I’ve said before that I married Mr. Meat and Potatoes. For him, a veggie is either a salad comprised of iceberg lettuce and carrots, with store-bought Italian dressing, or canned corn drowned in butter and pepper.

Neither really soothes my guilt for serving him piles of fat on starch with a side of bacon for most of his meals. Sometimes, I really need to see him eat a green veggie; one that might actually still contain some nutritional value. I need it like I need that fake sweet and sour sauce with my McNuggets. Really, really badly.

He’s been on the road for a week, pretending to be a trucker, driving back and forth between Texas and Nebraska. Tonight, he has a layover at home. I can imagine what he’s eaten in the last week, and it blends together into a montage of Waffle House hashbrowns with the works, beef ‘n cheddars, and K Fry six piece chicken buckets.

Tonight, if nothing else, he will eat a green bean. And he will like it.

Here is why. My green beans are chock full of bacon. And, as we all know, we’re sick for bacon.

Here’s my secret “Get Your Family To Eat Green Beans and Like It” recipe:

Heat a large saucepan of water on the stovetop, and dump in a bag of frozen whole green beans.

Add some sort of base – I use mushroom but whatever you got will do. Some grocery stores carry this Better Than Bouillion product,

http://worldonline.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/blogs/entry_img/2009/Mar/11/buillion.jpg

and I highly recommend it. I’ve only managed to get the mushroom flavor (my favorite) at Central Market (Mecca) in Texas, but you can get the more common forms at Checkers or wherever.

While that simmers, fry some bacon. I do three or four strips and cut them up with kitchen scissors right into the large frying pan. As soon as the bacon is crisp, drain off most of the grease, and drain the water off the blanched beans. Put the beans into the frying pan with the bacon, add some salt, pepper, and minced garlic, and turn the heat to low, stirring the beans occasionally and letting them get softened.

Tonight, I will not need to fry the bacon separately, because I am doing Ina Garten’s roast chicken as the side dish to the beans, and it calls for bacon in the process, which I can later toss into the beans. My mama didn’t raise no dummy.

Oink.