Category: Side Dish

Slow Cooker Southern Green Beans

I cannot believe that December is almost over and 2019 is almost here! This year has been filled with major milestones and memories that I will cherish for a lifetime. In 2018, I started a new job, graduated from grad school and married my best friend.

I also traveled to lots of fun places! I traveled to North Carolina, New York City, visited Walt Disney World for my Bachelorette party, and accompanied Derek on his first international trip to Jamaica for our honeymoon. Although this year was super busy, I challenged myself to find balance and make time for things I love like writing and dancing. I was even fortunate enough to perform in A Charm City Ballet’s production of A Christmas Carol. As 2018 comes to an end, I’m so grateful for all the wonderful blessings the year brought and very hopeful that 2019 will be another great year.

Now that the Christmas festivities have come to an end, I’m ready for New Year’s celebrations. I always look forward to New Year’s Day. Christmas is always wonderful, but it’s always busy! New Year’s Day is low key for us. Typically, I do cook a New Year’s Day meal, but I try to pick simple dishes since I’m usually still recovering from all the Christmas baking and cooking.

This year, I’m making these delicious Slow Cooker Southern Green Beans. I made these at Thanksgiving and they were a huge hit. They are inspired by Mission BBQ’s green beans. These are super easy to make and are a perfect side dish for any holiday. They also reheat great in the microwave. For this recipe, I use real bacon bits that you can find in the salad dressing aisle of your grocery store. If you are feeling ambitious, you can cook some bacon ahead of time to use in lieu of the bacon bits. However, as I mentioned before I’m still recovering from Christmas so I’m going the easy route.

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 Slow Cooker Southern Green Beans
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 4 hours
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Ingredients
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 4 hours
Servings
servings
Ingredients
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
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Instructions
  1. Melt two tablespoons of butter on medium-high heat in a skillet.
  2. Finely dice 1 onion and then add the diced onion into the skillet.
  3. Add ½ cup of bacon bits to the onion butter mixture.
  4. Add ¼ tsp of cayenne, ½ tsp onion powder, ½ tsp garlic powder, ½ tsp salt and 1 tsp of pepper to the onion and bacon mixture. Stir together and sauté for 5 minutes until bacon is a deep red color.
  5. Open your cans of green beans and dump them juice and all into your slow cooker. Add the bacon and onion mixture to the slow cooker. Stir together the bacon and onion mixture with the green beans until combined.
  6. Cook on low for 4 hours.
Recipe Notes

The longer you cook, the more flavor your green beans will have. However, everything is cooked before you add it to the slow cooker, so feel free to decrease the cook time if you are in a pinch. 

Almost Paleo Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Apples

Thanksgiving is 2 days away people! If you are behind the power curve and need a last-minute dish to bring to Thanksgiving dinner, I’ve got an easy side dish you can throw together in a pinch. I’m going to keep this blog post short and sweet, well because this recipe is short and sweet. Behold! The ever so glorious Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Apples.

I love this recipe because it has minimal ingredients, most of which are Paleo. If you are on a Paleo Diet, you can simply omit the butter. Sweet potatoes, Granny Smith Apples and dried cranberries, tossed in a honey cinnamon sauce are oh so sweet. The best part is this recipe is guilt free! Naturally sweet and packed with nutrients, this holiday side dish is easy to make and sure to please at the dinner table. Even my dog Oreo approves of this recipe.

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 Almost Paleo Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Apples
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Prep Time 15
Cook Time 40 minutes
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servings
Ingredients
Prep Time 15
Cook Time 40 minutes
Servings
servings
Ingredients
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish with butter or oil of your choice.
  2. Wash, peel and chop the sweet potatoes into bite size chunks. Sweet potato chucks should be approximately an inch and a half in size.
  3. Wash and chop the apples into bite size chunks. Apple chunks should be about the same size as the sweet potato chunks. I like to leave the peel on the apples because it adds some color and it’s packed with nutrients. Feel free to peel the apples if that is your preference.
  4. Add your chopped sweet potatoes to the greased baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees F. While your potatoes begin to cook, make your honey cinnamon sauce.
  5. Melt 3 tbsp of butter in the microwave in a microwave safe dish. Remove the butter from the microwave and to the dish, add ¼ cup of honey and 1 tsp of cinnamon. If you are omitting the butter to make this a Paleo dish, simply mix together the honey and cinnamon.
  6. Remove sweet potatoes from the oven. Add in the chopped apples and ¼ cup of dried cranberries to the baking dish. Pour the honey cinnamon sauce over top of the potatoes, apples and dried cranberries, tossing with a spoon to ensure all ingredients are coated. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Return the apples and sweet potatoes to the oven for an additional 20 minutes at 400 degrees F.
  7. Remove the beautiful caramelized Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Apples from the oven and enjoy.