Balsamic Green Beans with Garlic, Red Onion and Almonds

I love buying local during the spring and summer seasons. There's something about being outside in the sunshine as you stock up on fresh veggies and fruit. Andrew and I recently took a stroll down to Pittsburgh's Strip District, which is home to the famous Wholey's Seafood, various odds and ends shops as well as fresh 

produce and meat markets. We got a little excited about how much fresh vegetables and fruit we could get for a very reasonable price.

One of our over zealous purchases was green beans. I enjoy pretty much all vegetables but green beans was one I was not familiar cooking with. I'm all about steaming with salt and pepper but we wanted to get a little creative with it. Needless to say, we'll be making this dish again soon.  

Ingredients:

- 1 1/2- 2 cups fresh green beans, ends cut off and washed

- About five chopped almonds

- 1-2 tbsp olive oil

- 1/4 medium sized red onion, diced 

- 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced

- 3-4 tbsp balsamic dressing

Recipe:
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Sautee in a large pan the olive oil, garlic and red onion until lightly browned. Add the chopped almonds and 1 tablespoon Balsamic Dressing and cook for an additional 2-4 minutes. 

Place washed green beans in a shallow, oven-safe pan. Add the sauteed mixture, stir and then add 1-2 additional tablespoons of Balsamic Dressing. 

Bake 10 minutes, remove to stir thoroughly and then bake for an additional 10 minutes. 

A few recommendations: 

- We didn't add Parmesan cheese but I'd recommend it for the cheese lovers. 

- Mushrooms may also be a delicious addition to this dish

- It will compliment a red meat dish well