Best green beans ever

I know that I haven't written in a while, but I also haven't really been cooking. I have whipped up a couple of very simple pasta dishes and will give recipes later. I am prepping for tax season, looking for really quick dishes to make.

However, the weekend has arrived and it's time to cook again. Tonight I made green beans with lemon and garlic and brown rice and cheese croquettes.

Okay, these are the best green beans ever. I don't particularly care for green beans. It has been my experience that they are usually over cooked and have a big old piece of pork added to them for flavor. These have neither.

I started out by cooking 2 lbs of fresh green beans (with the ends trimmed) by bringing salted water to a boil and just blanching them until they were crisp tender (just a couple of minutes). When done, I drained them and put them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. They retain their beautiful green color when you do this. Later, when the croquettes were baking, I melted some butter with a bit of olive oil, sauteed 2 cloves of garlic and 1 tsp of red pepper flakes. I added the green beans, cooked for about 5 minutes stirring to coat the beans with the butter mixture. When they were done, I added the zest of one lemon and salt to taste.

Let me just say, they were delicious and HOT, HOT, HOT. Next time I think I will reduce the amount of red pepper flakes by half. But, they were still very good.

Brown rice and cheese croquettes. These were very good. It started with another adventure in grocery shopping looking for short grained brown rice. Short grained rice is stickier than it's long grain counterpart. I found the rice at a health food store where they sell it in bulk. And since it's brown rice, it's healthier since the nutrients aren't stripped away like in white rice.

Cook one cup of the rice in 2 and 1/2 cups of vegetable broth or water. The vegetable broth gives it a little bit more flavor. Bring the rice and the broth to a boil, cover and simmer 45 - 60 minutes until all of the broth is absorbed then let cool. Once it is cooled mix in  1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, one egg white and 2 tablespoons of flour (I used white flour, but the recipe calls for whole wheat flour. I don't happen to have that on hand yet). Form the rice mixture into 12 balls and press into each ball a 1/2 inch cube of mozzarella cheese. Roll the balls in bread crumbs (I used Italian style) and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Cook in a preheated 400 degree oven for 30 minutes turning once half way through.

These were delicious! They were a little chewy and cheesy and just good. I will definitely be cooking these again! The croquettes are a little time consuming due to the amount of time that it takes to cook the rice but were well worth the time and effort.

This meal is definitely worth trying :)