Green Bean Casserole for the 21st Century

My mom brought this recipe to Christmas and suggested that we give it a shot. It's one of those recipes that doesn't really tell you a whole lot about amounts and times and specific temperatures, which kind of wigged my mom out, but in the end it turned out to be very good! Luckily for her I'm 100% comfortable with a recipe that doesn't tell me anything. It combines that traditional comfort of the old-school green bean casserole but it adds some distinctly modern twists. No cream of mushroom soup, etc. Anyway, it's tasty and fairly easy...sounds like a holiday dinner winner to me! I added a little bit more structure to the recipe for this blog, so the version below is by no means verbatim from the source.


GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE
From Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients:

2 lbs fresh green beans, cut into smallish pieces
6oz fresh button or Portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 sweet red pepper, diced
6oz of goat cheese or cream cheese (or combination of both)
1 large onion, thinly sliced in rings
Dry packaged breadcrumbs
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

Directions:

Boil green beans for 3ish minutes and drain. Add green beans, mushrooms, and pepper to a 9x13 casserole dish. Add olive oil and balsamic vinegar and roast in 350 oven for 10-15 minutes. While green beans etc are roasting, sauté onions in olive oil until tender. Coat with breadcrumbs so they resemble onion rings. Remove green beans etc. from oven. Add goat cheese/cream cheese and mix well to coat. Add onions on top and return to oven for 8-10 minutes or until heated through. Turn on broiler for extra browning effect.