Recipe: Slow Cooker Pork with Green Beans

I love looking up various recipes, either online or in magazines.  I save accounts on some food websites and if I'm looking through magazines, I have started just tearing the recipes out and putting them in a binder.  I recently went to the Newtown Farmer's Market and found some great looking green beans.  So, I wanted to find a recipe for the beans and wanted to make a pork tenderloin to go along with it; I get sick of chicken sometimes, so I wanted to use a different protein.  

I don't really use a slow cooker as much as people recommend.  I know it's really easy, but sometimes with my schedule, it really doesn't fit in. But, after finding this recipe for slow roasted pork tenderloin, I thought I'd give it a try! I should note that after going to the grocery store, and not finding any PLAIN pork tenderloins (only the pre-marinated ones) I decided to use boneless pork chops instead. 
I think it worked out okay, but probably not as juicy. Here it is:

Ingredients:
1 pork tenderloin
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 cup water
3/4 cup red wine (I used a merlot I had on hand)
3 tbsp. minced garlic
3 tbsp. soy sauce
ground pepper

Place the pork in the slow cooker with the soup mix.  Pour water, wine, and soy sauce in on top.  Carefully spread garlic over the pork and sprinkle with pepper.  Cook on low for 4 hours. 

Some notes: Since I didn't have the tenderloin and I didn't have 4 hours, I cooked mine on high for about an hour and a half, which was fine.  Use the cooking liquid from the slow cooker as a side of au jus, this was delicious!

I also found a great recipe for the green beans on allrecipes.com.  It was for green beans with almonds and caramelized shallots, sounded delicious and easy!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup blanched slivered almonds
3 tbsp. butter
5 small shallots
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 tbsp. sugar
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 lbs. fresh green beans, trimmed and snapped

Directions:
1. Put slivered almonds in a skillet over low heat and toast for 6-8 minutes, stirring often.  Once you begin to smell the nuttiness, they are about done.  Take the almonds out of skillet and place aside.
2. Heat the butter in the skillet over medium heat and add the shallots and red pepper.  Saute for about 8 minutes or so.  Reduce heat to low and sprinkle with sugar, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally for another 5-8 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, put a steamer basket in a pot with boiling water just below the steamer.  Once the water is boiling, add the green beans to the steamer and cover.  Steam beans for 7-8 minutes.  Strain the beans, then add to the shallot mixture, then add the almonds.

I really liked this recipe.  I loved the onion flavor from the soup mix for the pork and I thought the au jus was great.  I think the pork tenderloin would have been better though.  The beans were great as well!  Just a bit of sweetness from the sugar and the almonds added a great nutty crunch.  My husband liked everything as well!  We also served it with a side of tomato, mozzarella and basil salad which was also delicious!