NCKAA: 19 Days Until Christmas

Everyday Green Bean Casserole

8 oz fresh green beans*
1 tsp. salt
1 can low-fat Cream of Celery soup
1 piece bread
1 pat butter

1. Wash green beans. Snap tips from each and break in half.

2. Bring water to boil, with salt. Preheat over to 350.

3. Boil green beans for 5 minutes. Remove from boiling water and immediately immerse in ice bath for 5 minutes to stop cooking.

4. Drain green beans well, use paper towel to pat dry.

5. Place half the green beans in bottom of small casserole dish. Cover with half the cream of celery soup. Put remaining green beans on next layer and finish with remaining soup.

6. Cook uncovered for 45 minutes. During last 5-10 minutes, butter the bread and toast well.

7. After the green beans have cooked 45 mins, use a knife to scrap crumbs from the toast, both sides. Crumble crusts etc.

8. Return casserole to oven and bake 10 more minutes.

9. Enjoy!

Serves 4.

*If you're in a time-crunch, I suppose you can use frozen green beans ... if you must. Start at step 4.

Nutritional Information: Calories: 70.8; Total Fat: 2.5 g; Cholesterol: 3.1 mg; Sodium: 398.2 mg; Total Carbs: 11.7 g; Dietary Fiber: 3.2 g; Protein: 2.1 g.

Here's the thing about green bean casserole: I love it! I forgot how much I love it until last Thanksgiving when I found a recipe similar to this in Hungry Girl (she uses water chestnuts and soy crisps). It's such a simple dish and so tasty that I can't, for the life of me, figure out why we save it for the holidays only.

Sadly, Kevin isn't a green bean fan so I can only make them when he's not here for dinner - like tonight! I didn't have any this Thanksgiving because it was my job to make it using someone else's ingredients and I wanted to throw up when I saw the calorie count in the 2 CANS of Cream of Mushroom soup that was there. No thanks! It's not like I was going hungry by abstaining anyway.

I added it to my list of holiday goodies to enjoy throughout the season. I feel it is getting much more attention from me because of this.

P.S. Green beans are full of potassium and help ladies deal with pains that come at a certain time of the month.