Bacon Wrapped Green Beans

05.24.13

I think I'm having a love affair with bacon.

In this day and age, who isn't? It's just… SO GOOD. I would put it on everything… and anything. Remember that weekend when I had TWO maple bacon bars? Yeah, me neither. Didn't happen. What picture evidence? I don't know what you're talking about.

Let's just move on people. There's nothing to see here.

I've never hated vegetables. I certainly don't love them ~~as much as I love the sound of a piece of bacon crisping up in a frying pan on a Sunday morning~~… but who does? Except Jenn. She's cray.

When I saw Gina post these, I was all “OMGIHAVETOHAVETHOSE” *Breath* “THEYMUSTBEMINE” *Breath* “NOMNOMNOM.” Yes, that is how I talk to myself alone in my apartment. I feel like we're at the stage where I don't have to tell you to stop judging me ~~anymore~~ today.

Bacon… and vegetables? If this were a more common occurance I'd sure eat a TON more vegetables. I set out to make them and decided I'm too lazy to use Garlic Powder & Salt.. so I just used Garlic Salt. And then because I have a one track mind and am also having a love affair with onions, I decided this needed some minced onion also. I also made the recipe smaller… because ~~if I made the entire thing I'd eat the entire thing myself~~ I'm only one person. Feel free to double this.. or triple it… or quadruple this… because this is a no judge zone.

However, be warned: I had three of these with some meatballs (that are coming your way soon) for lunch the other day… and I WAS STUFFED. As in: I seriously considered not finishing the last one, stuffed. And, like I said this is a no judge zone so, you go ahead and eat three of these (it's only 84 calories if you do).

Bacon Wrapped Green Beans

Yields: 6 Servings Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 15 Minutes
Adapted from: SkinnyTaste

Ingredients

1/2 lb Green Beans
Cracked Black Pepper (to taste)
1/2 tsp Garlic Salt
1 tsp Minced Onion Pieces
3 Slices of Bacon (cut in half)
Olive Oil Spray

Procedures

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly spray olive oil onto a baking sheet.

Trim the green beans and blanch for three minutes. After blanching, dry the beans on a paper towel. (To blanch: submerge the green beans in boiling water for 3 minutes. Remove from boiling water, and submerge into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.)

Divide the green beans into 6 even piles. Wrap each pile in a half-slice of bacon.

Place each bundle, seam side down, on the baking sheet and lightly spray tops with olive oil. Season the tops with garlic salt, minced onion pieces, and cracked black pepper.

Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes, and serve.

Nutritional Data

Serving Size: 1 bundle
Calories: 28 Carbohydrates: 3g Fat: 2g Protein: 2g Fiber: 2g Calcium 1g

3 Comments

Toppings / WIAW

What I Ate Wednesday

05.22.13

So there is this blogger thing. It's called What I Ate Wednesday. It was started by Jenn (who is awesome by the way). And I decided I wanted to jump on the train. I think it's a great way to take a birds-eye-view of my eating habits & also try something… dare I say it… exciting on the blog? Yes. Yes, I do dare. I think this could be fun guys, so let's hop on the WIAW train.

I haven't been able to get to the grocery store since I flew into Seattle at 12:30am on Monday, soooo I mainly ate purchased stuff/leftovers. This is actually What I Ate Yesterday, aka Tuesday.

Breakfast:

An everything (but mainly onion & garlic… yum… if someone could make a garlic onion bagel for me I'd be in heaven. You all know about my garlic obsession, this should come as no surprise. I have no regrets.) bagel with bacon. The nice man looked at me like I had four heads when I politely requested he NOT include egg and cheese. I ONLY WANT THE WORST PARTS SIR, the carbs & the grease… yum. Bring those bad boys on. I also had a venti mocha coffee… should have ordered an extra shot but you live and learn.

Lunch

Now this… this is where it's at. I went over to Deb's for dinner on Monday and she was kind enough to pack me some leftovers to take to work for lunch. I had marinaded flank steak (OMG TO DIE FOR.. I don't remember the marinade but I can ask her) with broccoli & garlic bread. I was living the life. THANKS DEB, you're amazing!

