They like meat.
I try as I might to get as many vegetables into their diet as is possible without causing the words "I ain't eatin' that" to be said...
I was exploring a 'link-up" to see if I could find any new crochet or quilting blogs to put on my reading list and came upon a blog that was actually hugely crowded with a variety of ads, all down the side and between practically every paragraph -- I generally skip over those kinds of blogs, not that the blog owner doesn't have interesting things to say, but that everything they do say, is an attempt at selling you something and in this case she presented a recipe promoting Bush's Baked Beans (we don't get that brand where I am) The recipe she shared included adding 1/2 cup of brown sugar and a 1/2 cup of maple syrup, plus salt, garlic powder and onion powder, ketchup, yellow mustard and no veggies... But it did sound and look interesting with a few tweeks that I made to it...
Now, since this household has a diabetic in it -- me,-- another concern in most cooking is SUGAR...
The recipe on the other blog has extra sugar and really no veg other than the beans. So since I cook, much like my grandmother and mother - you know, a bit of this and a bit of that -- I often take the idea of a recipe and recreate my own version... My version takes a bit more chopping to prepare, but i think is more 'garden fresh' healthy! And even so I would say that the prep time did not exceed 15 minutes...
Sorry, I did not think to take a photo of the finished dish -- it was scooped up onto plates very quickly!
So here is my recipe, that I am calling ....
Vegetablized Brown Beans and Beef
Preheat oven to 375 F.
1 regular sized can baked brown beans -- whatever brand or store brand you prefer (I used Maple flavour store brand brown beans)
open and pour the can of beans into a middling size cassarole dish.
Add
2 tblsp ketchup and 2 tblsp grainy mustard
stir together really well
Then
Saute about 1 pound ground beef in a fry pan til nicely brown -- drain off the extra fat -- add a 1/2 onion and about 2 crushed garlic cloves and saute til the onion is translucent. (don't burn the garlic!)
Add
2 or 3 stalks of celery chopped including the leaves. Saute for a couple minutes til the celery softens a bit more.
Broccoli stalks 3 or 4 -- not the floret part, chop the stalks into pieces about the same size as the celery and mix into the bean mixture, no need to precook these. (use the florets another day)
Stir the meat mixture into the beans in the casserole dish and stir together well.
Put the lid on the casserole dish and pop it into the oven for about an hour. (You might get away with less time, but thats how long it took me make a few crochet granny squares and watch an episode of Elementary on TV).
I don't think you should leave it in longer than a hour tho.
Remove from the oven, take the lid off and let the family serve themselves.
This recipe is enough for Three of us, so if you have more to feed just double up the ingredients and follow the same procedure... You could double up everything except the meat and still have enough beef flavour in it to be quite satisfying to a Meat Lover...
I served this with a home made coleslaw -- the coleslaw mix you buy in a bag and coleslaw dressing with a sprinkling of sesame seeds...
My DH said he thought it was the best beans he had eaten in a long time -- even better than the chili that I make.
I told my son that I did not put any hot pepper or hot sauce (as the internet recipe had called for) into it and he said "good thing"
And as for me, I liked it too and after checking my blood sugar level later in the evening, I found that I was as normal as could be expected... definately a good thing...
I'd like to know if you try out this idea and how your family might like it. If you have one of those big BBQ's you might try it as a BBQ side dish baking it on the BBQ in a non-flame corner...
