GREEN BEANS & PEPPERS (serves 6) 24 fresh pearl onions 1 1/2 lbs fresh green beans, sliced diagonally (French works) 3 TBL extra virgin olive oil 1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced 1 medium yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced 1 medium green bell pepper, thinly sliced 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 2 cloves garlic, minced Salt & pepper to taste Grated Parmesan for garnish Blanch the onions & drain; remove the skins. Blanch the green beans; drain. Heat the olive oil in a skillet until hot. Add the peppers. Saute just until tender. Stir in the beans, onions, balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt & pepper. Cook just until heated through. Spoon into a serving bowl. Garnish w/freshly grated Parmesan. Serve immediately.~~TX Ties

I know everyone has different tolerance for "glop"...But the mere thoughts of putting canned greenbeans canned cream of mushroom soup into a crock pot and cooking it for 3 or 4 hours sounds for sure like it would exceed my tolerance for glop. Why not bake it ahead and reheat with the onion rings on top? At least the onion rings would be crisp.

I don't make the green bean casserole but if all I have is canned green beans I'll sometimes dump out the water and add a can of cream of mushroom...but then you're trying to avoid the mushroom soup so I guess I haven't helped you much...I'm down to my last three or four jars of my sis and I's canned green beans from the garden so as long as I have those I'm cooking those with a dollip of olive oil, some bacon, onions and S&P and I'm good to go...I'm gonna have to make a trip to Illinois soon and raid her pantry for more canned beans!

There's absolutely NOTHING wrong with making casseroles! It's one of the economical bonuses on a tight food budget, and a way to use small amounts of foods that might otherwise go to waste. (As we all know, wasted food is the most expensive food we buy.) Here's what I teach in nutrition classes about casseroles and other mixed foods items (like pizza, tacos, stir-fry, and fusion bowls). It's not volume, it's nutrition and the number of servings within the mixed-ingredient meal. Just because the ingredients are combined doesn't mean you don't count them towards your daily requirements of servings for each food group for the day.... Nor are casseroles an excuse to over-eat because you make large portions using cheap ingredients. To be economical: "Stretch" an expensive protein (meat) with a low-costing protein (eggs, beans, dairy, peas, lentils, whole grains like amaranth/quinoa, nuts, plant proteins like seitan and leafy greens, even protein powders...); NOT more grains/starches in the form of pasta, rice, tortillas, and fillers like high-sodium condensed soup - with just a token amount of protein per serving. Most people consume far too many servings of grains/starches as it is. Especially those that are typically empty calories, highly-processed, low-in fiber, high-glycemic, and void of nutrition. Examples: I serve a small 1/2 serving of chicken (about 1- to 1-1/2 oz. - a small tenderloin or a small chicken leg) with white cannellini beans for the remainder of the protein serving. A nice example of a recipe I did this with is "Tuscan Rosemary Chicken and White Beans" (http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/tuscan-rosemary-chicken-and-white-beans/854e2207-1eb9-43e9-a118-0301f615cc05). I use smaller portions of meat and increase the vegetables. Tuna salad - add hard cooked eggs and/or cannellini beans to the mixture as high-protein extenders to get more servings of protein. Before going gluten-free, I would mix homemade gluten, ground (aka "wheat meat" or seitan) 50/50 with any kind of ground meat as a high-protein, plant-based meat extender. Food-for-thought: Tuna is NOT an inexpensive protein when you figure the cost by the pound. A 5-oz. can of tuna that costs 69-cents = $2.21 (rounded up) per pound. If you spend $1.19 per can = $3.81 per pound (rounded up) A serving of protein is 2-3 ounces and the suggested amount is two servings of protein per day (whether from meat or alternative non-meat protein sources). Therefore, a 5-oz. can of tuna is 2.5 servings of protein. So you need to build your casserole to meet your daily requirements from all the food groups. Each serving of tuna and noodle, or tuna and rice casserole, should have at least 1- to 2-ounces of tuna and/or protein alternative in it (depending on the number of servings of protein it needs to meet for the day), and 1 oz. of starch (1/2 c. of cooked rice or pasta) per serving of grain/starch you need for the day. It's suggested by the USDA MY PLATE we consume at least 6 (1-oz.) servings of grains/starches each day. I follow the old "Basic-4" and consume 4 servings of grains each day because I gain weight eating more than that. In general, 1 ounce of meat, poultry or fish, ¼ cup cooked beans, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of peanut butter, or ½ ounce of nuts or seeds can be considered as 1 ounce-equivalent from the Protein Foods Group. - See more at: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/protein-foods#sthash.0TkMWywO.dpuf -Grainlady