Dinner

I had dinner with Laura at Fonte Cafe. She had a coupon for a buy one get one free pizza there. She ordered the Margherita (which was delish) and I ordered the Salsiccia. Mine was really good, I added some crushed red pepper to it (on accident) which ended up being a really good choice. If i were going back I'd probably order the Margherita; but mine was still REALLY good. I'm eating my leftovers for lunch tomorrow.. I might throw a dab of sriracha (honestly the worst word to spell ever) on there before I head out the door, just sayin.

Dessert

No pictures of this, but I had a few pretzel m&m's and two glasses of red wine with Laura while we watched The Voice. After I got home I munched on a few Saltines. I do really love those crackers. Nom nom.

All-in-all it was a pretty successful day.

What did you have? Tell me all about it : )

Tuesday Things

05.07.13

1. Have you missed me? I've missed you. I had a momentary (read: week long) identity crisis. AKA: I accidentally lost my blog's password (read: I typed it incorrectly repeatedly… for a week) and didn't have the correct email linked to this thing. Imagine my horror. I was actually entertaining the idea that maybe my biggest fan (*cough* Kyle *cough*) might have hacked in and changed my password and was trying to steal my life. That was OBVIOUSLY crazy… and I'm OBVIOUSLY paranoid. Good news: I can type ~~sort of~~.

2. I'm super into The Voice this season (thanks to Deb, Cameron, & Geoff) and last night did not disappoint. Who did I vote for? Amber, Caroline, Josiah, and Michelle. I thought they all had amazing performances. I wasn't crazy about the group performances, I felt like they weren't a “group.” I think the teammates are just SOOoo different, which is good; but the group numbers weren't my fave. Also, Shake It Out is one of my favorite Glee covers so I think it was just hard to compete with that in my heart.

3. Two weekends ago I got to go to a Mariner's game and to the Tulip Festival in Skagit Valley. I had a great time at the game, it was “college night,” so Laura and I went early and pretended we were still college students. The tulip festival was just beautiful. It wasn't even that nice of a day but the flowers were just so pretty. If you're ever in Washington in April: Go. That's an order.

4. I'm currently in San Francisco. I'm so excited to be here! This is my first time in California (crossing off another state on my list) and one of my coworkers is going to show me around after work today. If you have any suggestions of things to do/see please let me know : )

5. Speaking of new experiences and crossing things off lists, I tried In & Out Burger last night. I was torn about ordering things “animal style,” what is the consensus on that? Is it good? I just ordered regular. It was okay, I didn't think it was anything special. It definitely didn't top Five Guys for me, don't kill me for saying that you Californians.

6. I LOVE finding blogs that are written by people I know. I figured I'd share two that I recently found and love: Caitlin, Amanda, & I studied abroad in Florence, Italy together. Caitlin is dating one of Frankie's roommates from Italy. Amanda went to Bryant University with me. I love them both and their blogs are super cute, check them out!

7. I'm in love with my new purse & flower flats & anchor phone case. I'm nautical/flower obsessed right now. I'm like a pirate flower child. Yeah, I'm gonna stop this now.

8. Watch this. You'll thank me. One of my friends posted it on her facebook and ugh its the cutest thing ever.

9. Seattle weather this weekend was just amazing. It was sunny and beautiful. I went to a beer garden/taco challenge in celebration of the Fiesta 5K (don't think for a second I ran it… you know me better than that). I laid in the grass and drank margaritas and got a sunburn. It was wonderful. On the walk home I ~~stole~~ found a pretty flower in someone's bush/tree.

