Sauteed Green Beans

Whereas the baked potato that went with these is something I've made a billion times, this was a new one for me. I've been wanting to make sauteed green beans for months, ever since I started being really disappointed in the ones from Outback Steakhouse.

I adapted a few recipes from around the internet to suit my purposes.

Sauteed Green Beans

Ingredients:
fresh green beans (I settled for a bag from Target, but just not frozen)
1 clove of garlic, minced
2T olive oil
salt, pepper, seasoning of your choice

Equipment:
pot
colander
pan
stove

Instructions:
Boil a pot of water. Wash your green beans and break off the ends. When your water is boiling, add your green beans and boil them for about 4 minutes. Drain them and rinse them in cold water. (I had one that discolored and got a little mushy so I threw that one out. You want them to be pretty and green like in the picture above.) Heat the oil in the pan for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and let it stand for about a minute. Add the green beans (well drained!) and stir them around to coat them in the oil and garlic. Sprinkle with your seasonings (I used Penzey's shallot-pepper and some salt) and stir around again. Cook for about 3-5 minutes, stirring to keep them coated and keep them from burning. When the garlic starts to turn golden-brown, they're done.

Yields:
2 servings if you make as much as I did in the photo

Total time:
about 15 minutes

Cleanup rating: 2/5
One pan to clean, a pot and a colander to rinse.

Difficulty rating: 2/10
Really easy, but you have to keep an eye on it. I could have done better on the timing portion (these were done long before the potatoes were done, but I wanted to leave myself enough time to make a new vegetable if these didn't turn out well).

Flavor rating: 8/10
Yum! I could probably improve a little bit, and I didn't use fresh green beans (hey, they're out of season... I think) but they were still really good.

And here they are with the baked potato and cheese sauce: