Last Night's Dinner and Tomorrow's Lunch

First, I need to retro-post last night's dinner. I cooked a version of our new favorite chicken/salsa/rice dish. Ethan got home late - close to 8, so I had it ready right when he walked in.



I did the recipe a little differently: I used tons of salsa, I used leftover red, orange, & yellow bell peppers, no green chilies this time, added chopped jalapenos, and cooked the rice separately.







Oh, I also used Success rice instead of Uncle Ben's. It has a very different texture, but we both agreed that we like the brands equally.




Now... I am going to try something new: Green Bean Casserole. Ethan loves this, and I've never cooked it for him. However, I am not going to use the cream-of-chicken/cream-of-mushroom recipe. I try to avoid canned soups because of the unavoidable MSG. It really affects me (and I think it might give Ethan headaches). I found a recipe that uses some fresher ingredients.





Here it is:

butter to coat pan
1 cup chopped onion
1 can chicken broth
1/2 cup half & half
salt
pepper
1.5 pounds fresh green beans (washed and ends cut off)
2/3 cup crushed croutons
2/3 cup chopped walnuts
butter (melted)


Use a big pan - skillet or saucepan. Medium heat. Melt butter.
Add onions and cook about 10 minutes (don't burn them).
Add the chicken broth and bring to boil (I turned burner up to High).
Once it really starts boiling, turn off heat and let simmer.
Stir in the half & half plus salt and pepper.

Turn oven on Preheat to 350 degrees.
Use big pot to boil water for the green beans.
Throw green beans in the boiling water.
Boil for 5 minutes.
Drain the green beans.

In 9x13 pan, put green beans and then pour the onion/half & half mixture.

Stir it all up.

On top, put croutons and walnuts.









Bake 15-20 minutes in the 350 degree oven.