Nothing says fall or the holidays like Thanksgiving and as we all know we had it last Thursday. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays all year because it makes you realize how incredibly blessed we are and it's great to spend time with family and friends. I also love the week long break from school that we get as well as the fact that it is socially acceptable to eat alllllll dayyyyy and no one says a word. A day full of eating, who wouldn't like that holiday? Since Thanksgiving is all about food, I of course offered to help by making something. We went to my grandparents house as we always do and we wanted to help so my mom and I decided to make 2 vegetables and 2 desserts. We love our veggies and desserts in this family...or at least I love the veggies and everyone else loves the desserts haha. My mom and I had both been wanting to make brussels sprouts because we had come across several recipes for them that looked really good so we decided upon that and steamed green beans because that is a favorite among my family. I was in charge of the brussel sprouts and my mom was in charge of the green beans. The recipe that I chose for the brussels sprouts was from non other than Cooking Light. The recipe I found was for sauteed brussels sprouts with bacon. Here is what we ended up doing though because we changed the spices around a bit...
3 slices of bacon, chopped
1 1/2 fresh brussels sprouts, cleaned and halved
1 cup onion, sliced
3/4 cup fat-free, lower sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon + dash garlic powder
Dash of salt and pepper
We used garlic instead of thyme because that is a more common spice and a lot of people like it better. First thing we did was cook the bacon over medium high heat in a sprayed skillet. It took around 10 minutes and my mom drained the pan so she could use the bacon grease for the green beans. After the bacon was cooked, I chopped it into small pieces for sprinkling on top later. While the bacon was cooking, I sliced the onion...
Sliced onions
Once the onions were sliced, I added them to the same pan we had cooked the bacon in along with the garlic. My mom helped me out because she was in the kitchen cooking things too but we cooked the onions until they were browned. I then added the chicken stock, brussels sprouts that we had washed, peeled, and cut in half, bacon, and salt and pepper. We then brought it to a boil and covered it to simmer.
We didn't have a cover for the frying pan so we used a pizza pan to cover it. It took us around 20 minutes for the brussels sprouts to get tender but under ideal conditions it would probably take less. You just have to simmer them until they are tender. I tasted one while they were cooking and they tasted a little bland so I added more garlic powder, salt, and pepper. The amount of spices you use really just depends on how much seasoning you like. You can also use other spices but we just like garlic so that was the winner. After the 20 minutes of simmering, they were ready to be plated. Normally a lot of people don't like brussels sprouts but they were a hit! Everyone loved them and they tasted delicious. The bacon and onions really added a lot of flavoring and the amount of garlic was just right. Now that I've finally made brussels sprouts, I will definitely be making them again. I may try to make some with some sort of balsamic dressing or with some cheese next time but I guess it just depends on my mood that day. I would definitely recommend this recipe if you like veggies and even if you don't think you'd like brussels sprouts, try this recipe because it may change your mind!
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