.................. Cooking with Barry & Meta: Thumbs-up to Cornmeal Crusted Veggies

Cornmeal Crusted—we used green beans, asparagus,
and red pepper strips.
Dipping sauces included ranch dressing
and honey mustard.

Cornmeal Crusted Veggies were a hit at a recent USD 435’s Parents as Teachers playgroup session that included the first of a series of cooking sessions funded through a “Good, Cheap & Nutritious” grant from the Dickinson County Community Foundation.

These cooking sessions are centered around a cookbook Good and Cheap, by Leanne Brown, that features healthy, easy, and budget-minded recipes.

The widely acclaimed cookbook has been receiving lots of positive media coverage. One parent, in an online review, applauded Brown for providing economical recipes (each recipe includes price per serving). “It's about stocking the pantry with basics to build meals from things like garlic, canned vegetables, dried beans and butter.” Brown's cookbook also emphasizes flexibility, and avoids prescribing strict meal patterns and methods.

Children, parents and even some teenagers that were on hand at the playgroup goggled up the veggies (green beans were the favorite); this recipe received a thumbs-up!

CORNMEAL CRUSTED VEGGIES Serves: 4-6 Cost: $2.50 total / $0.60 per serving

½ lb. green beans, stems cut off*

½ cup all-purpose flour

2 eggs

¼ cup milk

1 cup cornmeal

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. paprika

½ tsp garlic powder

*VEGGIE ALTERNATIVES – try any of these veggies instead of the green beans

zucchini

green pepper sticks

winter squash

cauliflower florets

broccoli florets

okra

carrot sticks

Heat the oven to 450° F.
Set up your 3-part breading station! 1) On one plate, spread out the flour. 2) Crack both eggs into a bowl, add the milk, and mix lightly with a fork. 3) On another plate, spread the cornmeal, salt, black pepper, paprika, and garlic powder. Mix the plate with your fingers.

Here I am setting up the 3-part dredging/breading stations. Notice that I used 8x8" baking pans to hold the flour, egg & milk and seasoned cornmeal.
Spread a small amount of oil or butter across a baking sheet.

Dredging the veggies: 1) A few at a time, take the green beans and dredge them in the flour. 2) Next, transfer the flour-covered beans to the egg mixture. Cover the beans lightly with egg mixture, being careful to shake off any excess egg. 3)Then transfer to the cornmeal mixture and coat them evenly.

National Honor Society students from Abilene High School assisted with the playgroup and the cooking session. Here they help one of the young children in the program coat green beans, asparagus and red pepper strips.

Carefully spread the crusted green beans onto the baking sheet.
Repeat until you’ve done them all. If you run out of any of the three mixtures, just mix up a bit more.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden and crispy.
Enjoy hot with your favorite dipping sauce! (We used Ranch Dip and Honey Mustard.)

CLEAN PLATE —The children attending the playgroup gobbled up the crusted coated veggies!

YUM, YUM! The veggies are not only yummy, they are finger foods that can easily be managed by young children.

Recipe without photos . . .