Monday, January 11, 2010

Ham and Green Beans: The Easiest Meal Ever



So today I tried my nausea-friendly, lazy dinner idea.  Nausea-friendly and lazy for several reasons:
  1. I didn't need to fry or cook anything in a smelly sort of way
  2. Once I put the ingredients in the crockpot I was mostly done
  3. I could plug the crockpot in in the basement
  4. For whatever reason, ham (normally a meat I never cook) goes down easy this pregnancy (which is really ironic because ham is pink, what a gross color for a meat)
  5. The meal is an all-in-one meal (no sides needed)
Anyway, I felt that I had to post about my success because it tastes amazing with the nice hammy salty broth and crisp green beans (I add them at the end) and soft potatoes that absorbed the broth.  It's a recipe from my Pennsylvania Dutch roots.

Ham and Green Beans

Put a rinsed off ham hock (which is actually hard to find outside of Lancaster County but can be substituted with a pork/ham cut that basically looks like a little meat and skin wrapped around a hunk of ham bone) and about 6 medium/large potatoes into the crockpot.  Fill with water to an inch or two above the meat and potatoes.  Add some salt (you can add more later to taste but it doesn't hurt to put a little in while its steeping all day).  Set crock pot on low and let sit for about 8 hours or so (more wouldn't hurt it)--or you could cook it on high for about 4-6 hours.  About 20 to 30 minutes before you're ready to serve add fresh or frozen cut-up green beans (depending on how crisp you like them).  Meanwhile you can pick the ham meat off the bone to add back to the pot and discard the fat, skin, and bone.  Check if you need to add more salt.

Serve in a bowl with some of the broth.  Yum, I couldn't believe how good it was (not much tastes that good with nausea).  More easy low-nausea dishes to come!

2 comments:

  1. I'm so excited you have a blog!!! And I'm so excited that a lot of it has to do with food! I will be catching up with you this way and maybe some FB. It looks like we have a lot of catching up to do!

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  2. Oh yes! And I'll do more food posting now that I don't feel like I have to throw up all day long! :)

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