Brown Sugar and Bacon Green Beans

One of my recent kitchen "goals" includes more veggie side dishes - this is the first of many more to come that I will be sharing here! This dish is super easy and so, so tasty. If you like the salty sweet combination, you will love this one.

The original recipe, linked below, starts with frozen green beans, so feel free to use what you have available. I sort of have a love affair with fresh green beans (though I do not buy them nearly often enough) and had some on hand, so I used fresh.  I also did not have any bacon strips left in my refrigerator (can I blame having a 16 year old boy home on summer break?) but we always keep real crumbled bacon bits on hand, so those worked perfectly for me.

If, like me, you end up with a fair amount of delicious sweet buttery sauce leftover after your green beans are but a distant memory, save it and toss it over some steamed broccoli the next day! Yumm!!

Brown Sugar and Bacon Green Beans adapted from Six Sisters Stuff

Ingredients
2 lbs fresh green beans, trimmed
1/4 cup cooked and crumbled real bacon bits
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
salt, to taste

Directions

1. Add 1-inch of water to a large pot, salt the water. Bring water to a boil, add trimmed green beans and cover the pot with a lid. Simmer green beans JUST until tender (about 7 - 8 minutes).
2. Meanwhile, in a small pot combine the butter and brown sugar over medium to medium-high heat, stir occasionally until brown sugar and butter have melted and mixture is smooth in texture. Add in the cooked and crumbled bacon bits and keep warm until green beans are cooked.
3. When green beans are tender, drain off all the water and return beans to the pot. Pour the bacon / brown sugar mixture over the top and toss gently to combine. Taste and add salt if desired (I did not add extra salt).