10. This is just in case you need a good laugh.

11. In case you had any faith in me left: I spent three hours of my Cinco de Mayo making & freezing chicken potstickers. In my defense, I did make guacamole & sangria for book club that morning too. At least there was some mexican food/drink going on. Never mind the fact that I ate pizza for lunch. #noregrets #recipecoming

12. I can just FEEL that I'm not going to get a text/call/email from Kyle telling me how funny I am because there are no duck dynasty references in this post. WHY CAN'T THE “SEASON” JUST BE CONSTANT NEW FOOTAGE OF THEM? I would really just like to trap them and get a constant live feed of what they do like I normally have of the orca‘s at Sea World. (yes, I am aware that the orca footage is on a 12 hour loop & that it's currently inactive… stop trying to spoil my fun)

This is for Kyle:

As usual, you can follow my Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest to see what’s happening with me throughout the week. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Pike Place Kitchen Email List, below my twitter updates on the right hand side of the site, to get email notifications for new posts. Have a great week!

Kale Pizza Two Ways: Part II

04.28.13

I know you all were anxiously awaiting part 2 of this saga. Part 1 was just SO exciting I had to wait a little while. I don't want you to overdose on excitement. We try to keep things safe over here in my kitchen, except for the times that I burn myself on hot things because I'm ~~(a) too stupid to know its hot, (b) too excited to eat the food to care that its hot, or (c) too distracted by the N'sync blasting from my iPhone~~ not paying attention.

This pizza was inspired by one I had at a restaurant in Ballard called The Hi-Life. I meant to write a review on them, because my friends and I LOVE THEM. Buttttt we all know about how difficult it is for me to not procrastinate.

But, anyway, this pizza is just really, really yummy. You won't even notice/care that you're eating kale. It's probably the fact that the kale is overshadowed by the sausage, cheese, and the kick from the sriracha in the tomato sauce. And, the kale gets crispy like kale chips on top. Ugh, it's just so good. I'm drooling. It's a problem. Someone get me a napkin.

We all know I'm not a huge fan of cheese. I think that's obvious by now. But, the amount of cheese is so small that I didn't even get sick from it! Obviously, if you're one of those strange alien cheese-loving people, you can up the cheese amount. I am not an alien. So I did not. (I know that I am actually the strange one for hating dairy, but it makes me feel better to call you all strange.)

Also, the dough that I use to make this pizza is the same as the dough used for the Kale, Ham, and Meyer Lemon Pizza. This dough is just really good. I'm thinking about making it into bread sticks. I don't know, we'll see what happens. But, I just know I got compliments on the crust of the pizza.

The cool thing about having the dough be the same, is that you can half the recipes for the toppings and make two of each pizza (which is what I did). It worked out really well. There was variety and excitement… just not enough excitement to overdose… maybe next time!

Spicy Sausage & Kale Pizza

Serves: 4 Servings Prep Time: 2 Hours Cook Time: 25 Minutes

Ingredients

dough:
1 packet active dry yeast (approximately 2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 1/8 cup warm water
1 tablespoon blackberry honey (or plain honey)
1 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

pizza:
2 mild italian sausage links
2 teaspoons of sriracha sauce
1 can of tomato sauce (Hunt's 8 oz can Basil, Garlic, Oregano)
2 cups of kale, torn
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

Procedures

dough:
In a large bowl, or kitchenaid mixer, combine water, yeast, honey, and olive oil. Stir and allow the mixture to sit for 10 minutes, until foamy. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of flour and the salt until the dough comes together but is still sticky. Add in the remaining flour and either need by hand or using your kitchenaid mixer dough hook.

Remove the dough and coat the bowl with olive oil. Return the dough to the bowl and turn to coat. Cover with a towel and allow the dough to rise for about 1 1/2 hours.

After the dough has risen, punch it down and turn it out onto a floured surface. Divide the dough into four even pieces. Using a rolling pin, flatten each piece out and place in pizza stones, or on baking sheets. (If you chose to make one large pizza, don't divide the dough and use a rolling pin to create your desired shape.)

Allow the dough to sit for ten minutes.

pizza:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Remove casings from the sausage links. Crumble and cook the sausage in a frying pan over medium heat until no longer pink, approximately 5-10 minutes. Set aside.

