Vandy Green Bean Casserole

Thanksgiving is arguably the holiday with the most traditional food: turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, yams, bread rolls, and pies abound. My goal for this week's recipe was to make one of these dishes with ingredients from Vanderbilt University Markets. However, many of the ingredients necessary for such dishes are not available in the markets and thus I had to settle for a recipe using green beans. Without fail, every Thanksgiving dinner that I have been to has included a green bean casserole of sorts but I have never found myself to be particularly fond of this dish. Nevertheless, it simply wouldn't be Thanksgiving without it and I decided to give it one more try with this recipe. Vandy green bean casserole is slightly different than most green bean casseroles, with homemade white sauce replacing cream of mushroom soup and Wheat Thins crackers replacing the fried onion topping. It also includes bacon which may be purchased in either Varsity Morgan or Varsity towers, along with all other ingredients. Based upon the calculated cost per serving of each ingredient, my version of green bean casserole will cost you $10.07 or $1.12 per serving. Happy Thanksgiving!

Vandy Green Bean Casserole
Yield: 9 servings
Total Cost: $10.07 (does not include the cost of salt and pepper)

• 3 slices bacon (crisply cooked, crumbled)
• 1 tablespoon bacon grease
• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• pepper, to taste
• 1 1/3 cups milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons parmesan cheese
• 3 (14.5 oz) cans Del Monte Fresh Cut green beans
• 48 Wheat Thins Original crackers (crushed) 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fry bacon until crisp. Reserve 1 tablespoon of bacon grease. Drain bacon slices on a paper towel and allow to cool. Cut into small pieces once cool.

Meanwhile, prepare white sauce by melting 1 tablespoon butter in saucepan over low heat. Blend in flour, salt, pepper and bacon grease. Add milk and bacon grease in and stir constantly. Increase heat to medium and cook until sauce begins to thicken and bubble. When the sauce bubbles, remove it from the heat and stir in the parmesan cheese until smooth. 

Drain green beans and place in 9 x 9 glass baking dish. Pour sauce over beans. Add bacon and stir until well combined.

Crush crackers into small pieces. Melt 1/2 tablespoon of butter and combine with crushed crackers. Spread mixture evenly over the top of the beans. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.

Reviews

"If I was stuck here over Thanksgiving it would probably suffice."

"Tastes like bacon."