Green bean almondine is an easy side dish that comes together in just ten minutes.  The key is to use fresh green beans.  The beans should be firm and crispy.  A good test is to bend them.  If they snap in half, they are fresh.  If they keep bending and seem a little wilty after you mess with them, they’ve been sitting in the store for a while.  For the almonds, you can slice them yourself or buy the already sliced ones.  If I don’t have some pre-sliced ones leftover from something, I’ll slice them myself.  However, I lack skills in this department and I always end up with more of a chopped and not sliced version.  You can usually buy the already sliced ones in the bulk areas of grocery stores and natural food markets.

Wild rice pilaf is easy and inexpensive to make.  And yet, doesn’t it seem like a fancy restaurant side dish?  Well, you can make this dish at home and it will taste fantastic.  This is such a versatile side dish.  It goes well with red meat, seafood, and chicken.  You can slightly alter the flavor of the rice by matching the broth you cook it in to your meal.  For instance, if you are serving this dish with chicken, you can cook it in chicken broth.  Or if you’re serving it with a nice roast, cook it in beef broth.  The vegetables in it are versatile as well.  Personally, I’m not a big fan of cooked carrots but my husband is so I humored him by chopping up some baby carrots and adding them to the rice.  He’s a hard one where vegetable consumption is concerned so I have to sneak it in where I can.