Lebanese Style Green Beans - 4 Smart Points

We lived in Bristow, OK for several years and attended St. Joseph's parish.  There was an active Altar Society that held an annual food sale as their fund raiser.  Tina Korkamis always made Lebanese green beans as her contribution.  I'd never eaten green beans fixed with allspice added but once I tasted hers I immediately realized what I'd been missing.

This can be made with cubed beef.  I take a shortcut and use ground beef.  

In calculating the Weight Watcher Smart Points for this I went online and found some confusing information about the nutritional value of 80/20 ground beef. 

Ground beef loses approximately 25% of its weight when cooked.  I used 12 ounces of raw 80/20 ground beef which would equate to 9 ounces cooked.  The online Weight Watcher calculator that I use figures 2 Smart Points per ounce, uncooked. 

If you use 85/15 ground beef, the points would drop to 18.  Using 90/10 would be 12.  I just prefer the flavor of the 80/20.

I can make a meal out of these green beans.  The canned green beans are not drained so it has plenty of broth and I eat it like a bowl of soup.  You can simmer it longer and serve as a side dish too.

These were served at a dinner party we hosted several years ago and everyone that had them raved about how good they are.  You may want to adjust the amount of allspice you use.  I'd start out with 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon.  It's not enough to overpower the other flavors, it just enhances them.

The Smart Points were calculated using the ingredients listed.  

*** Edited ***  I used 24 Smart Points for the ground beef but after speaking with some other online Weight Watchers, they think I should be using 18 points and count the cooked weight.  I leave that up to you.

 

LEBANESE GREEN BEANS

Makes 1 ½ quarts (48 fluid ounces)

6-one cup servings =  4 Smart Points per serving

12 oz. 80/20 ground beef

½ onion, diced

2 cans Del Monte green beans, undrained

1- 15 oz. can Hunts tomato sauce

¾ tsp. ground allspice

Salt and pepper

Brown ground beef with onion.  Add undrained green beans,

tomato sauce, allspice, salt and pepper.  Simmer until spice flavor

develops—about 15 minutes.

Smart Points

12 oz. ground beef = 9 oz. cooked                24            

Points based from information found online.  Ground beef

loses 25% of its weight when cooked.    80/20 ground beef

calculates at 2 Smart Points per ounce uncooked.