Something happens when you’re on the other side of 25. Suddenly, late night pizza binges after a night of drinking immediately shows up on your waistline and those double fire extra crispy buffalo wings don’t sit as well as they used to. Our relationship with food changes overall and I know this all too well. My metabolism betrayed me ages ago even before I turned 25. In fact, I’ve struggled with my weight my whole entire life. I’ve never been the kid who had a fast metabolism and could eat McDonalds, candy, pizza, and ice cream everyday and live to tell about it. To make matters worse, I’ve always loved food. I’ve always loved to eat.
I would argue that my relationship with food has sometimes teetered on unhealthy and a lot of that has to do with the way I grew up, resources, and information. Hispanic diets by nature don’t have a lot of greens. Growing up, I didn’t really know how to eat vegetables because it wasn’t something that was part of the culture. As a result, I never really ate my veggies– you can’t eat what you don’t know! Hispanic diets are starch heavy! I’ll be the first to admit that my heart sings whenever I make rice and beans. Rice is my weakness. Not pasta. Not potatoes, but rice!
Nonetheless, I’ve had to teach myself how to eat veggies. I’m dedicated to teaching myself better eating habits because as delicious as rice and beans are… one simply cannot eat rice and beans everyday. Throughout my journey, I’ve picked up some pretty neat tricks and I’ve created some pretty tasty recipes as well.
All in all, I love veggies that are either simple and clean in flavor or bold and in your face. My Garlic Pepper String Bean Recipe is a happy mix between the two and it’s a recipe that you can alter to your taste. To start, this recipe is jam packed with garlic and the crunch from the almonds serves as a nice surprise. It offers a new texture to an everyday veggie like string beans. In the end, I round off the dish with some vinegar and subtle heat. If you’d like to see a step by step tutorial on How to Make Garlic Pepper Strings Beans simply visit my YouTube Channel: Made To Order or click here
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups French Strings Beans
- 3 minced garlic cloves
- ½ tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp Red Pepper
- 1 tbs pine nuts or slivered almonds
- 2 tsp Red wine vinegar
- Black Pepper to Taste
- Olive oil
Instructions
- Brings 2 cups of water to boil and add strings
- Once string beans become bright green drain and add to an ice bath to shock string beans and prevent from cooking any further
- In a skillet, warm up olive oil and saute minced garlic
- Add string beans, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and vinegar.
- Mix and let cook for 1-2 minutes
- In the end, toss slivered almonds and enjoy warm
Buen Provecho!
