sometimes it shows up at office potlucks. Either way, I love to clean up the leftovers!

Ingredients:

•  2 pkgs frozen green beans (2 9oz pkgs or can use 2 cans of beans, drained)
  
•  1 can cream of mushroom soup (try the new cream of chicken with mushroom, it works!)
  
•  3/4 cup milk
  
•  1 can (2.8 oz) French's French Fried Onions, divided in half
  
•  1/8 tsp pepper
  

Prep:
Combine all ingredients except 1/2 of the onions in a 1 1/2 qt casserole dish.

Bake in a 350 oven for 30 minutes, top with remaining onions and bake another 5-10 minutes until the onions are golden and crisp but not burned.