Green Beans Amandine

If you like fresh green beans, you'll love this recipe. It is super easy, fast and big on flavor. The combination of the crisp green beans with the crunch of the almonds makes for a great side dish with great flavor and texture.

1 lb. fresh green beans, rinsed, ends trimmed

1-2 teaspoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

2-3 tablespoons butter, margarine or spray butter

1/4 cup sliced almonds

1/2 lemon

Salt

Pepper

Fill a medium pot with water and bring to a boil. While water is coming to boil, fill a bowl with ice water.

Cook green beans in boiling water for 2-3 minutes until just tender. Remove green beans from boiling water and plunge into the ice water to stop the cooking process and maintain the bright green color. Remove from ice water and drain.

Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick pan with over medium heat. Add garlic and saute for one minute. Melt butter in the pan and add green beans to pan, tossing to coat with the butter and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until green beans are tender but still crisp.

Meanwhile, toast the almonds in a small pan over low heat until just golden brown. Add almonds to green beans and toss to combine. Squeeze the lemon juice over the green beans and toss to combine. Taste the green beans for seasoning and add additional salt, pepper, or lemon if necessary.

Enjoy!

Roasted Cauliflower

Cauliflower is probably not most people's "go-to" veggie or side dish, but after you try this recipe, I can guarantee you that you will think of cauliflower differently. After I came up with this recipe, it quickly became Steven's favorite dinner side dish and he wants me to make it at least once a week! The great thing about this dish is that it is super fast to prepare, requires very few (and very common) ingredients and it is very flavorful!

I hope you love it!

Ingredients:
1 head of cauliflower, trimmed of leaves and stem and cut into florets
1 tablespoons of olive oil for drizzling
1 lemon
Salt
Pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 cup of grated or shredded parmesan cheese
white or black truffle oil spray, if desired *

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Put trimmed cauliflower pieces into a 2.5 quart oval casserole dish or other oven-proof dish of this approximate size. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder and then squeeze the lemon juice all over the cauliflower. Toss a few times to coat all the pieces. Bake for 25 minutes.

Remove from oven. Turn broiler on high. Make sure oven rack is in the middle of the oven. Sprinkle parmesan on top and spritz all over with truffle oil. Return to oven and broil for about 1-2 minutes. Watch carefully to make sure it doesn't burn.

Remove from oven and serve immediately.

*If you are not familiar with truffles, they are in the mushroom family and are most often found in Europe. The flavor is very unique and you are likely to fall in love with truffles once you taste something made with truffles or spritzed with truffle infused oil. You can find white or black truffle oil at specialty stores (like William Sonoma) or specialty grocery stores. I have been lucky to buy it super cheap at TJMaxx, so I would definitely try to find it there.

Enjoy!!