Combine tomato sauce, garlic, sriracha sauce, and olive oil. Stir to mix sauce.

Spread 1/8 cup of sauce over each piece of pizza dough (if making one large pizza spread 1/2 cup) and sprinkle cheese on top. Evenly distribute the crumbled sausage between the pizzas. Finally, layer the top with torn pieces of kale.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until crust is golden. (If making one large pizza you may need to bake for 25-30 minutes).

Nutritional Data

Serving Size: 1 Pizza (or 1/4 large pizza)
Calories: 582 Carbohydrates: 77 Fat: 19g Protein: 22g Fiber: 3g Calcium 15g

3 Comments

Toppings

Thursday Things

04.25.13

1. Ugh. You guys. I haven't wanted to do ANYTHING. AT ALL… ALL WEEK. I've just wanted to sit in my ~~hotel~~ bed, eat ~~everything~~ chocolate, and watch ~~ready for love~~ the voice. Instead, I effectively spent $200 at the Yakima Target (gosh those suburbs have the BEST targets), drank juice (let's face it I totally had some pretzel M&Ms, buffalo pretzel crisps, and soft pretzels from Target… what is the obsession with pretzels?), and lounged in the hot tub (I actually don't have any contradicting facts for that one, it is what it is).

2. WHYYYYY do I feel this way, you ask? I had an AMAZING time at home with my boyfriend/friends/family and now all I want to do is be back there. It's so much better back there. Aka: my boyfriend is back there. I'm not going to lie. I'm a cuddler. I love cuddling. It's all I want to do. If I could cuddle for a profession, I would. No shame. It's a no judgement zone, remember? Don't we look so happy:

God, I love him. It was his Birthday on Sunday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRANKIE.

3. My phone is awful and I want to throw it across the entire room, all day, everyday, of my life. APPLE PLEASE HELP ME FIX MY PHONE. SOMEONE? Ugh.

4. I wish I had a cool graphic designer friend who wanted to help me figure out how to make my blog pretty/awesome/not-a-wordpress-blog. DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO HELP ME SWITCH TO HOSTING MY OWN BLOG. S.O.S. Please send help… and puppies. I'll pay you in cookies. That's all I'm worth these days.

5. I'm going to a Mariner's game on Friday, it should be pretty fun. I'm excited :)

6. I need to stop spending money on things… weird, I bet you've never heard that one before…

7. Speaking of not spending money on things… MY FRIENDS AND I STARTED A BOOK CLUB. Pretty cool huh? I know, we're nerds. Would any of you be interested in reading along? I could post what the books are each month and then at the end of the month give you a review? Idk how good it would be.. The first book is Girls in White Dresses.

8. God, this blog should be called the Pike Place Apartment. I post a scattered mess of ideas that make a total of ZERO sense. should I consider a name change?… nah. I'm attached to the name. However, I DO WANT MY OWN BLOG DOMAIN… see point 4. (I pay in cookies [and eternal love], don't forget).

9. I left my Fitbit at Frankie's. I'm so upset. Now my stats are going to show like THREE WEEKS of zero activity. So embarassing. At least I don't have any friends on my profile…

10. My friends are so pretty. I love them. We're also somewhat of a mess. I loved seeing every single one of them this weekend! Thanks for an amazing weekend ladies!

Please note: Laura's “statement” necklace (aka pretzel necklace…) I'm just jealous because both of the necklaces I tried to make broke….

11. This may be the weirdest thing I've ever said outloud, on the internet: I love the smell your skin gets after you've been out in the sun… there I said it. Be embarassed for me. Or don't. I'm embarassed enough for myself.

12. The season finale of duck dynasty last night had me CRACKING UP. As usual. Are you surprised? I'm not. Willie in his skirt. God I was dying. Almost as much as I was dying at Si thinking the Mayans lived in Hawaii. Oh. I wish they were my best friends. However, that episode also left me wishing I were going on a vacation. Can I just go? No one will notice I'm gone.

Make it a great week everybody <3