Just a Spoonful of Sugar...

...helps the vegetables, go down! So, I don't know about your kids (or boyfriend, or whoever) but getting my little people to eat vegetables is a daily battle. Superman fights me tooth and nail on eating anything that is green. Batman is pretty open to the idea. And TGB will eventually be force fed them in pureed form :) I love babies, they can't put up a fight even if they want to.

I got a huge bunch of green beens 2 weeks ago from CSA. I knew they had been sitting in the fridge for a while getting older and tougher every day and I needed to use them pronto. I decided to try to make them into a Green Bean French Fry sort of thing. Superman is known to spit out regular green beans, followed by some intense crying and tongue-scraping, so I was curious if disguising would help the "medicine" go down. Since its all in the name, I served them up with a boisterous introduction as... tah dah!!!! Nugget Swords!! I mean really, what boy doesn't want to eat a Nugget Sword?

I perused the internet for recipes and decided that instead of deep frying, because really that defeats the entire purpose of serving the kids veggies, I'd go the baking route. However, these would be awesome deep-fried and served as an appetizer at a party.

Green Bean French Fries (you could do this with any veggie)

Green Beans, trimmed and blanched
1 egg whisked with 1/4 c milk
panko (I ended up combining panko and regular breadcrumbs)
2 tbl flour
salt
garlic powder, paprika, chili powder, any of those would work
Preheat oven to 375




First boil water and add green beans, cook for just 3 to 4 minutes (these poor green beans don't look too good, they were definitely one day from being thrown in the trash)

In that time get your coating station set up. Flour, Egg/milk, Panko/breadcrumbs/spices then baking sheet or stone.

Then drain your beans and immediately plunge in cold ice water (this is blanching).

Then coat in flour (I recommend using tongs to avoid clumpy breaded fingers)

Coat in egg

And coat in breadcrumbs!

Place them on your tray and throw into the oven for 20-25 min at 375

And tah dah!! Here they are. Nugget Swords in all their glory.

Now I don't feel so bad about serving up a minute in the microwave hot-dog for the fourth time in 2 days.

Kid approved!

TGB is a little bitter she couldn't try any. Nugget swords are for girls too!!

And then a few hours later when we finally had dinner they were tasty for big people too! I just squeezed some lemon on top and dunked them in the flank steak marinade (soy sauce, sherry, honey, pressed garlic, green onions... mmmmm good)

Yes thats my plate and not my husbands. Don't judge.